Slug gun decisions

 mountaineer: you will pay more for a bolt slug gun than you will a bdl. you can get a hastings slug bdl. for 165 bucks. with the cantalur base. my son just got 1 for his 870. i have read a few articals on these and you might get better acc. out of the bolt but the prices have gone way up an the good 1s. nexy you have to try diffrent slugs to see what 1 works better. i have done this with mine. mine likes fed. sabots. and my sons like the lightfield's. we took a big piece of white paper and put it at 50 yds. that is about the best shot we get here. and just take 5 shot groups and mark them what ever had the best group is the 1 we went with.

Mountaineer,

     I did exactly what your talking about twice!  I had a browning A-5, multiple ones actually.  First was a sweet 16, slug barrel was about $350 to $400 back then.  Then I had a Mag 12 A-5 that barrel ran $440.  In both cases I bought a second gun.  However first one I got dirt cheap $250 for a used remington 1100.  Second one was a new 11-87.  I was going to sell the browning, but ended up selling the 87.   In both cases I ended up sellin the second gun!

   Now I have a Benelli Super black eagle, I bought a Slug barrel for it $300 - super cheap deal.  Bugger punches groups less than 3" at 100yds off hand.  And I'm not the least bit worried about sellin it. 

   Look for a used rifled slug barrel fer the 870.  I see them at Cabela's bargin cave VERY often for 175 to 200.   Bought my dad a Cant. 1100 barrel last year, rifled and all. He's pretty happy with it. 

Heck here's one fer $185 & 10 bucks shipping

http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976372599.htm

   I know I'm getting in a little late here but I went through the same thing recently getting my son a slug gun. Got a nice 870 that I don't really want him throwing a slug barrel on as it is too nice.

    I had a 695 quite a few years ago before I went strictly to blackpowder. It was accurate,light, and with the stock design and recoil pad not a bad kicker. Considerable softer than my friends 870 which was heavier. Of course it had a ported barrel as well. All in all I did'nt care for it though. For one it has a safety on the rear of the bolt that you turn side to side with your thumb. Works great with open sites but with a scope even with high mounts your thumb is hard to fit between the scope and the safety. Also the magazine sticks out like a sore thumb and is right were the natural balance point is to carry it one handed. Worst of all is the magazine release sticks out like a sore thumb as well. More than once I had the magazine fall out from getting hit with brush or your hand from carrying it and am lucky I never lost it and would constantly check as it fell out quite often even though I took precautions being aware of its tendacies.

     Far as the Ithaca goes it is a fixed barrel gun and any accuracy advantage the bolts have is meaningless as they are so accurate if not as accurate as the bolt guns.

     My son ended up getting a New England arms pardner II singleshot. Cost $199-. They come with a scope mount. All you have to buy is rings. It has a very heavy 24" barrel and is a little heavy but the weight being in the barrel makes it very stabile to shoot off hand plus the fact that it has no action makes it quite compact as well. Also it does'nt kick too bad either. Have a slug ready in your coat pocket and you can load a second shot right quick as the ejector throws the empty clear very well.

   I mounted a 6x leupold on it I had laying around. So far we just sited it in and shot 20 slugs through it. 15 light fields and some heavy 3" breneke's. Shot both to the same point of impact and although we did'nt get too carried away accuracy testing yet  we sited it in using a wagon wheel for a rest at 75 yards both slugs yeilded very  tight 3 shot groups. I'm sure it will shoot under 3" at 100 yards. Maybe under 2 even as there was never a flyer and we were mostly just getting it zeroed in. Tomorrow we're going to see what it can really do.