The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Ohio Deer Gun

smith357 · November 24, 2009, 06:08 PM

In Ohio we can only hunt deer with a shotgun or handgun, no centerfire rifles allowed for deer. I'm in the market for an inexpensive dedicated deer gun, and had some questions about smooth vs rifled barrels. Since the dense woods here in southern Ohio will rarely let me take more than a 75 yard shot, and most will be under 50 yards, is it worth the extra costs involved to go with a rifled barrel?

I was thinking about either picking up an old bolt action goose gun on the cheap and cutting the barrel down to 22 inches and mounting some sights or getting a break open with a rifled barrel. I'm trying to keep total cost as low as possible. Part of me would really enjoy building the custom gun over buying one out of the box, and the old bolt action guns are often under $100

So, I guess my question is for shots under 100 yards do the rifled barrels give significantly better accuracy at shorter ranges?

November 24, 2009, 06:08 PM	#1
smith357 Senior Member Join Date: February 19, 2005 Posts: 270	Ohio Deer Gun - Smooth vs Rifled In Ohio we can only hunt deer with a shotgun or handgun, no centerfire rifles allowed for deer. I'm in the market for an inexpensive dedicated deer gun, and had some questions about smooth vs rifled barrels. Since the dense woods here in southern Ohio will rarely let me take more than a 75 yard shot, and most will be under 50 yards, is it worth the extra costs involved to go with a rifled barrel? I was thinking about either picking up an old bolt action goose gun on the cheap and cutting the barrel down to 22 inches and mounting some sights or getting a break open with a rifled barrel. I'm trying to keep total cost as low as possible. Part of me would really enjoy building the custom gun over buying one out of the box, and the old bolt action guns are often under $100 So, I guess my question is for shots under 100 yards do the rifled barrels give significantly better accuracy at shorter ranges?