Neither! I grew up in Ohio and hunted with both until I was 18. I got wich ever my Grandfather didn't want that day. Check your local laws, is black powder an option for you? A Ruger 77/50 is the first firearm I ever purchase, so I could get away from the d@*n shotguns! I shot 1.25 inch groups at 100 yards, and I've never seen a smooth bore shotgun do that. I now own an Omega, and I am comfortable with shots out to 200 yards. It will drop any deer with AUTHORITY.
Smooth bore shotgun, come on out of the stone age. We shoot rifled barrels these days. Very accurate.
I guess I'm still in the stone ages, to a point. I have 3 slug guns all 12 gauge, 1 smoothbore, 2 with rifled barrels. Most of the time, I prefer the smoothbore, with foster slugs. The areas I hunt are thick and dense, even the deer I've shot in New York with a rifle, I really had within bow range. The longest shot I ever had at a deer was 75 yards, and an iron sighted slug gun put a foster slug right through his lungs, he sorta ran 15 yards towards me on dead legs. The reason I like a smoothbore, is because here in New Jersey, slugs or buckshot are legal, and at times, my son and I will do a one man push to the other, in heavy mountain laurel. The pusher is better off with buckshot in the gun if he gets a fleeting glimpse of a buck veering off in the wrong direction, and with the smoothbore barrel, one can easily go from slugs to buckshot. My smoothbore is a Remington 870 Wingmaster, on which I drilled and tapped the receiver, and mounted a 1.5X4.5 variable scope on a weaver tip off mount and rings for a Remington 760 rifle(it fit the receiver excellently), so I can swing the scope aside when I'm doing a push with buckshot in the gun. I did this way back in 1980, so I can say from experience it works. No, it won't shoot an inch and a quarter group at 100 yards Wylieky, but it WILL hit a deer in the lungs at that distance every time, if I do my part right(I've shot at enough targets at 100 yards with it to know that). Prior to the advent of saboted slugs, when Hastings first came out with rifled barrels(intended for foster slugs at that time) they had an advertisement, which stated that they reccomended a scope, because tests proved that a scope will increase accuracy 350%, and what they were really saying, without realizing it, was that if you put a rigidly mounted scope on your smoothbore slug gun, you didn't need one of their rifled barrels, and again, this was before the advent of saboted slugs. Don't get me wrong, I like the rifled barrel slug guns and saboted slugs, they are wonderfully accurate, I like muzzleloaders too, heck, I like ALL guns. I just think a smoothbore slug gun does have it's place and purpose in deer hunting, same as a rifled barrel slug gun or muzzleloader, depending on conditions or season. My daughter shoots a Remington 1100 20 gauge with a smoothbore slug barrel, seems to work just as good as a 12 gauge. I'm sure a 12 has an slight advantage over the 20 gauge at the outside limits of it's intended range, however, it's a moot point to us. Just my personal thoughts and opinions.
Sincerely,
Garry