I've never hunted deer in a shotgun-only zone before. I'm trying to decide if I should use a rifled slug or a sabot load. I have a fully rifled 12 ga. slug barrel with open sights on my 870, and the expected range will be well under 50 yards, probably 25 or so.
In the early season, my brother shot a blacktail doe with a Brenneke rifled slug. The blood trail was huge and unmistakable, a good thing here in the jungle of western WA. I have shot targets with rifled slugs and sabots. Both seem accurate enough, but the sabots only leave a 50 caliber hole in the target, unlike the rifled slugs, which make much bigger holes.
In sabots, I have some Remington all copper hollowpoints, and some Federal Power Shok hollowpoints. In the rifled slugs, I have used the W-W 1 oz, 1500 fps model.
Which should I use, and why ?