Everyone has biases. I am not afraid to admit mine. Take shotguns, for example. I used to believe that they were designed to shoot at little things that scurry and fly. To me, the idea of hunting big game with a scattergun was just crazy talk. I have friends who live in areas where they are forced to endure this terrible injustice, and I always pitied them as I smugly shot my deer with a rifle.

But, all that changed a few years ago when a revolution swept through shotgun slug design. The new technology changed my thinking, enlightened me and made me a true believer in shotgun slugs. Slugs have been transformed from crude bludgeons in a smoothbore delivery system to highly refined ammunition using high-tech projectiles.

That evolution continues today, and the state of shotgun slug development is impressive. They remain a short-range hunting tool, but that was always the idea. The reason for the shotgun-only laws is based in safety. But today's slugs are engineering marvels that can hold their own in the company of any hunting bullet.

Mirroring the lead of developments in high-performance rifle bullets, new-generation shotgun slugs have polymer tips for higher ballistic coefficients, which allow them to slip through the air with less drag than the slugs of yesteryear. The result is reduced velocity loss, which means a flatter trajectory and more retained energy down-range. The polymer tips also contribute to better expansion at longer ranges, so they enhance terminal performance as well.

I recently spent some time shooting a variety of the most popular 12-ga., 2¾" polymer-tipped shotgun slugs on the market. I tested them in two different shotguns. The first was a Remington Model 870 pump-action with a rifled barrel. This might well be the most popular shotgun for hunting deer on the market, making it the logical choice. I added a Nikon 2.5-10X Monarch scope on a cantilever mount. The second gun was a Harrington & Richardson Ultra Slug Hunter, a single-shot, break-action with a thumbhole stock. I selected this gun because it is built with a 10-ga. barrel contour in a 12-ga. bore. This "bull-barrel" slug gun has a reputation for outstanding accuracy. It was scoped with a Nikon 3-9X Slughunter with the company's BDC reticle, an optic designed specifically for slug guns. I thought that these guns and optics represented a good sampling of what most slug hunters are using in the deer woods. .......

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