i've shot a few with rifled slugs out of smoothbore shotgun barrels up close stand hunting, and unless your ready to lose a whole quarter of meat dont use slugs. yes they do a nasty job on the deer but there just plain to big for upclose hunting. at 100 yrds well then maybe but not for up close.

It will be a deadly deer combo. I would suggest the sabot slugs if you are using a rifled barrel. They extend your range and are built better/smaller so you will minimize the meat damage. The 12 ga. with slugs is a deadly combo for anything walking this Earth!

and if your in heavy cover with up close shots try the 000 buckshot. scary what that stuff will do up close.

Slugs kill. No ifs ands or buts about it. I used to hunt in a shotgun only zone and used a benelli smootbore with the cheapest 1 ounce remington sluggers I could find. They always did the job out to 100 yards. Not the most accurate with a smoothbore but if you want to spend some cash sabots are the cats meow. With a good 24 inch barrel/scope combo some guys I have talked to feel comfy out to 150 yards. Either way slugs work. What type of 12 ga are you using?

mossberg 500 pump action

Alpha I have the 500 moss...I have the deer slayer slug barrel for it and Its deadly accurate with the Lightfield sabots.. Killed alot of deer in the Special regs areas of Pa. It holds 1.5 to 2 inch groups at 100. Nikon shotgun/muzzleloader 2.5-7x scope on it. Never had a deer go more than 20 yards with it. But I do my best to hit just behind the shoulder cuzz like the other fella said...Its a real meat grinder!!! You hit the shoulder that shoulder is toast. Dont go smoothbore...The deerslayer barrel from mossburg is relativly cheap and the MUCH greater accuracy from it is worth it. Just remember that in a RIFLED barrel you do NOT use Rifled slugs. Rifled slugs are for smoothbore barrels and will tumble badly if shot out of a rifled bore. You also dont want to use sabots out of a smoothbore. Now, there are some new smoothbore slugs out now that are improved but none can match the accuracy of a rifled/sabot combo.