Lunde, I just got one last week. An amazing piece of ordnance to say the least. I now have three dedicated slug guns; an 870 SP fully rifled, a Deerslayer II, and the behemoth DSIII, all scoped.
The workmanship and quality of the DSIII is in a class by itself. Hand fitted and polished internal parts, a trigger that breaks crisp, clean, and creep free at 3lbs, beautiful laminated stock with the grain completely filled and raised comb for scope use, and all metal surfaces evenly finished in black matt.
With a Leuopold VX-II 3X9 mounted in Burris Z rings the whole rig weighs 11lbs 110z. about like some of my heavy varmint rifles. The excellent balance really makes the weight seem a lot less, cuts perceived recoil in half, and it makes a very steady platform for offhand shots.
It is a specialized slug shooting machine, and as Dave says, not the best thing for still hunting, or jump shooting in places where the shots come fast and close.
I hunt in a “shotgun only” area, and most of the terrain is flat, cultivated, farmland. Relatively long shots are common. I wanted a slug gun capable of a level of accuracy that will allow me to cleanly take deer at ranges up to 200 yards using the current “high tech” sabot slugs, and after 4 years, I have finally found one that will. The DSIII.
None of the more conventional rifled slug guns I have tried over the years would consistently shoot 3 MOA at distances exceeding 100 yards.
The DSIII averaged under 2.5MOA for three-shot groups with the three different brands of slugs I’ve tried so far, 3” Lightfield Commanders, Rem. Copper solids” (both 23/4”and 3”), and Winchester “Supreme Partition Gold”.
I sighted in with the Winchester SPG’s at 150 yards. Three shot groups averaged just over 3” at this range, which works out to about 2MOA. With a 150 yard zero this slug strikes 2.1” high at 50 yards, +3” @100, -3” @175, and -7” @200. The remaining velocity and energy at 200 yards is 1,307fps, and 1,460ft/lbs. Awesome performance from a shotgun.
The extra weight does reduce recoil quite a bit, but after firing 45 rounds from the bench Saturday, I STILL felt like Rodney King. In spite of that, I still managed to hit 3 water filled gallon milk jugs at a measured 200 with my last 4 shots.
The deer are in deep Kim-Chee in my neck of the woods come next Monday!
One thing I haven’t decided about though, is when I make a kill, whether or not I’d be better off to carry the deer, and drag the gun?
Good hunting fellas................................S.Frame