The state of Indiana was shotgun only for deer until the mid 1980's when they started allowing pistols to also hunt with in .357Mag and larger. Not a great difference in range over shotguns and most with much less power. My 11-87 with a rifled slug barrel was accurate out to about 125yards, then the slug would drop quickly. Mid 90's IIRC they started allowing rifles with a minimum .357 diameter with a case at least 1.2" long but not to exceed 1.8". Custom rifle makers embraced this with lots of wildcats, one called the 35 Hoosier was a Winchester Ultra short mag case cut down to exact length and sized to .357 caliber. Heavy hitter out to 300+ yards, but the guns were pricey. With many corn and bean fields out there it was a good deer gun. Of course all the pistol caliber lever rifles were also legal, most were 150 yard guns at most.
About 2012 Indiana decided to allow standard rifles of at least .243/6mm with a certain case length for private land, but no public land. Everybody decided to buy a high powered rifle that could shoot 300-400 yards accurately if the shooter knew what he was doing, which sadly most are not. So 7mm mags and 30-06's and .308's are everywhere in the deer woods. My family farm has many areas that if I so decided I could take deer out to 600+ yards. I rarely hunt anymore, I am happy to let my daughter go out and hunt deer, she prefers a .357 mag in a Savage 24V combo rifle that I have tweaked the cartridge to run 180 grain bullets at near 1700fps. She has dropped two deer at 100 yards with this gun, one passed through and the other was just under the skin on the off side, big 200 pound does. She is still trying to get her a nice buck.
If she had to use a slug shotgun, I doubt that she would hunt, as she does not like the recoil, she has tried my .243 Win bolt rifle and still doesn't care for the big boom of the rifle.
About 2012 Indiana decided to allow standard rifles of at least .243/6mm with a certain case length for private land, but no public land. Everybody decided to buy a high powered rifle that could shoot 300-400 yards accurately if the shooter knew what he was doing, which sadly most are not. So 7mm mags and 30-06's and .308's are everywhere in the deer woods. My family farm has many areas that if I so decided I could take deer out to 600+ yards. I rarely hunt anymore, I am happy to let my daughter go out and hunt deer, she prefers a .357 mag in a Savage 24V combo rifle that I have tweaked the cartridge to run 180 grain bullets at near 1700fps. She has dropped two deer at 100 yards with this gun, one passed through and the other was just under the skin on the off side, big 200 pound does. She is still trying to get her a nice buck.
If she had to use a slug shotgun, I doubt that she would hunt, as she does not like the recoil, she has tried my .243 Win bolt rifle and still doesn't care for the big boom of the rifle.