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Slugs or buckshot?

Coyote33

Coyote33

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What do you use for shotgun (or blackpowder) season? Slugs or buckshot?

If slugs, please say what type, and if buckshot, what size.

Rifled barrel, or smooth bore?

What gauge shotgun or caliber black powder?


Hey, what happened to the ability to post a poll?
 
Is buckshot even legal in Mass for hunting large game? It isn't in the last two places I've lived. Slugs would be my pick: better accuracy, better penetration, better expansion, longer range.

Oh, make that a 2000 fps saboted slug shot through a fully rifled bore. I want my shotgun to approximate rifle ballistics as much as possible
 
Federal Tactical Hydra-Shok HP rifled slug.
This will be my first year for BP season and I'll be using .50 patched ball.
 
I don't carry a shotgun even during shotgun season. T/C Renegade caplock with a .54 rifled barrel. I use patched round balls over 90 grains of Goex FFG powder.

Most hunters are shooting slugs. The shotgon/slug combo that my son uses is very accurate out to 100 yds.

Bob
 
Yup, buckshot is legal in Massachusetts, I use 00 buckshot 15 pellets for 3" shells, 18 pellets for 3 1/2". I use whatever the conditions call for, if I know i'm hunting in an area that is pretty open, or in fields, I'd use slugs. But seeing how most of my hunting is in some pretty thick stuff, I use buckshot. Sometimes I have the first one a slug, and the following buckshot. So, bring both, and lots of it. You can never have enough ammo.[smile]
Good luck.
 
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I load a slug in the chamber, the follow it up with buckshot in the tube, and alternate buck, and slug until the tube is filled. The main reason I do this, is where I hunt, I could be in an open space, or in very tight brush. I can simply and quietly take the slug out, and chamber the buck if I need to. Also, if you hit a deer, and it gets up and runs, the followup shot on a running deer is easier with buckshot.
 
Adam_MA said:
I load a slug in the chamber, the follow it up with buckshot in the tube, and alternate buck, and slug until the tube is filled. The main reason I do this, is where I hunt, I could be in an open space, or in very tight brush. I can simply and quietly take the slug out, and chamber the buck if I need to. Also, if you hit a deer, and it gets up and runs, the followup shot on a running deer is easier with buckshot.
Click to expand...


I do a variation of this as well. Slug in chamber, buck shot as follow up, and the rest slugs. I want the second shot on a deer to be buckshot as the deer is very likely still moving if you are still shooting. I don't think I'd ever ethically get to three shots on one deer in any situation. Never have. Come to think of it, I don't think I have ever taken two shots.
 
Coyote33 said:
What do you use for shotgun (or blackpowder) season? Slugs or buckshot?

If slugs, please say what type, and if buckshot, what size.

Rifled barrel, or smooth bore?

What gauge shotgun or caliber black powder?
Click to expand...

Slugs. Better accuracy and more importantly only a single pellet going downrange. 12 guage, Federal Truball, smooth bore. I will step up to a rifled barrel if I go back to deer hunting.

Black powder -- .50 and sabot rounds.
 
Thompson Omega .50 cal. I started using 300 grain Thompson super glide shock wave sabots and like the accuracy a hell of a lot more than the Powerbelts I always used.
 
you CANNOT use buckshot in a muzzleloader or use a break action muzzleloader during black powder season...its in the state regs. you CAN use inlines and any bullet choice you want. for shotgun season i use federal vital shok 00 buckshot with a full choke, the vital-shok stuff is copper plated so it really penetrates.

for black powder season i use my 54 flintlock with a patched round ball and 60 gr of pyrodex with 5 grams of reg blackpowder behind the main charge. slugs,sabot slugs and fully rifled barrels are legal during shotgun season but i dont like the heavey recoil of the slugs.
 
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Coyote33 said:
What do you use for shotgun (or blackpowder) season? Slugs or buckshot?

If slugs, please say what type, and if buckshot, what size.

Rifled barrel, or smooth bore?

What gauge shotgun or caliber black powder?


Hey, what happened to the ability to post a poll?
Click to expand...

12 Ga Sabots with rifled bore.

50 cal sabots black powder with rifled bore
 
rifled slug
remmington slugger (so far this is the only thinkg i have used)
smooth bore benelli supernova.
last weekend i hit a small pumpkin at 65 yards.
 
Some guys who are not concerned with trophies are using buckshot and aiming at the head. They tell me it is a quick kill and it doesn't mess up any of the usable meat.

I must say thought that of the deer I've butchered this year, the sabots are dropping the deer like rocks. The hole these things leave is incredible.
 
GOAL said:
Some guys who are not concerned with trophies are using buckshot and aiming at the head. They tell me it is a quick kill and it doesn't mess up any of the usable meat.

I must say thought that of the deer I've butchered this year, the sabots are dropping the deer like rocks. The hole these things leave is incredible.
Click to expand...

i aim at the vitals, only had to track 1 deer a very far distance so far.
 
I'm using Remington sluggers out of a 20 gauge shotgun, I dont like buckshot and I have yet to run across a rifled barrel for my shotgun.
 
I think buckshot is a joke . Try this out place a large target at 50 yds and shoot at it with buckshot. See how many if any hit the target . See where your shots went . Then consider if it was a deer where the pellets would hit.
You will never use buckshot again . Slugs much better way to go . With the new slugs and guns on the market 150yd shots are not out of the question.
I personally use a H&R Ultra Slug Hunter 20Ga. and its deadly out to 150yds.
 
Why not cast your own. I make 530G slugs from range scrap. Lyman makes the molds in 12 & 20 gauge, they look like giant air rifle pellet's. I load 45G of Blue dot in AA cases using the red wads & get 2-3" groups at 100 yd.
Thats with a NE Firearms single shot slug gun w/ a 4 power Norinco scope.
 
OK, so I think I'm gonna be in for some more hunting next year. Now my pre-hunting begins.

I am wondering if I'm better off getting a barrel for the 870 12 gauge, or picking up either a single shot or pump NEF deer shotgun. I looked at some barrel prices, and I think I could get the whole gun in 20 gauge for the same or maybe even lower price!

When first looking for barrels, I figured they'd come in around maybe $75-100 tops, not the ransom they are really asking. Heck, I could almost buy an entire new 870 for the price of a barrel. I'd just have to saw it down to deer barrel length, and put on a scope or sights.

That said, do they make one of those "ring" sights for the 870? Is it Williams, or something like that? Maybe a "ring" rear, with a fiber optic front would be ideal.

Thanks.
 
I have tried a couple of different combinations of slugs and guns for deer hunting in my life. The current setup I have is awesome in my opinion. I have a Remingtion 11-87 with a Hastings cantalever barrel. I have a Leupold 1.5-5 power scope and shoot Remington ultra bonded 385 grain slugs. I can easily reach out to 150 yards with great accuracy. Most of the deer I have taken have been at 100 yards or less but I took one a few years back at 165 according to the range finder.

If you hunt in thick areas, buckshot may be better but I still use slugs.
 

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