sighting in

Psalm 96:12 GNB "The trees in the woods will shout with joy"

I was at the local club today doing a favor for my brother-in-law. He has lived out of state for two years and just moved back to NY. He has been one of my hunting buddies for about 29 years now. I had been storing his 16 guage shotgun with a Bushnell Banner scope on it. He has been using 16 ga Remington Foster Slugs in it. The set up is nothing fancy by today's modern equipment standards, however as I found out it still gets the job done. When I was a kid growing up, the 16 ga Ithaca deer slayers and the Browning "Sweet 16" were top deer guns on the farmlands of NYS. They are still effective today. Per an article on my website, I now take an Ithaca 12 ga storm model afield when using a shotgun for deer and it has proven very accurate out past 100 yards with 3/4 oz Federal Barnes Expander slugs. I can cover a five shot group with the palm of my hand out to around 130 yards or so with that set up, BUT does one really need that kind of accuracy to effectively hunt farmland whitetails? I think not. I have taken 27 whitetails last count with a similar set up except in 12 ga. My older Ithaca 12 ga Imp Cylinder wearing, a Weaver K2.5 fixed power scope was min of pie plate at 100 yards, and never failed me. Not so much, based on the performance of the gun itself, as the fact that most deer in the N/E are still taken on the near side of 100 yards.

In any event, the 16 guage put 3 shots in the same hole and 1 about 1.5 inches out of the group at 50 lasered yards. I know my brother-in-law has taken several deer with this combination.
It worked when we were growing up and it still works today. When not taking shots across 200 yards in a food plot, the old 16 ga and foster slugs still work pretty well.

My favorite deer gun for shotgun only areas of NYS is now a TC Encore 209/50 using 2 pyrodex 50 grain pellets behind a saboted yellow tipped TC shock wave bullet and ignited by a Win 209 primer. My point is, I love that combination, but if all I had was my brother-in-laws 16 ga, I would not stay home.

Dan www.gunsandoptics.com