GunsAndOptics: Hunting With SLUG GUNS

Showing posts with label Hunting With SLUG GUNS. Show all posts

Monday, April 8, 2013

Slug Guns For Deer hunting

As mentioned in this blog previously I have taken the larger percentage of all my whitetails with 12 gauge slug guns. I started hunting deer at 16 and have only missed a couple of years since then when I served in the US Navy from July 1965 to August of 1968. I was 17 when I joined the Navy out of high school and got an early out for college in the fall of 1968. I was what the Navy called a Kiddie Cruiser.

In any event from then until NYS approved rifles in most counties including the ones I hunt in, most of my deer had been taken with either 12 Ga shotguns or .50 Caliber muzzle loaders or archery gear. Even today where I hunt the most, I would NOT feel disadvantaged by using my Ithaca Storm Model 12 Gauge which is a dedicated slug gun and does not take a replaceable barrel for bird hunting. I had the stock shortened to fit me and a trigger job done by the gunsmiths at Ithaca Gun and the barrel pinned to the receiver. At the time of my purchase they were operating out of King Ferry, NY not far from where I live. On the original Ithaca Deer Slayer model was I believe a straight cylinder bore which was designed for FOSTER SLUGS. That gun wore an OLD Weaver K2.5 scope. My Deer Slayer II Storm model with the trigger job and other changes was designed for the newer saboted rifle slugs. That gun wears a 2X7X32 Mueller Red Dot rifle scope.

The earlier model Deer Slayer made a few 100 yard plus shots, however for the most part deer were taken under 85 yards and the foster slugs worked fine for many years. Prior to the development of the saboted rifled slug, we didn't know any better, so we used what we had.

If you are either forced by hunting regulations to use slugs, or choose to do so, you should consider a dedicated slug gun and use the more accurate saboted slugs. While it is certainly possible to use a Remington 870 with a slug barrel for deer and then switch barrels to use during bird season, rabbit season, turkey season or to hunt ducks etc., you will NOT obtain your best accuracy with such a set up.

The primary reason is that a dedicated slug gun will likely have the rifled barrel pinned to the receiver, a trigger job done (or an after market trigger kit) and a quality scope on board. That means your down range slugs will hold a group on the target as opposed to a pattern. My current set up is entirely capable of calling your shots out to 150 yards which handles 95% of N/E woods and farm field hunting. Being a 12 gauge pump makes follow up shots fast in case they are needed.

I still have a supply of Federal copper saboted slugs on hand should I decide to break mine out of the safe for a whitetail or baited bear hunt.

Something to think about!

Dan

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

12 Gauge Shotgun Slugs For Baited Bear Hunting?

I may have left out one of the most viable options for hunting black bear over bait and that is the 12 gauge shotgun slug. Most bears over bait are taken on the near side of 75 yards and the lions share probably under 50 yards. The 12 gauge shotgun slug has impressive ballistics out to 100 yards and beyond. Even the old style Foster slugs have a lot of wallop. The Barnes expander slugs pack a wallop and are serious medicine for even the biggest black bears.

My shotgun rig accounted for a lot of deer, while hunting in NYS before the state starting allowing rifle hunting in many counties. Below are photos of my Ithaca Deerslayer II Storm Model 12 GA with synthetic stock and wearing a Mueller 2X7X32 illuminated red dot scope. This is an accurate fast handling rig for either whitetails or BIG black bear within its range limitation.

Ballistics on the Federal 2 3/4" 3/4 oz Barnes Expander slug used in this set up are as follows:

FEDERAL CARTRIDGE CO VITAL SHOK PREMIUM BARNES EXPANDER SABOT SLUGS
Federal 12 Ga. 2 3/4" 3/4 oz, Barnes X Hollow Point Copper Sabot Slug
Federal takes slug load development very seriously. Their Barnes Expander Sabot Slugs are capable of 2" groups at 100 yards out of a 12 gauge fully rifled barrel. Now that is accurate. And with 150% greater expansion than conventional sabot slugs, expander is top tier, by any ones standards.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Mfg Item Num: P152XS
Category: AMMO SHOTSHELLS
Gauge :12 GA
Type :Sabot Slug
Length :2 3/4"
Ounces :3/4 oz
Shot Size :Slug
Muzzle Velocity :1900 fpsRounds/box :5 Rounds Per Box, 50 Boxes Per Case
Drams :N/A

The 16 GA and 20 GA using slugs are also serious bear fodder in a baited situation.

Dan

Romans 10:9-10

King James Version (KJV)

⁹That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
¹⁰For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Deer Hunting With Slug Guns

I have been hunting whitetails since I was 16 years old in NYS. From the time I was 16 until about two years ago, most of the deer I have taken were with shotguns. The first deer I ever harvested was with a 20 gauge semi- automatic shotgun with just the vent rib sighting plane and foster slugs. Distance as I recall was all of 10 yards. I was on state land and hunting off the ground and was backed up into a pine tree partially hidden by the boughs. Someone had shot perhaps 100 yards or so off to my left and I was in a little clearing. The 8 point sauntered on in and at about 10 yards I dropped him. I was definitely hooked.

Around that same time I was also bow hunting with a recurve Fred Bear bow and using wooden arrows with Bear Razor head broad heads and feathers. I think it was the Grizzly model and I simply shot off the padded bow shelf and with fingers using a traditional leather glove on my release hand. I would love to tell you I took another 8 point with that bow, but I didn't. Even though I now shoot a Bear Instinct compound with carbon arrows and use a release along with plastic vanes and replaceable blade broad heads, I still remember how I felt hunting in those early days. I was one with all of those who had gone before me in the pursuit of big game with the bow.

In the many years following that first whitetail with the 20 gauge, I killed all of my deer with an Ithaca Deer Slayer Model 37/12 gauge pump bored straight cylinder (.704 inch internal diameter as opposed to the 12 Gauge's nominal .729 measurement), wearing a Weaver K2.5X fixed scope with a bold reticle and firing either Remington or Winchester Foster slugs. In those days, our guns were PIE PLATE accurate. Out at 75-85 yards or so, I could put (5) into a paper plate routinely. I didn't say that I got a tight groups. I said I could hit the paper plate with 5 slugs, though some were in the center, some were high, some were low and some just cut the outer edge of the plate enough to say, I HIT IT. Funny thing is at last count before handing the gun down to my son-in-law one Christmas, I had taken 28 deer with that shotgun. I am always fond of saying that MOST deer in the N/E USA are shot even today at less than 100 yards. I never tried to make that shotgun into anything other than what it was, and yet it performed very well for the years I owned it.

For a few years after than I hunted with another Ithaca Deerslayer II model called "The Storm" which had a rifled barrel and used rifled saboted slugs. That gun had a trigger job done and the factory stock shortened slightly to fit me by the gunsmith at the King's Ferry, NY location shortly before they closed it down. Ithaca Gun which operated out of King's Ferry, NY (not far from where I now live), was sold at auction on November 29, 2005. They reopened in Ohio and can be contacted at Ithaca gun, 420 North Warpole St., Upper Sandusky, Ohio 433521. their phone number is 1-877-648-4222 and service inquires on existing Ithaca's can be done by email at (service@ithacagun.com).

That particular shotgun which I still own was the most accurate shotgun I ever fired. Out to around 150 yards, I would NOT hesitate to use it today in most of the areas I hunt. I have a previous post (8/22/08 12 Ga vs. 20Ga) on that particular gun showing a target with the best load I had found at the time. The best load I came up with for that slug gun was the Federal Barnes 3/4 oz expander slugs. They would group under 2.5 inches out to 125 yards and within 3.5 inches out to 150 yards. I still have quite a supply of those particular slugs on hand and might take that gun hunting again one day just for nostalgia purposes. I took several deer with that shotgun and load. and I would not feel handicapped in the least to hunt with it today.

ALL THAT BEING SAID, what is available to the hunter today who either is forced by regulation to hunt with slug guns or who does so by choice:

One of the most popular is Remington's model 870 Pump gun called the Super Slug. Another is H&R/NEF's single shot ULTRA SLUG Hunter, Savage's bolt action models 220 and 201 IF you can find them, and YES Ithaca's NEW Deerslayer II and Deersaleyr III. Mossberg also made their LPA pumps fitted with the new adjustable Lighting Pump Action trigger system and are reported to be very accurate. On the custom arena Randy Fritz's Tar hunt shop makes bolt action 12 and 20 gauge models. IF you already own a TC Encore 209/50 muzzle loader, then you can also purchase a 12 gauge slug barrel for your encore turning it into an accurate single shot shotgun.

Results for: "12 gauge slugs" (40 items)

Display: Images | Text only

Items Per Page: 12 | 24 | 48 | 96

Page 1 of 2