After nearly 40 years of hunting mostly moose and small game,I recently completed a 2 day controlled hunt on Nov. 6&7 for whitetails in Essex County which allows the use of muzzleloaders or shotguns equipped with slugs or buckshot. My choice of armmament was a Rem.M870 Express Deer,12 ga. lefthanded,retrofitted with a Hastings 24 inch cantilever rifled bore and topped with the newer Bushnell 3200 1.5 x 4.5 Firefly scope.My choice of ammo was the Winchester 12 ga. 3" Partition Gold 7/8 oz.(385 gr.) Sabot Slug at an advertised muzzle velocity of 2000 f/sec. The actual chronographed vel. was around 1700 f/sec. and sighted in dead on at 100 meters.With an actual 11 minutes of legal shooting time left in the first day a 2 1/2 year buck made the fatal mistake of crossing the bean field at the very time we had decided to call it a day.My partner had whacked him with his Mossberg 24" rifle-sighted smoothbore using "Lightfield" saboted slugs and completely removed his right horn at the base giving this young lad a serious headache causing him to just stand there dazed and confused and broadside to us.Using a standing offhand shot aiming at the top of his back the Partition Gold slug hit him just under the spine at 135 yards and he dropped at the shot.Sure glad he didn't run cause these old legs don't move like they used to.After doing the necessary processing of the meat the next day,we did some backstraps on the grill the next day and must confess that corn/bean fed Essex County Whitetails are hard to beat for taste and quality.To say the least I'm NOW hooked on whitetails and must find another venue i.e. hunting season for more of the same as 60 lbs.(my share) won't go far.
jackpine
jackpine
