So I wanna deer hunt with a shotgun?

L

lwing

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Vancouver Island
hi there
no shotgun experience, looking for advice for Island deer hunting, timber, probably under 50yds
thinking pump?
barrel length? rifled smooth?
slugs , sabots? shot? ???? 3'', 2 3/4''? '' Shot only area''............
effective range?.
effective kill shots, was told head shots best?
whats a great compact effective set up? Accuracy?
would like to purchase once and be happy, unlike my rifle addiction
Scopes? have Minox 1.5-8, was thinking red dot?
budget under $1000
looking to make a quick purchase for a hunt, so advice appreciated
thanks in advance
 
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I shot one deer with buckshot, I won't do that again.

Get yourself a Remington 870 with a spare fully rifled barrel with a cantelever rail to mount the scope. They sell combo kits, look for that at the store...

Shoot slugs.

DO NOT try to shoot deer in the head! Aim for behind the shoulder.

Cheers
Jay
 
Totally different game.

Slow moving slugs are a different animal, and range is limited with standard foster slugs.

If you have a choice I would say use a rifle. ;)

If you don't, a rifled slug barrel is as close as it gets to rifle accuracy, but the sabot slugs are not cheap!
 
Buckshot is close range only, like 20 yards max. get a smooth bore barrel with iron sights. A regular shotgun slug will drop a deer no problem with reasonable accuracy. I can regularly pop 4 liter milk jugs at 50 yards, 5 out of 5.
 
Red dot or low power scope works well. Smooth bore get you out to 120 yards. Rifled barrel gets you out a little further.
I don't think there is a big difference between 2 3/4 and 3 inch slugs.
12 or 20 gauge will do.
Barrel length doesn't make much difference.
Stick to shots in the vitals and you are good to go.
 
If by the "Island" you mean Vancouver Island and you are in the shotgun/archery only zone, you are not allowed to use slugs. The regulations require you to use shot which they define as having 8 or more roughly sperical pellets. That's buckshot to you and me. I patterned several buckshot loads from a smoothbore 12 gauge with a 20 inch cylinder bore barrel. They were all abysmal but the Federal brand WITH FLITE CONTROL WAD was the only one that patterned inside a foot at 30 yards. At 40 yards it was as bad as all the others so this is a 30 yard load and the rest I wouldn't even bother with unless you are inside 20 yards. BTW, the Flite Control Wads work better without choke than when I fired them in a modified choke gun. The bad news is I don't know where to get the ammo (I received a few sample rounds to try but they weren't for sale). If you find any, let me know. Hope this helps somewhat. Dan
 
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Mossberg 500. 3" 00 buck (15 pellets). Shoot it on paper at progressively longer range until it no longer puts 4 of the big pellets into a 12"square. I will bet you will hit that limit at about 30 yards. Stick to that as max range and you will do fine. ( keeps you under the 1000.00 budget with plenty to buy ammo for the testing and practice.)

Darryl
 
I used my 20ga side by side on small buck at around 40m. The hit almost lifted him up, he jumped and droped after 10m. I can shoot 5-8 inch groups out of it at 50m. My Grampa hunted deer and wild bore in Europe always with a side by side 12ga. He did not owned a rifle. He always keept under 40m with buck shoot and upto 70m with breneke slugs. For buck shoot he made the shells himself, had a cast for 7mm and 9mm balls he would pack them in a sequence. That load would put a wild bore in place when fired from two barrels
 
40 yards using buckshot, you don't need anything fancy. Single shot with ejector and your good to go. I like the ejector vs. extractor for a faster follow up shot if necessary.
H&R pardner 12ga 3"mag, 28" barrel single shot has an ejector and screw in chokes. Comes with a Mod choke
 
If I was in the OP's shoes I'd look long and hard for a decently priced 'turkey gun' Most modern ones have replaceable chokes and are often set up with a riflelike sighting system for the shotload. Would not hurt to look for anything with a 3" or 3.5" chamber. If you can find them, Winchester Premium Buckshot comes copper plated already and in buffered 00 buckshot loads.
 
A Turkey gun would have a shorter 24" barrel, loosing velocity at 40 yards ( about the length of an old barn) compared to a 28" barrel. If buckshot has to be used, every inch makes a difference. 43" overall and about 5 1/2-6 lb.

You won't know how any load patterns until you shoot it through your gun. I'd hold off buying chokes until you put some ammo through your gun.
 
Took my first black-tail doe at 20 yards using Federal Tru-ball slugs out of a Mossberg 500 12ga 28'' VR barrel. Make sure you pattern your slugs!
DSCN3861.jpg
 
Applefarmer said:
A Turkey gun would have a shorter 24" barrel, loosing velocity at 40 yards ( about the length of an old barn) compared to a 28" barrel. If buckshot has to be used, every inch makes a difference. 43" overall and about 5 1/2-6 lb.

You won't know how any load patterns until you shoot it through your gun. I'd hold off buying chokes until you put some ammo through your gun.
Click to expand...
Using the best patterning choke and load, I submit a deer shot at 'normal buckshot distances' would be equally dead with either four inch difference.

In a similar discussion on Shotgunworld dot com, I borrowed this quote courtesy of someone by the handle of Trumpetshooter:



Barrel length and projectile velocity

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 3:44 pm

Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2010 12:17 pm
Posts: 18

Today I compared velocities of a couple of my pet 12 gauge loads fired from a 20" barrel Remington (Baikal) side-by-side "coach" shotgun, and the same cartridges fired from a 28" barrel Mossberg 500 pump gun. The 28" data is actually from last spring. I chronied the 20" gun today. I have been using these loads for about 3 years. I chose to compare these particular loads because they pattern well with #6 and 7 1/2 in both of these guns.

1 ounce lite target load using Alliant Promo powder (compares to Red Dot)
20" barrel = 1019 fps (average of 10 shots)
28" barrel = 1064 fps (average of 10 shots)

1 ounce trap load using Alliant Promo Powder (compares to Red Dot)
20" barrel = 1172 fps (average of 10 shots)
28" barrel = 1240 fps (average of 10 shots)

1 1/8 ounce trap load using Alliant Promo Powder (compares to Red Dot)
20" barrel = 1151 fps (average of 5 shots)
28" barrel = 1243 fps (average of 5 shots)

1 1/8 ounce bird load using Alliant Herco Powder (slower than Promo or Red Dot)
20" barrel = 1155 fps (average of 5 shots)
28" barrel = 1246 fps (average of 5 shots)

One thing I found interesting is the fact that the lighter loads show less difference in velocity between the 20" barrels and the 28" barrel. I don't know why, though. I am not a ballistics guy, just a shotgunner who loves to shoot (and eat) squirrels and birds. So Randy, I bow to your experience and expertise. I welcome you (and others) to comment on my little my experiment. I do realize my samples are smaller than teh ideal.
 
I shot my last three deer with buckshot. The furthest shot was perhaps a 20-yard shot. I used my H&R 12 gauge survivor for the first, and my Winchester 1300 for the second and third. All three deer dropped on the first shot. The doe I shot this year took at least seven pellets through the vitals at about 15 yards - complete passthroughs, never found 'em.

Buckshot is deadly stuff.

But, you gotta be close to use it. And if you're close, ask yourself: Do I need a 3" shell with 15 pellets, or a 2 3/4" shell with 9 pellets (in a 00 load). Up close, the 9 pellet load will do the job and ruin less meat. Further shots may require the extra lead.

I just use my duck gun these days, but if I was going to buy a shotgun specifically for buckshot hunting, I'd get something that took 3" shells, and either had a fixed choke or removable chokes (no cyl bore) and that would be my only stipulation. I'd even consider a single-shot, although a pump makes lots of sense.

Those old bolt-action Mossbergs on the EE with the adjustable choke would be a very affordable way to get into the game, and they'd allow you to fool around with choke settings pretty easily. If you want to spend more money, I'd buy something with readily available accessory barrels - Mossberg 930 or 500 or Remington 870?
 
A 300gr bullet in a sabot will have 2000fps muzzle velocity, and shot out a rifled barrel will have excellent accuracy at 100 yards. You could easily take a deer out to 150 yards without much holdover. Check out Hornady's ammo. Couple of bucks a shot.
 
This target shows a mix of shot fired through a 2010 Brno 802 Combination gun in 12 gauge (3") with Improved Modified (IM) choke OVER 30-06 Springfield at 25 metres. No scope, just the good old fashioned iron sights.

Ammo used:
Remington Express 30-06 180 Grain Core-Lokt Pointed SP, Muzzle Velocity: 2913 fps
Winchester Rackmaster Rifled Slug, 12 gauge, 3 inch, 1 1/8 oz, Muzzle Velocity: 1700 fps

Four 30-06 rounds were fired from 25 metres in the sitting, freehand position. They are tightly grouped around the bullseye (about 1 inch). The first shot of the four was fired from a cold barrel and nailed the bullseye dead on! In truth, I can probably improve on this grouping even more.

2 rifled slugs were fired from 25 metres in the sitting, freehand position -- both in the same hole! These are the 4th and 5th slugs ever fired from this gun. I have little doubt these could drop any deer within 100 metres if I scoped it.

So, with a combination gun, you have the best of both worlds, and Brno's are hard to beat for accuracy.

The sights are clearly factory adjusted for the rifled barrel, with the shotgun barrel shooting slightly lower.

5947590346_ce65765a51_b.jpg
 
This target shows 2 shells of 00 buckshot fired through a 2010 Brno 802 Combination gun in 12 gauge (3") with Improved Modified (IM) choke OVER 30-06 Springfield at 25 metres from the sitting, freehand position.

Would I trust this to cleanly take down a deer at 50 metres? not really. For close range "home protection", yep. :)

Ammo used:
Federal "Power-Shok" 12 gauge, 3 inch (76mm) magnum 15 pellets -- 00 Buckshot, Muzzle Velocity: 1210 fps

5959278615_df52d2619c_b.jpg
 
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