Prairie Boy

hey guys. a friend of mine approched me today with a question and i hope u guys can help me answer it for him. he wants to go deer hunting with a shotgun. he doesn't have a scope on it tho and he doesn't have a barrel with groves in it either. he only has a straight barrel 12 gauge shotgun. he asked me if he could hunt deer with it and i said i didn't think so. what do you all think? can he hunt deer with buckshot or something like that?

cheers

Tree climber

yes he can. in Fla. most that hunt with shotgun shoot buckshot. they work fine,to 50 or 60 yards,with a good full choke gun.
just pattern you gun to see what it shoots best.

I am not a hunter I am a whitetail population reduction specialest

remember keep your back to the sun, your knife sharp, and your powder dry.

Ploopy

Make sure the buckshot is legal in your state or providence.In Ohio we can only use slugs.I shoot slugs out of my 12gauge{smooth barrel}and it shoots fine out to 100 yds.

XTP

PB....Buckshot is NOT legal here in Manitoba except for hogs.Have him try the rifled slugs in his gun,starting at close range and working back.Figure out how it groups and what the max range would be.Do not use sabots as they generally do not perform very well in a smooth-bore.Have him concentrate on each shot to stay consistant in his sight picture.Good luck.

Prairie Boy

hey good info there guys. i didn't think u could use slugs in a smooth barrel. we'll use slugs for sure then if they shoot half ways good out to 75 or 100m. it's an older shotgun and i havn't seen it yet but i'm not sure what kind of sight is on it. probably just a beed in the front. i guess we'll find out at the range what he can hit with it.

cheers

rbduck

I agree with XTP on this subject. I use a Rem 1100 in 20ga or my 870 in 12ga for the shotgun season here. The slugs work real well in my 1100 but I still keep the ranges inside 100 yards for both.Good luck with the hunt.

Ron<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

Let em land!

TreestandEd

He can use rifled slugs just fine with good accuracy.Atually it is probably most common setup.I belive he needs to use IC choke tube.

TrestandEd

&quot;Hard work ... conviction ... pride ... responsibility ... class ... character ... success...BOWHUNTING

eldeguello

He certainly CAN shoot deer with his plain smoothbore. He will have to use Foster or Brenneke-type slugs (or buckshot, NOT RECOMMENDED!!!)in it, since it is a smoothbore. I recommend that he shoot it a lot to see where the slugs hit, and it would be A WHOLE LOT BETTER if he put some kind of rear sight, or a scope, on the gun and zero it in for the kind of slug he decides to use!! After observing the ineffectiveness of buckshot at any range much beyond 15 yards, I strongly urge the use of slugs instead! In fact, buckshot is TOTALLY ILLEGAL for deer hunting IN MOST STATES!!

Keep yore powder dry!!

mello_collins

Look into getting a rifled choke tube, several manufactures make them. It’ll help with the slugs and will enable the use of sabots.

Mike

oldelkhunter

There is a large herd of Deer running around in Deer Heaven put there with a side by side shotgun and a 870 wingmaster shooting 00 and 000 buckshot when I was growing up in New Jersey. I can honestly say that I never wounded a deer with buckshot...all were at a reasonable range no more than 50 yards and all fell like a sack of cement when shot, I mean it knocked the cr@p out of them. That was before rifled slugs were even an option and all we could use was buckshot. When finally legalized We immediately switched to rifled slugs and using Brennekes(this was a long time ago) or remington slugs we killed deer to 75 yards or so with equal effectiveness.