Shotgun deer hunting

[Hunter007]

I am posting this for new guys just starting out who maybe are on a  limited budget and 

Can not effort a bunch of gear or more then one gun .

 

This Just a good  example of what you can do with  old fashion site on the side of a tree with a simple smoothbore shotgun and iron sites . No fancy gun stand or scope  needed , And still be effective at harvesting deer.

 

 

Edited October 24, 2018 by Storm914

[landtracdeerhunter]

Yeah, the gun and the license cost the most. 

I remember starting out with a Military coat and pant set for $25, a 16 gauge something or other I had, and Remington Slugger shells for $2.75 a box. I thought the carbon liner was a good idea to keep human scent down.

[The_Real_TCIII]

The Sluggers used to go on sale for $1 at Dicks, theyd have a full pallet on the floor. I killed a lot of deer with them from a smooth bore. I never have long shots anyway

[moog5050]

Killed my first gun buck with a borrowed smooth bore open sites.  That was only because I loaned an older gentlemen my savage 220 with a scope on opening day.  Only deer I ever killed with an open sighted smooth bore.  Come to think of it, its the only animal I have killed with a smooth bore - damn uncooperative turkey.

[GreeneHunter]

My son nailed a Buck and Doe last year with a 12 ga. pump he borrowed from me , I gave him 5 slugs and they were traveling together !

[rob-c]

I killed many deer with my H&R smooth bore single 12 gauge with 3 inch mag sluggers. 

[Pygmy]

I killed plenty of deer in the 60s and 70s  with several different smoothbores and bead sights....The best shooting one was a 20 gauge skeet gun with double beads...However about  1980 I mounted a 1.5 Weaver scope on the skeet gun and never looked back.. A few years later when rifled barrels became available, I switched to a rifled, cantilever barreled 12 gauge with a Weaver 2.5..  Adjustable rifle type sights are much more accurate and effective than " apple on a stick" bead sights, and scopes are  better yet...

About the best I could ever do with the double bead skeet barrel was to keep my shots on a 9" paper plate at 75 yards...With my rifled, scope sighted 12 gauge I got consistent 4" groups at 100 yards from the bench..

[Steve D]

1 hour ago, Storm914 said:

Can not effort a bunch of gear or more then one gun

While they will do the job he could have a bought a better one and not purchased the four-wheeler

[E J]

Last year I switched back to my trusty old 870 with a 1.5x5 on it. I've killed a lot of deer with that gun over the last 20+ years

[ny hunter]

Many deer fell a slug from shotguns...

[Culvercreek hunt club]

39 minutes ago, Steve D said:

While they will do the job he could have a bought a better one and not purchased the four-wheeler

i get a bigger kick out of his newbie mistake of getting a machete to use as a hunting knife...lol. I see more new hunters over knifed. I'd carry a steak knife out of the kitchen before I would that thing. 

[The_Real_TCIII]

I dont know why but my favorite hunting videos to watch are shotgun hunts in the woods

[Robhuntandfish]

im def a shotgun guy! My first few deer were with a mossberg with open sights.  When you hit em with the shotgun they usually just pile up.  Close and a big damn hole. 

Edited October 24, 2018 by Robhuntandfish

[Daveboone]

For a whole bunch of years , my Winchester 1300 slug gun was my go to, and accounted for lots of southern tier guns. We were quite proficient with them, using the same set up for rabbit hunting. Back then we used to put on a lot of drives, with a lot of jump shooting of the deer. The 12 g. slug, as Robhuntandfish says, leaves a big hole and has a big margin of error. We don't push deer like we used to, and went to rifles as soon as the law allowed, which certainly I think improved our take...and left us with more meat.

[Hunter007]

1 hour ago, Daveboone said:

For a whole bunch of years , my Winchester 1300 slug gun was my go to, and accounted for lots of southern tier guns. We were quite proficient with them, using the same set up for rabbit hunting. Back then we used to put on a lot of drives, with a lot of jump shooting of the deer. The 12 g. slug, as Robhuntandfish says, leaves a big hole and has a big margin of error. We don't push deer like we used to, and went to rifles as soon as the law allowed, which certainly I think improved our take...and left us with more meat.

I agree the take most have improved when they made rifles legal in areas that have wide open spaces fields  farm land,  Where you have lots of chance to take really long shots .

 

 

Point of this was just to show someone just starting out on a limited budget you dont need to spend a ton of money on lots of gear  to get the job done . 

.

[wolc123]

The biggest problem I have with shotguns, is that they kick so hard, compared to the down-range energy that they impart on the target.  A typical 12 gauge shotgun kicks considerably harder that most Elephant rifles.  For that reason, I will always make the switch to an appropriately sized rifle for deer, as soon as the law allows it.   The trouble is, my own home zone (9F) is shotgun only, and probably will be for quite some time.   Muzzleloaders are legal here, but have the major drawback of no quick followup shot.   If I did not have that capability, I would have been forced to eat a lot more vegetables or store-bought chicken over the years, and I am no fan of that.  Rifled-barrel shotguns have closed the accuracy gap considerably, but that only came at great cost for the ammo, and the hard kick remains.   Basically, shotguns for deer suck.   That said, I have probably killed 10 deer with shotguns for every one with all other weapons combined (muzzleloader, vertical bow, crossbow), but that was only because the law forced me to do it and I am not a law-breaker.     

[Jeremy K]

Both places i hunt allow rifles and my Browning always takes the back seat. I have every intention of taking another deer with my Henry  this year.

[chrisw]

I haven't carried a shotgun for deer since rifles became legal in the southern tier. I always hated slug guns and even now if I'm going where I can't carry a rifle I'm packing my muzzleloader. It amazes me the guys that are still carrying shotguns in the areas I hunt, I honestly don't see a single advantage to hunting with one over a rifle.

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[Just Lucky]

I use my rifle if I plan on sitting and use my 870 if i am still hunting. 

The 870 has an old weaver scope on it that works great when jumping deer and shooting as long as it stays dry.

[Buckmaster7600]

I agree the take most have improved when they made rifles legal in areas that have wide open spaces fields  farm land,  Where you have lots of chance to take really long shots .
 
 
Point of this was just to show someone just starting out on a limited budget you dont need to spend a ton of money on lots of gear  to get the job done . 
.

Is a shotgun really cheaper? If you take the versatility of loads out of the equation because let’s face it 90% of deer hunters don’t hunt small game. A shotguns really not cheaper excluding the cheap Chinese clones that I wouldn’t consider owning or recommending to anyone starting out.



This is a scoped rifle package ready to hunt by it and a box of ammo and you’re ready to hunt after a few rounds at the range.



Here’s the same shotgun as what’s in the video, slightly more money than the scoped rifle package but this is with no scope and just a bead sight. Not saying deer can’t be killed with it but I would venture a guess to say a new hunter has a much higher success rate with that scoped rifle than they do a shotty with just a bead. Not only that what is a cheap box of slugs cost these days 6$ a box for 5 sheds 1.20$ a shell.

You can always find Winchester white box or core-lokts for 15-16 bucks, .80$ a round

Insignificant for the average guy that only shoots 5 rounds a year but if we’re talking cheap that’s a dollar savings every year.

So for less money, less recoil, better range, better accuracy, easier shooting someone can spend less money and have a scoped rifle instead of a shotgun.

Sounds like a no brainer to me!


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[LET EM GROW]

Killed all my deer in my younger years with a smooth bore 1st gen mossberg 500 28" barrel with single bead. Thing shot winchester super x shells great. It fits perfectly too!  

It was my dads, now mine since he passed. A gun that will never leave this family..  

[Pygmy]

I haven't carried a shotgun for deer since rifles became legal here in western NY...

In fact I sold my  rifled, cantilever slug barrel  to a member of this forum a couple of years ago..  One less thing  that I'd never use again taking up space in my gun room....In fact,  probably at least HALF of my guns fall into that category, but they are somewhat harder to part with than a barrel, mostly for sentimental reasons...Hehehe...

[Uncle Nicky]

I don't seeing proficient with a slug gun to be a bad thing. Most of NY lets you hunt with a rifle these days, but it wasn't always like that. If you ever decide to hunt in other parts of the state, much of the Midwest, parts of VA, PA, MD, DE, or NJ, you won't be able to use a rifle. I never noticed the recoil when I was wearing a heavy jacket, only sighting in at the range.

[wildcat junkie]

20 hours ago, Pygmy said:

The best shooting one was a 20 gauge skeet gun with double beads...However about  1980 I mounted a 1.5 Weaver scope on the skeet gun and never looked back..

 

 

I had a Remington M58 semi auto with a skeet barrel in my possession for a while. I had borrowed it for jump shooting cottontails. The choke restriction was actually about 8" or so back from the muzzle. It shot wide even patterns with 7 1/2 shot and by lining up the double beads in a figure 8 sight picture it was deadly accurate with foster slugs to 75 yards or more.. At 50 yards it would shoot cloverleaf groups.

Never used it for deer hunting though as I had a hand built .54 percussion rifle that would shoot 2" groups at 100 yards wit a patched .535 round ball over 100 grs fffG.

[DanD]

Growing up in PA, I never saw anyone carry anything other than a rifle for deer hunting,and my first rifle was an old Winchester model 70 in .243. After moving to NY for college and staying in the state because I LOVE paying taxes, I had to learn about slugs guns and purchase one. I settled on an Remington 870 SPS SuperSlug which has been a deer leveling machine for me. I don't know if it's the funky stock, but that gun feels far more natural for me to shoot than any rifles in my cabinet. Even when visiting my family for PA deer season, I still take that shotgun out which prompts them to laugh every year. Maybe I'm wired differently (my wife would tend to agree  ) than most hunters in my preference of a shotgun over a rifle for deer.