Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Slug gun.

Want to get the boy his first 12 ga slug gun. Looking at the Mossberg 500 with three barrels. The slug barrel comes with cantilever for a scope. Would rather open sites.

Can open sites be added to a cantilever?

Scope is useless when driving deer.

Thoughts?

Well I do need say that I am most impressed with the red dot scope on the cant 12 gauge. We picked up two 12s with red dots today and a few different rounds to try. The red dot with out the tunnel was like it was not even on the gun. Two eye shooting easy.

Found the hornady SST the most accurate at 100 yards. The reminigton premium accutip and the federal all over for the mossberg. Only difference was the federal were 3".

Found the accutip to be lazy no crack, but the hornady and federal were banging. The federal could have been human error. Quite the bang for the 18 year old boy at 145#'s. The gun could take it and he wanted to try them.

Great tack driver combo have to see what its like with the deer on the run.

Cheers Don.

Donno, if they are accurate, look at the lot number on the box flap. Go and buy a bunch of that same lot number. Different lot numbers will shoot differently. I found that out with the Hornady SST's in my Tar-Hunt slug gun.

Good call never even thought of that. I have seen that in the 17's lot numbers very different in the long shots.

I am very proud of the boys this year my 13 year old is an apprentice, 15 year old first year full hunter with his own tag, my 18 year old third year with his own tag. Our house has three tags and Grandpa has one too. Had to get some new gats for the house. As an apprentice they hunt with a single shot. They kick like a mule and you better make that shot count.

Cheers Don.

Dropping deer is much easier with a good slug gun. Watched my boy drop one in its tracks.

Here is a beauty buck. We seen one even bigger today. Crafty the big ones are.

This doe we got today was out 150 yards. Shot a bit low and was gut shot had to track her. Let her lay down and we went for lunch came back and found her laying down had to finish her but she was not running.

Nice buck Don.

Ditto on the nice buck

Yep, that's a nice buck. I'm guessing the slug has great knock down power, plus you don't have to worry about what it's doing a mile away..

Actually a study was done (I believe in Penn.) and it was proven that a slug will ricochet farther than a cup and core center fire rifle bullet. The rifle bullet is going faster and is more prone to breaking up.

All bets are off (in my mind) if a monolithic construction rifle bullet was used (i.e. Barnes all copper).

Knock down power isn't really a big thing, it's much more dependent on bullet placement. High shoulder shot (or spine shot) with a .243 will drop a deer faster than a gut shot with a .300 Win Mag.

Congrats to your son on a nice buck!!

Sure!

I think my point was a rifle bullet will generally travel a greater distance than a shotgun slug. (Your point about ricochets, was interesting though.)

Also, hard to compare the impact of a gut shot vs a shoulder shot in regards to knockdown capability. Not sure what you were meaning by that.

I have always heard that the heavy slug has pretty good knockdown power in shots of the same 100 yd distance, into the same spot on the target. I could be wrong.

Yes, the rifle bullets will travel further than the slugs will. My comment about ricochets was because we just had a huge discussion in Indiana this summer with the DNR wanting to legalize CF rifles for deer (the majority of them cannot be used now) and it didn't pass. Many, many people were writing in to the DNR that rifles were more dangerous than slug guns or muzzleloaders. Personal opinion here - I don't think so, at least not the cup and core rifle bullets that are designed for hunting Whitetail deer, or for hunting varmints.

What confused me about the discussion here in Indiana is that all rifles are legal to use when hunting varmints, and almost all rifle cartridges are legal to use to hunt deer with if they are fired in a pistol. They have a minimum caliber for use but no maximum. There are specialty pistols made that have taken big game well past 1,000 yards, those would be legal here for deer, but not legal if the same cartridge is shot out of a rifle. It's legal to use any rifle to hunt squirrels, and you are shooting up into the air if they are in a tree............. Why would the same rifle be illegal to use for deer? I just don't get it.

I should have worded the gut shot thing differently. I don't think about knock down power when hunting because I expect my bullet to exit the deer, and I don't believe the energy transferred to the deer in that instance can be measured.

My thirteen year old knocked down his first deer today. He put down a nice little button buck. Hit him in the rear and he made it 100 yards and laid down. Gave him 30 minutes and we found him bled out.

We are shooting the 12 gauge hornady SST's. They are like a rifle bullet that you shoot from a shot gun. I would expect with the 1700 feet per sec and 250 grans they can go quite the distance.

I will post some pictures of Andrews button buck as soon as my phone boots back up. So cool today it died.

Cheers Don.

Lucky you found him. Lesson is taking more time to put on a good chest shot. Beginners need to learn this, most through experience and mentoring from those with more experience.