Deer Gun Season Weapon of Choice

I think it makes sense. A 20 ga bolt shotgun set up for sabots would be nice. But I'd pick the mz unless the shots are very close.

Nope. Came from a shotgun zone and was never tempted to use the smokepole.

It’s a straight wall area now so I use a Marlin 1894SS 44 mag.

I'm in a rifle zone, so that's what I use, this is what I carried out to my blind today,



I shot two deer with it this season, one of them today...

DM

DM~ said:

I'm in a rifle zone, so that's what I use, this is what I carried out to my blind today,

View attachment 874782

I shot two deer with it this season, one of them today...

DM

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What caliber?

I started hunting with a Hawken in '83, it was a better deer gun than a cylinder bore 12 ga with foster slugs and bead sights.

Nowadays a rifled bore, scoped shotgun shooting pointed sabots, is a pretty darn good deer gun, I dont care where you are.

My last two bucks were with an H&R slug gun.

I don't think so, Tim. I'm with the old Fuddster Ruger M77 in 30-06, with a 3X9 Leupold scope, shooting Federal 180 grain SPs. Nothing fancy, just standard raw power, and a solid, basic glass optic.

I've skipped out on rifles and carried a slug gun, if that counts.

The weather was rough, and I was hiking through brush.

Decided the $100 pawn shop 12 gauge with iron sights fit the bill. Plus, anecdotal evidence tells me that a pumpkin of lead flying downrange packs a wallop that a speedy fast needle bullet can't do.

That's all based on "feelings"... Not necessarily science...

I’ve just never been able to get into blackpowder stuff. I like my rifles too much. I’ve got a bunch to choose from, but I think this year I’ll carry my Ruger No. 1 in 257 Weatherby Mag more than anything else.

I thoroughly enjoy my BP rifles, and hunt with them often. If I'm really serious about filling the freezer, I will take a rifled slug gun. It will effectively double my range.

627PCFan said:

Tomorrow will be my first MD Deer season in a few. The area is shotgun only but we can use muzzleloaders during modern gun season. Eevery year I find myself leaving the slug-gun at home and using the muzzleloader all season long. Anyone else skip the shotguns and rifles and go for the muzzleloader instead?

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I've lived and hunted Maryland for 48 of my 56 years, and I live in the heart of "no rifle country". You CAN use a rifle in Allegheny and Garret counties. Opening day is today, but we both have to work. But next week I will be taking my son out in Allegheny County so he can try his self-assembled AR-10 in .308 for deer. I will bring my Israeli Mauser, K98 Gewer, set up as a Scout Rifle, also in .308 as a backup. BUT....,

All of the deer I have ever harvested have been with my Cabin Creek flintlock .54 PA Mountain Rifle using patched, round ball. I got a deer with it in January of this year, and then another in early BP season in October. I've been harvesting deer with it for almost two decades.

OH I have a very accurate, 870 Remington with an old-school, smooth bore slug barrel with iron sights. Using 1 ounce, 2¾ Brenneke slugs, it will put them into a clover-leaf pattern at 50 yards. I've never shot a deer with it....it was my "rain backup" when I started with the flinter. THEN I got a TC New Englander, caplock, also in .54 as the backup. Now, since I've seniority where I work, I can usually arrange to hunt when weather won't cause me to need the rain-backup.

Speaking of "backup plans", I gave the New Englander to my son, the AR-10 builder, as a graduation gift more than a year ago. He's not interested in "old school"...(gee he sure likes to eat the venison that I get via old school rifles ) So..., if we don't get a deer with his rifle, we will come back down, and he will get a chance with his graduation gift, old-school-style.

Maryland has some odd notions about firearms, but the danger is if we educate the legislators, they will likely make things worse. For example, you can hunt some places with a modern handgun, where you can't with a breech loading rifle. No idea why they can't say a rifle in .44 mag or .357 mag that matches the ammo requirements for handgun hunting isn't equally valid. In addition to lever actions, NEF and Rossi made a single shot in those cartridges or even (iirc) NEF made one in .500 S&W. BUT...., anywhere you can hunt in this state you can load up your inline to surpass a .45-70 rifle......

LD

Back in the foster slug days (sabots and the rifled bores necessary to sling them were an expensive curiosity at the time) I carried a "hawken" style ML stoked with a heavy charge of 2F and a home cast bullet from a fellow white smoke enthusiast. He was a machinist and made his own mold. It was a fullbore obturating 50 cal bullet that looked like a hollow point Minie ball and lubed with real raccoon grease. Wicked accurate to 150 yards and expanded well on deer, and only cost me 3 muskrat pelts for a healthy supply. Informal ML shoots were a pretty big thing locally at the time, and I attended many and was much more confident in one shot from the ML than 5 from my Ithaca M37 16 Guage (still carried that on walks/drives). Then the CRP went away and I stopped hunting that part of the state where Shotgun/ML were required.

With changes in our state gun hunting regulations over the years, we've transitioned from shotguns.....



..to black powder...(Knight 50 cal.)


....now to straight wall rifle rounds. (450BM)

I've never had to make that decision, but if I did have to choose I believe I'd choose muzzle loader over shotgun. Of course I'd choose a breach loading rifle over muzzle loader.

Captcurt said:

What caliber?

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I use the lower 8x57jrs for most big game hunting,



DM

Deer hunting on state land in CT is restricted to shotguns with slugs or muzzle loaders of at least 45 caliber. for the past 5 years I have hunted exclusively with muzzle loaders. Usually I use my percussion Hawken style .58 with patched round ball, but this year I have gone to my .58 Flint lock with patched round ball. I have taken a lot of deer over the years, and now that it is just me and the wife, one or two deer is all we need for our red meat for the year. I do not feel under gunned using a muzzle loader, cause visibility in our CT brush is usually less than 65 yards, and it is rare to be able to get in more than one shot. A well placed .58 ball usually drops my deer with in 25 yards of where they stood when I shot them.

In WMAs where rifles are prohibited I almost always use a muzzleloader. They are more accurate than my Hastings rifle-barreled 870.

DM~ said:

I use the lower 8x57jrs for most big game hunting,

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DM

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Good looking drilling. I have never owned one but have sold a couple on consignment. Pretty cool.

Dibbs said:

I don't think so, Tim. I'm with the old Fuddster Ruger M77 in 30-06, with a 3X9 Leupold scope, shooting Federal 180 grain SPs. Nothing fancy, just standard raw power, and a solid, basic glass optic.

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WHAT DO WE NEED??? MORE POWER!!!

I would choose my traditions inline over any slug gun.

DM~ said:

I use the lower 8x57jrs for most big game hunting,

View attachment 874902

DM

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Nice looking Drilling and the 8x57JRS is a great cartridge. My Merkel double is in 8x57JRS and I'm very impressed with it . All the ?x57 cartridges seem to work well.

Skoghund said:

Nice looking Drilling and the 8x57JRS is a great cartridge. My Merkel double is in 8x57JRS and I'm very impressed with it . All the ?x57 cartridges seem to work well.

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It is a great round, and mine is very accurate,



I've taken everything from moose and blk. bear on down with it,



DM

Inline over shotgun. I missed the opportunity at a 140" buck on an out of town trip several years ago because I put the Inline away and toted the 12ga smooth bore around. I just didn't feel comfortable taking the 125yard shot with the slug gun.

Loyalist Dave said:

I've lived and hunted Maryland for 48 of my 56 years, and I live in the heart of "no rifle country".

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i got into muzzleloader deer hunting while stationed at Indian Head in Charles county. Drug a huge buck across a frozen swamp for an old man who advised i chunk my shotgun and hunt with a muzzleloader. Told him i didn't own a muzzleloader. His answer: "I'll give you one". "Uncle Joe" was a serious muzzleloader collector, marksman and hunter. He owned over 200 original muzzleloaders.

Later got away from muzzleloader hunting but returned in 2000. Muzzleloaders are the way to go, i don't feel disadvantaged and it's made me a better hunter. Nothing is more satisfying than sneaking and crawling through brambles and tall grass and putting a round ball in a hogs ear.