I sat with my son the first 3 nights when we were in Iowa but once he shot his buck I was able to hunt the last night we were there. Pat came down and sat with me in the wagon blind while Fletch sat with Justin. We saw a number of deer but not as many as the previous 3 nights. Most of the deer were going up a saddle in the picked corn field and not spending much time there. Some were getting our wind and worked across faster but none really freaked out. We had a nice looking buck that would have been 140ish 8 pointer if he had both sides come out and did not spend much time in front of us. Not long after watching that buck work his way across a field I noticed tines in the saddle and quickly grabbed my binos. I did not look long, I noticed really long tines and a huge wide frame and did not care how many points or what I thought he scored because I knew I did not have long and wanted to kill this buck. I went to put the slug gun on the shooting stick and somehow the strap was hooked on the arm of my chair. When I pulled it the barrel smacked the wood wall of the blind and made a loud thud. I thought nice job dumb @$$ but it actually helped and stopped the BIG buck in his tracks. I took the time to raise the shooting sticks and asked Pat how far. When he said 165 yards I settled the cross hairs 3/4 of the way up right above his front leg. I squeezed the trigger held there for a moment and thought he was a dead deer. When I came off the scope I couldn't believe I saw him take off. Right then I knew he had to pause and thought how in the hell did I just F that up. Don't get me wrong I have missed before, hell I have missed my fair share years ago with the 12 gauge shotguns but since I bought this Savage 220 20 gauge slug gun I had shot at 8 deer and blew lungs out of 8 deer. Most of them have been from 125 to 180 yards so I wasn't even worried about the 165. We walked over to look around a little bit but could not see any sign of a hit. When we were standing in the spot he took off from it didn't help when Pat looked at me and said that was the biggest buck I have ever seen. Then I noticed I had got a text from my son. When I checked his text it simply said "CHOKE" the next morning we went back and looked the field and some of the steepest creek ditches I have ever walked to make sure that I had missed. I am not sure who has been worse so far Pat or my son but damn they have been giving me my share of crap. I have had other bad outcomes with really big bucks so I know you never forget it.
When Pat posted that on fb I was like who the heck is he talking about? I missed a deer with a 12 gauge before and I couldn't figure out how but I think it hit a branch and deflected the slug and that was at 20 yards. I was a little bummed but it was only a doe.
I have held off on shooting at GIANT whitetails a number of times because I did not think the shot was ethical including a 180ish inch buck at 20 yards during shotgun season but with the new shotguns with rifled barrels and slugs I think the only idiotic comment is yours. sorry but true. I wouldn't even have a problem with you saying you think that shot is stupid but to say that is true is ridiculous. Because you don't think it is a good shot doesn't make it a fact it makes it an opinion.
You might want to learn how to spell before insulting someone's intelligence. Having a remedial understanding about the subject at hand would also be beneficial.
Rifled slug barrels are very accurate. My Hastings barrel will group right at 1 1/2" at 100 yards and is still at 3 1/2" at 200.
well ****. quess i will oppologize to Tom for the ideodic statement. that was a poor choice of words. should have just read it and went on to the next thread. had a conversation recently with a fellow the "bragged" he shot an elk at 1020 lazered yards with a .243 and am just getting quite pissed about where hunting is headed. ya know, their are lots of new guys starting out hunting and between reading about these long shots and 5" penatration mech heads that are dominating EVERY frickin outdoor channel, well it just makes me sick. just because a bow/gun can do it does'nt mean it should be posted. and i have shot just shy of 200 deer with slugs and seen/examined/ cut-up 1000's others so i i feel i have a perdy good handle on what slugs do/don't (often ) do.
My family are shotgun hunters for whitetails. 165 yards is not a wise decision. its not just the guns. its mainly the bullets nowadays. we used Winchester supeme partition gold 2 3/4 on our 12gauges and we range em out at 100yds on the dot. you could have grunt or rattle the buck to get him closer. If I was bow hunting over a gun I can get him to come within 15yards. I once rattled and grunted a small 8pointer walking in 20yds from 200yds.
I wasn't saying you shouldn't have given your opinion. You made a short statement then acted like it was fact without any info to back it up. I have 2 of these Savage 220 20 gauge slug guns and make sure they are sighted in 1 inch high at 100 yards. Between myself and my 2 children we have killed 14 deer with them. Until the other day we have not missed or hit somewhere other than lungs. These shots range from 25 to 182 yards with all but 4 being between 125 and 182 yards. Every deer was standing in a field except one that was standing in the woods. There have been no moving shots, no hard quartering to or away no Texas heart shots. Most of the deer have just made the wood line and a couple died just inside the woods. They have ran about 60 to 80 yards with the farthest running about 100 yards and that buck was shot at 80 yards. We haven't had to let a deer sit or wait over night, they are all dead within seconds. If this gun wasn't doing the job or we were tracking for miles and not recovering our deer I would change the gun or distance shot. So with the info I have acquired from actual field testing I do not see any issue with the shot.
Are these modern slug guns with rifled barrels that are capable of shooting groups out to 200 yards? Did you grunt that little buck in during the rut? How many of these deer have you grunted in to within 15 yards? Have you shot many bucks over 100 yards with a slug gun to know what you can and can not do?
Tom. i should not have said what i did in the post you made about a good family outing. that was wrong and i appologize. now, i AM an oppinionated fellow as most here know about certain things but should learn to save those opinions for a thread directed towards a controvercial subject.
Once. Really? Now that is some serious experience to base a strong opinion on. Good luck grunting in a buck during the post rut period while he is intent on walking over a mile to his food source. Which, by the way, is the only thing he really cares about at that point in his life. There is getting to be a lot of free advice here that is over priced.
