A running tally...

M

Morgoroth

New member
For you guys that deer hunt. About how far on average would you say deer run after a reasonably good hit?

Is it more or less with slugs vs. buckshot? or are there too many factors to really tell.
 
Personal experiences, 2 3/4" Remington Rifled Slugger, 870 Remington.

From a stand, deer unaware and walking, drop dead pretty much right there.
Running full bore, hits through vitals approx. 30yrds., take out front shoulder with vitals, less than 10yrds.

Just what I've seen.
 
Meat hunter's shot, broadside and inserted right behind, not through the shoulder, 30-75 yards. That's with rifled slugs and Brenekkes.

Broadside, through the shoulder with same, 10-35 yards.
 
Lots of variables.

Not much experence with slugs. Wife has taken a few hogs with a 20ga using sabots. That's about like shooting them with a VERY hot .44 mag. Have not had to track one.

Using buckshot on hogs has been a grab bag. Some DRT and some that had to be found. On average if you hit them good, unlike the other afternoon when I MISSED, they do not go far. Most times one 000 hits something really important and it's over fast.
 
I have killed a lot of deer with Remington Copper solid slugs and seldom had them go more than 30 - 40 yards. Many have dropped within a couple of steps.
 
Slugs performed better overall

All my huntinmg alluded to here was with 12 gauge shotguns. Growing up in rural NJ in the 1960s I had to use buckshot. It seemed that 4 or more pellets in the chest resulted in a retrievable deer. Some fell at the shot, others ran for hundreds of yards. Most well hit deer averaged a 50 to 100 yards travel before dropping. In upstate NY I had to use slugs for Southern Tier hunting for 20 years. I never had to track a chest shot deer more than 40 yards and most were down and/or dead upon the hit. Originally I used lead Foster slugs, later sabot slugs in a rifled 870 when NY made it legal; all were quite good killers. Surprisingly, slugs do not penetrate brush as well as rifle bullets; especially the old lead Fosters out of a non-rifled barrel.
 
Personal experience: they don't run at all.

I've taken 4 does with a .308. All were 1 shot kills, they literally fell down where I shot them.

I've taken 1 buck with a single 12-gauge sabot slug. He stumbled about 15 feet, fell and died.

I'm by no means an ace shot.
 
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