Newbie Hunter

S

SuckLead

New member
Ok, so I have been trying to get up with someone to try deer hunting. I finally found someone and he happens to even have his own land to hunt on. Reason I want to go with someone is to learn. I can kill the thing, but then what? So hopefully when this deer season comes around I'll be learning.

Here's my question to the seasoned hunters on the board. I have two weapons to choose from: my Swiss K31 or my camo finish Benelli Super Nova. I had considered dragging them both along, but I can't see me making it very far with both of them slung over my shoulders. So I need to choose one. If it was your choice, which would you take, the shotgun or the rifle? The rifle is fairly heavy and already dinged up with a decent sized load (am having a fairly tough time finding a sling that not only fits but fits well enough that I can carry it comfortably for a long time). The shotgun is lighter, has the camo finish, has a 26" barrel, and can do up to 3 1/2" loads (although I cannot handle them, I learned, so I won't be putting 3 1/2" loads in my shotgun again). It also has a sling. Which would you drag off into the woods with you?
 
You my have to give more info. The state you live in my help. here in Michigan the is a line drawn threw the state above the line is riffle below is shotgun! Ohio is all shotgun only so check local laws! I would say if you are looking at 100+ yard shots where you are going to hunt use the rifle if it is under 75 yards use the shot gun with proper slugs for your barrel sabot for rifled barrel and rifled slugs for smooth barrel good luck!!!
 
For your specific question, the ammo choice you make is more important than the gun/caliber choice. But if you can find good expanding softpoint ammo in 7.5x55 (available online), then I'd use the k31 rifle - it will tend to give more accuracy, and is already dinged up, so dragging it through the woods won't degrade it's looks/value. Plus, less recoil than the shotgun. It will also extend your point blank range over the rainbow shotgun trajectory.

What state are you in, and what's the terrain and flora like where you will be hunting?
 
I'm in NC. When I asked my questions around here, both rifle and shotgun are ok (as long as I stay out of the woods during black powder season). The guy told me if I wanted to I could take the deer out with my 686, but I'm not sure I want to do that. As for his land, I'm not sure what it looks like. The general thought from co-workers is to drag the shotgun along "unless you're up in a tree stand." The last time I was in that area it seemed to be very thick with trees, but I would assume at least some of his land is open field (and I understand over developing has begun up there, so this may be that area's last deer season).
 
I used to take my 20 ga with as a brush gun for if we had to track down a deer. Only used it once during a rifle season so it probably would have been ok if it was left home. However, if you have a rifled barrel for your benelli, don't knock it as a good deer killer at range. If you have a good load and a good sabot you can take them at around 150 yards easily. My last deer kill was with my mossberg 500 with rifled barrel, winchester supreme platinum tips, and a 1.5-5x shotgun scope. It was a heart shot at 120-130 yds. Deer ran about 30 yards into the woods. Actually it probably ran 10 and slid the rest at the rate it was running.
 
Sounds like either the rifle or shotgun will do, if you learn your own limitations with either. Generally, I'm strictly a rifle guy when it comes to deer, so I've no experience with slugs from shotguns.

If your rifle is sighted in for around a couple of inches high at 100 yards, you're good to go for out to 250 yards or so. You don't have to worry about anything inside 100 yards; just point it and pull. :)

Practice until you can reliably hit the end of a soda can out to around a hundred yards, reliably, from hasty-rest field positions. Once you're sighted in, shooting from a benchrest teaches nothing.

Shoot for a point on a deer, not just "somewhere in the brown". Right behind the foreleg, around six inches above the belly line, generally ruins the heart and messes up the lowerlungs. Neck shots have always worked well for me, and if Bambi is looking at me, that white spot on the neck is a wonderful aiming point.

Art
 
I'd probably choose the rifle. But I would want to take a walk around the land a bit to get famaliar with things, woods, fields, brush, water, swamp, flat, mountains, hills, private or public land, small acreage or large acreage. Little things like that are important. I'd go with your friend out there some saturday, take your revolver along and do some shooting, and learn about the property. You really don't want to have your friend say.... go to that tree and stand there or you sit in that tree stand and keep quiet.... good to know a little about things first even though you might in fact do go to a certain tree, or stand and wait for Bambi to come along. You need to understand why you are going to wait at a particular location.

Do some checking on how to field dress a deer. There are usually diagrams at the state hunting agency web site or go to another one. Deer are all the same.

Decide what you are going to do with the deer if you are successful. Freezer? Take it to a butcher? Do it yourself, etc.

Once you know where the land is, you can get some topographic maps of the area and really begin to understand the lay of the land.
 
I have two weapons to choose from: my Swiss K31 or my camo finish Benelli Super Nova.
Click to expand...

Is another choice available? :D
If you can't afford to buy used, I would see if you can borrow a scoped hunting rifle from one of your friends; just about any good caliber will do. The K31 has a good reputation for accuracy, but I don't know whether you could (or would want to) mount a scope on it. The scope makes a big difference, especially the first couple of times that you hunt.
Just another idea.

Edited to add: I'm sure the slug will do the job drop-dead, but I'd prefer the recoil from a centerfire soft-point.
 
If you can't afford to buy used, I would see if you can borrow a scoped hunting rifle from one of your friends; just about any good caliber will do.
Click to expand...

Well yeah, that's even better advice from that given by me above. :)
 
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