Took a little furlough from Daddying this morning, and hit the range.
I tried the KO Brennekes this year for deer, the one doe I shot went less than 75 yards and went down within sight. Internal damage was of the order expected from any 12 ga slug, and accuracy was excellent for me and these tired old eyes. I zeroed and group tested at 50 yards, a long shot where I hunt in the brush and swamps of Md's Eastern Shore.
Then, one poster here mentioned he had tried these at 100 yards and saw some keyholing. This indicates destabilizing, and might be indicative of longer range inaccuracy.
My 30-30 needed rezeroing, and I grabbed an 870 also. This was my HD 870, which was already dialed in for them at 50 yards, and was a chokeless 18"bbl, with peep and some mods.
My thought was that a smoothbore would show destabilizing better than my Deer 870, which has a rifled choke tube.
So, I shot the 94 until I had it printing 2" over POA at 50 yards, moved the frame back to 100 yards, and eased into the best shooting position I could with the 870.
Loading singly, I slow shot three rounds. This was from a rock solid bench rest, with good form and trigger control.
Then I walked down and got the target, and it was good news, bad news time.
Good news, the group was centered and 6-10 inches below POA. This load was 2" high at 50, so drop was probably about 9-10 " at 100. Group size was a measured 5", outside edge to outside edge, call it 4.25 CTC. Certainly acceptable by my standards.
Bad news, all three rounds showed signs of keyholing, entering the target at a slight angle. All three angles were different, of course.
And while a single 3 shot group is by no means an exhaustive study, some conclusions can be drawn.
1.while accuracy was acceptable at 100 yards, the possibility of further degradation means this is a 100 yard load for deer or whatever.This is no major drawback for my purposes, a long shot where I hunt is 50 yards. Everage distance of the deer I checked in was about 30 yards.
2.This was a worst case slug gun, with a barely legal bbl and a smooth bore. A rifled choke tube or a fully rifled bbl with a twist suitable for the load and a longer bbl to build up more velocity would add some distance to accurate shots.
3. Your results may differ. I highly recommend everyone trying out loads until they get what works for them. I like the KOs because, for the first time in a decade of having two slug guns, both "Like" the same slug. And the price is nice also.
Nest time I hit the range, possibly as soon as tomorrow, I'll take the Deer 870 and screw in the rifled tube, just to compare and report further on this...
Thanks.....
I tried the KO Brennekes this year for deer, the one doe I shot went less than 75 yards and went down within sight. Internal damage was of the order expected from any 12 ga slug, and accuracy was excellent for me and these tired old eyes. I zeroed and group tested at 50 yards, a long shot where I hunt in the brush and swamps of Md's Eastern Shore.
Then, one poster here mentioned he had tried these at 100 yards and saw some keyholing. This indicates destabilizing, and might be indicative of longer range inaccuracy.
My 30-30 needed rezeroing, and I grabbed an 870 also. This was my HD 870, which was already dialed in for them at 50 yards, and was a chokeless 18"bbl, with peep and some mods.
My thought was that a smoothbore would show destabilizing better than my Deer 870, which has a rifled choke tube.
So, I shot the 94 until I had it printing 2" over POA at 50 yards, moved the frame back to 100 yards, and eased into the best shooting position I could with the 870.
Loading singly, I slow shot three rounds. This was from a rock solid bench rest, with good form and trigger control.
Then I walked down and got the target, and it was good news, bad news time.
Good news, the group was centered and 6-10 inches below POA. This load was 2" high at 50, so drop was probably about 9-10 " at 100. Group size was a measured 5", outside edge to outside edge, call it 4.25 CTC. Certainly acceptable by my standards.
Bad news, all three rounds showed signs of keyholing, entering the target at a slight angle. All three angles were different, of course.
And while a single 3 shot group is by no means an exhaustive study, some conclusions can be drawn.
1.while accuracy was acceptable at 100 yards, the possibility of further degradation means this is a 100 yard load for deer or whatever.This is no major drawback for my purposes, a long shot where I hunt is 50 yards. Everage distance of the deer I checked in was about 30 yards.
2.This was a worst case slug gun, with a barely legal bbl and a smooth bore. A rifled choke tube or a fully rifled bbl with a twist suitable for the load and a longer bbl to build up more velocity would add some distance to accurate shots.
3. Your results may differ. I highly recommend everyone trying out loads until they get what works for them. I like the KOs because, for the first time in a decade of having two slug guns, both "Like" the same slug. And the price is nice also.
Nest time I hit the range, possibly as soon as tomorrow, I'll take the Deer 870 and screw in the rifled tube, just to compare and report further on this...
Thanks.....