Went to the range today with my Ithaca Deerslayer II, mainly to blow off some obsolete, first generation saboted slugs. Although firing at 50 yards, several of the slugs had keyholed, indicating they were sticking to the sabots, a major problem with first generation slugs.
It got me to thinking of how, when I first started deer hunting, we used Foster slugs in ordinary bird guns and taking a deer was equal parts luck and skill. Maybe more luck than skill. Today, the effective range of certain gun and slug combinations is approaching, or has reached 200 yards. This would have been pure fantasy fifty years ago. It also would have been pure fantasy to hit a playing card or soda can every time at 100 yards.
We sometimes badmouth manufacturers for some minor fault or other but we then take for granted major advances in ballistics, particularly with slugs. Today's slug shooter gives up little to the rifleman at typically encountered whitetail ranges.
My very first deer was taken with a borrowed 16 gauge Winchester Model 12 smoothbore at about 40 yards. I've since owned an Auto-5 with a smoothbore "slug" barrel that took my dealer a full year to get. I then went to a Mossberg smoothbore with rifle sights, then a Remington 1100 with a Hastings barrel, then changed that for my current Ithaca Deerslayer II which is an easy gun to carry and puts current generation slugs exactly where I want them to go.
What did you hunt with way back when? What do you use now?
It got me to thinking of how, when I first started deer hunting, we used Foster slugs in ordinary bird guns and taking a deer was equal parts luck and skill. Maybe more luck than skill. Today, the effective range of certain gun and slug combinations is approaching, or has reached 200 yards. This would have been pure fantasy fifty years ago. It also would have been pure fantasy to hit a playing card or soda can every time at 100 yards.
We sometimes badmouth manufacturers for some minor fault or other but we then take for granted major advances in ballistics, particularly with slugs. Today's slug shooter gives up little to the rifleman at typically encountered whitetail ranges.
My very first deer was taken with a borrowed 16 gauge Winchester Model 12 smoothbore at about 40 yards. I've since owned an Auto-5 with a smoothbore "slug" barrel that took my dealer a full year to get. I then went to a Mossberg smoothbore with rifle sights, then a Remington 1100 with a Hastings barrel, then changed that for my current Ithaca Deerslayer II which is an easy gun to carry and puts current generation slugs exactly where I want them to go.
What did you hunt with way back when? What do you use now?