Missed Deer Today

P76- The old standard 1 oz. shotgun slug was (is) shaped like a .22 solid lead but I don't think is as long proportional wise as a .22 solid nose is to itself because of the weight but I'm not sure as I've never taken one apart. The exposed lead of the round catches the rifling in a "slug" barrel just as a .22 solid nose but because its isn't moving that much faster than a .22 and so much more weight, it drops fairly quickly. In the new sabot rounds, the plastic housing catches the rifling and then falls away as soon as the unit leaves the barrel. The newer rounds have better ballistic coefficients.

I'm sure many Minnesotans and Iowans (and I think Illinois at least too) would prefer to use rifles on deer but the "better be safe than sorry" state agency culture about higher density farmland areas in the past wanted a round that wouldn't go 300 yards even if a guy arced it high compared to a 30-40 degree arced rifle bullet that could still kill someone at half a mile or more. When the Midwest Corn Belt farmland whittled down to a lot fewer farms and occupied dwellings, the state regs never caught up with the new geography and guys still have to use slugs. But like I said, my friend and his family/friends group that hunts in fairly open landscapes do alright hunting deer with shotguns. Then again, they know the area like the back of their hands and in sw MN there isn't a lot of cover for deer to hang out in after the crops come out. If they kick a buck out of this patch of cover most likely its going to head to a,b, or c. But its still hunting and not getting.

Scrappah- Thanks for the stories. How far off of the mainland is your island and how do the deer get out to the island?? And, we call the young ones "fawns" around here . I prefer not to shoot a yearling but sometimes its Hobson's choice deer hunting, some venison is better than none...