Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: SunTracker on December 27, 2003, 09:15:53 PM
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How do rifled bullets (hunting calibers) compare to regular and saboted shotgun slugs? I know very little of slugs, only that they are usually bigger than bullets. Which is better at killing deer?
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Slugs are considered a short range load due to accuracy and because they slow down and lose energy pretty fast. Most folks think of it as about 100 yards max, but some sabots slugs maybe a bit more.
Rifles are accurate and hold their energy much farther than that. You can get arguments on just how far, but I hunt with guys that routinely kill deer at 300+.
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Many states will not allow rifles to be used on deer at all, while shotgun slugs are permitted. Most of the time I believe this is because of the very limited range of a shotgun slug. Aimed level, your slug is going to hit the ground within about 500 yards. A level rifle shot could go three times that far. If both are legal and your know what your doing, a rifle would be your best choice.
But from what I've seen of the "Once-a-year-only-on-the-first-day-of-gun-season" hunters around here.... A pop-gun with a cork on a string is a weapon with too much range.
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It also depends on the terrain you hunt in. If I'm hunting around fields, from a tree stand with a long view, or power lines, I use a rifle.
When I hunt in dense brush or undergrowth, I use a shotgun with a slug, then one or 2 buckshot, then another slug.
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if you hunt flatlands use a shotgun, otherwise a rifle is the way to go. the main advantage to a shotgun is that the bullet isn't going to travel forever if you miss, other than that a rifle has a shotgun beat on just about every level.
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Originally posted by storch
There was a 440m race between:
1. Santa Clause
2. The Easter Bunny
3. The rifled bullet, fired from a gun
4. Superman
5. The smart Frenchman
6. The dumb Frenchman
who won the race?
:)
Thats easy.
The bullet won because Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, Superman, and the smart Frenchman are figments of your imagination - and the dumb Frenchman is obviously slower than a speeding bullet - too much cheese.
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Rifle would be first choice over any shotgun.
However...in my state you must use a shotgun or you can also use a pistol larger than 32 caliber that is center fire. I use a 44 caliber Ruger Redhawk and it is more practical than that stupid shotgun. Great power, range, easy to carry. If you're state has similar law, you could go that route.
Makes for a better story too when you tell them you shot your deer with a pistol.
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the dumb frenchman won, none of the others exist. (bullets aren't rifled, barrles are.)
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Well if you gave me a choice I'd take the rifle bullet over the shotgun but that just me.
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howdy there, i may have a angle on this. im from rifle country Texas. rifles are a mans best friend. ( lots of egg nog at this point.)
the only condition i have ever seen where slug guns ( or rifled slugs as some are just slugs basicly a smothbore musket) were preferable to riflels are in places with hardwood forest and cooooooold temps lots of folks were killed by inadvertant ricochets off frozen trees. i lived in ny for a while and there was a ban against the use of hi powered rifles in alot of countys . so the use of slug guns was common. they droped about 12 inches at 100 yards so were usable in forsested areas. at 200 yards they droped like 50 inches so yea they have a use but it aint a rifle.
them sporterized ak47s (saiga) in 12 gage may be an acception.
whole can of whopass in a 20 rd magazine.