Shotgun people

[RASelkirk]

I grew up in central NY state (many years ago!) and even back then, rifles were outlawed in Schoharie county. The preferred method to hunt deer was slugs.

Russ

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[Aragorn243]

I have a slug barrel for the 835 but never used it. There are a few areas in PA that are slugs only but fortunately not where I hunt.

[Aragorn243]

Reminded me of one of my pheasant hunts years ago. Ringneck pheasants imported years ago and introduced to the state from China, one of the few decent imports from there. Game commission has a breeding program and stocks them before the hunting season. Used to be males only because they wanted the population to survive and expand but I rarely saw females anyway.

My uncle and I are walking though a swamp which is mostly tufts of grass that formed tiny islands you could walk across without sinking into the muck. We were basically crossing from one cornfield to another and weren't really expecting anything but I kick out a big male and I let him get a decent distance away fire and he crumples and crashes into the swamp. Next thing I know my uncle is yelling he's on the run so I take off after him heading for where I saw him last. I stop standing on one of those tufts of grass. I look around, nothing. I look at my uncle and he shrugs. No idea where it went. I'm looking all around and about ready to move and something made me look at my feet. I was standing on the bird, It was inside this tuft of grass, not moving but very much alive. I tell my uncle and he's like "what are you going to do?" I told him to be ready in case it took off but I was able to reach down and break it's neck. I was probably 17, crazy times. I don't even remember why I was hunting alone with him that time. My dad and another buddy of mine were usually hunting pheasants together.

Scariest experience I ever had hunting was when this same uncle brought his son one year. First time he ever brought him, and the last. He was the same age as me. The four of us were walking along a farm road in a small group just talking and an entire covey of quail took off in all directions around us. My idiot cousin just whips up his shotgun and starts blasting away at them in all directions. I just hit the deck, don't remember what my uncle or Dad did but I'm thinking the same until my uncle had the shotgun out of his son's hands. I don't remember anyone saying much but they left immediately, and it was the last time he ever went hunting, with us anyway and I hunted with this uncle quite a bit over the years.

[baltimoreed]

I guess I fall in the category of a shotgun owner shooter who has a bunch of them but doesn’t shoot them very much. Last count I’ve got 15 I think... 3xModel 12s, 5xMarlin pumps, 2xStevens pumps, 2x1897s and a 3xdoubles. Five of them are military style riot or trench repros. I shoot one a month at my cowboy shoots. Maybe a box of shells. Haven’t hunted with one in 40 plus years. My most used is a M24 Marlin but my sexiest is a M12 trench.

[CINDERS]

We were out spotlighting mainly for foxes anyway was a pretty lean night with no foxes but a wrascally wabbit came out from the crop and froze not 30 meters from the ute.
I was on the back with my SKB semi-auto with 2 x BB 3 x SG with a full choke brl so I guess boredom overtook me I tapped on the roof and we stopped at which point I fired the first round and he was beautifully centered in the pattern dust as we were on a fire break and he disappeared in that envelope.

Dust cleared, rabbit still there ? so I fired the other BB and the 3 SG rounds and each time he was enveloped by the pattern and each time he appeared in the same spot untouched ##@**? this so I left the ute walked up to the rabbit who had a solitary BB pellet hole in his left ear, he was that frightened I just picked him up and rabbit chopped him. Could have saved some $'s doing that in the first place.

Another tale ~ friend and I were shooting on his property he had a browning 5 shotter me with the SKB 5 shotter we spied a mountain duck decided to let him have it so we both opened up on him both of us full chokes with 4 shot.
So we fired our 10 rounds with each shot the bird just kept getting lower and lower until like a big B-29 wings spread he hit the paddock, it was so funny with each shot he'd drop a couple of feet but he still kept gliding in, as for cooking we put a rock in with him when that was done we threw the bird away and ate the rock. Tougher than army boot leather the mountain ducks are.

[Aragorn243]

Different uncle. I had a 12 gauge I didn't really like but at the time it was the only one I had. We went pheasant hunting near where the swamp incident happened but a few hundred yards in the fields on the hills above. We just got out of the truck and were walking along this farm, field lane and I spotted a pair of pheasants about a hundred yards up the hill from us, walking slowly away from us on the road. There was a little hump there and I told my uncle that when the birds disappeared below the hump we should rush them by keeping low and running up the hill. He just looked at me. They went into the dip, out of sight of us and I said let's go and took off running as low as I could get. I got to the top of the hump, stopped, stood up, saw them about 40 yards ahead of me and shot. I watched the one I was aiming at collapse and the second run into the fence row. I turned around and he's just slowly walking up the hill. I told him to go kick out the fence row and get the other one and I headed to the bird that was laying in plain sight. He gets to the same spot I was only down in the fence row and starts swearing at me. I'm like what did I do, and he says you killed both of them with one shot, the second is lying down here. I still didn't like the shotgun and got rid of it a few years later. Only time I ever hit two with one shot.

[Doco overboard]

We shoot some ducks and geese, deer and turkeys with Sg's.
My favorite, is a cut down A5 that I use for jump shooting sika deer when I walk for them.
One of the lad's, is fond of his A5 and totes a BPS every now and again.

I prefer a M500 for the marshland/piney woods and will carry an old 97, and two M12's in 12 and 16 gauge for
small game and turkeys from time to time.
I bet I no longer shoot 1200 rounds a year with all of them combined anymore.

Askin's book has a good presentation on effectiveness for winged game at least for shooting lead.
I recall one chapter, that may have been titled "the 80 yard goose gun?"
He lays it out pretty well for what they will and will not do, for the most part.
Every hunter should read it I think as far as sg's go.