When I was first stationed in Northern Va, I quickly got into a club that hunted deer with hounds. Shotgun only. Well, since I came from a northern state that used to have to use slug guns I happened to have a 11-87 with a slug barrel and a 1.5x5 Leupold on it. The hunt master was an old Marine as well and said give it a try but when you start missing deer you’ll need to start using buckshot like the rest. For 3 years I hit everything put past me, some was probably [bleep] as luck but some were solid shots I knew I was going to score with. After those 3 years he said “Scotty, would you mind using buckshot anyhow since the other members think you have an advantage with that scoped gun”.. I obliged cause by that time I had the money to get another gun but it wasn’t cause that old slug gun wasn’t effective. I spent a lot of time on the range during those years of work with carbines and handguns so shooting wasn’t a huge hurdle back then. It was a pile of fun though. Never thought I’d enjoy the dog driven deer hunts as much as I did and they have a cool history themselves as houndsman.
