Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Question for the slug gunners??

What kind of range are you comfortable with for deer, and what is your setup?

Close to 10 years ago I got interested in the ammo plant quota hunt in VA and started applying. The big day is finally here for my buck hunt, which is Wednesday.

The hunt is shotgun slug only, and I had never shot a slug gun before, so when I started applying years ago, I looked into it and bought a model 870 16 gauge slug gun tricked out by Tarhunt. I did the doe hunt 5 years ago and sighted it in at that time.

I shot a few boxes today to refamiliarize myself with it before the hunt. No adjustments needed, but my max effective range is about 110 yards. I'm just not consistent beyond that. I use a regular plex reticle and shooting stick. At 130 yards I might hit the bull, or I might hit 8 inches low. By 175 yards it drops so much it's off paper so I would need a more complex reticle to account for the drop.

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I grew up in a shotgun state and used an Ithaca Model 37 Deerslayer 12 ga
We sighted in at 100 yards and I always thought of it as a 125 yard gun.

How in the heck did you end up with that unicorn, a 16ga Tarhunt 870? What slugs are you shooting? I bought a 20ga BPS 20ga deer that I would trust at 150 today and even further if I practiced some with it.

I was picked for that hunt in Dec. doe only at first. I’m just taking a smooth bore. I don’t have a slug gun and none of my friends do either. Let us know how it goes

When I was searching for slug guns I came across Tarhunt and gave them a call. They had the 16 gauge that they had previously done their conversion on for resale. I went ahead and had them nickel plate and bought it. I am shooting the Lightfield sabot slug. That is part of the problem, as it was discontinued not long after I bought the gun, and I didn't hear about it until too late to get any. I bought a couple hundred rounds initially. I burned through a lot when I put the scope on and sighted in, trying to get comfortable out to 200 yd....which I did not acheive. Yesterday I shot 11 rounds establishing my comfortable range. I feel like I could get consistent at further range if I had more ammunition. Now I have about 65 rounds left and will have to find a different round. It seems all 16 gauge slugs available are rifled. Not sure how a rifled slug will do through a rifled barrel?

If I had it to do over again, I would have bought a blot action designated slug gun, I am much more comfortable taking long shots with a bolt action. However, using it every five years isn't something I'm going to invest too much in at this point.




I wouldn't worry too much about it on the doe hunt. A lot of guys hold off on shooting does anyway so they can see what bucks come out the rest of the day. When I was there for my doe hunt I saw a fair number of good deer but everything was over 100 yards. There have been some monsters taken there over the years.

If that’s the best it’ll do, assuming the barrel isn’t gunked up with plastic, I suspect you’ll have to hunt accordingly or maybe try these:

https://www.sportsmans.com/shooting-gear-gun-supplies/ammunition-ammo-for-hunting-shooting-sports/shotgun-ammo-hunting-shooting-sports/brenneke-16-gauge-2-12in-1oz-437gr-slug-shotshells-5-rounds/p/1814952?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Bing%20-%20DSA%20-%20Product%20Pages&utm_term=%2Fp%2F&utm_content=DSA%20-%20Product%20Pages

Ammoseek listed some.

I wouldn’t expect any miracles though. Slugs are what they are.

Savage 220 with 2-7 Leupold shooting 3" Remington Accutip slugs. I sight in about 1 1/2" high at 100 yards that puts me dead on at 125 and a couple inches low at 150. It's very rare to get a shot longer than 75 yards around here. Best shooting slug gun I've owned.

Quite a while ago when I was growing up in OH (pre straight wall days) I set up a cantilever rifled barrel on a 20 ga 870 with a little 2-7 Nikon scope. It liked 2 3/4 Hornady SST's the best, about 3-4" at 100 was the best I ever did with it which was plenty good enough at the time, way better than rifled slugs out of the smoothbore barrel. SST's did fine for me on whitetail although I avoided shoulder shots. Started doing more archery hunts and flintlock before I moved to Idaho and never looked back. I still have the gun and barrel and have offered it up as a loaner for some youth short range whitetail hunts here. I wish they would have legalized straight wall rifles before I left, I would have owned a .45-70 in about 5 minutes of that law passing.

Good luck!

I applied a few times years back, never selected.

I can almost see parts of RAAP as I sit here in my office.

That's amazing you ended up with a Tarhunt 16ga. There can't be very many of those ever made. I think you are using a 110 yard maximum this year and maybe look at different slugs for next year but your selection is always going to be pretty limited.

Lite-Field was the only ammo maker offering sabot shells for the 16 and like you said they are gone. I have a small stash of 12 gauge Remington Copper-Solids that group around 3 inches at 100 yards. I’m more limited by terrain here in Connecticut so 100 yards is plenty. My longest was 80 yards with an Ithaca 12 gauge with Lite-Fields.

I believe the glory days for sabot shells are behind us now with all the straight wall states effectively replacing shotguns for deer. Connecticut and Massachusetts will never allow rifles of any kind (with a few exceptions). The weird thing in Massachusetts is you must use a rifle for bear and a shotgun for deer whether on state or public lands. Connecticut allows rifles on private, shotguns for state. I have rifle hunted some in Connecticut but have some really good spots on public land so it is what it it.

Maybe look into Ballistic Products, in MN, and load your own? Was a time that I cast, and loaded, my own saboted shotgun slugs. They were very accurate!

https://www.ballisticproducts.com/

You are on to something with that. A person could make their own slug ammo if they wanted to because you only need a few once you figure out what you need to make.

That’s a good suggestion. There was a site, Slugs R Us that sold sabots with lead inserts. You could buy them empty and put a 50 caliber bullet in them as well. The original owner sold it and the new owner hasn’t started production yet. Shotgunworld.com has a slug forum and the owner posts there.

I’m not sure how available the Remington premieres are right now , but if still available you could probably get enough out of that tar hunt to buy a Savage 220 and buy up a bunch of 3” Remington premieres
They are what shot the best in mine
Actually made for the particular gun
Mostly 1.5” groups at 100 yds
Sometimes less
They kill very well
Just a suggestion
Kenneth

Not too long ago I bought a bunch of boxes direct from Remington Ammo. Have a lifetime supply now, given that I only use the 220F on a very specific shotgun-only elk tag. 2-7x Leupold on mine. In my 220F, off of bags at sight-in, I had a 4 shot group all touching. Stopped while I was ahead. They (the combo of the 220 and the AccuTips) are great killers.

Kenneth mentioned the Savage 220. I have one - it's amazing with the Remington Accu-Tip 'deer whistle' ammo. Doesn't get much use now. I'll probably part with it and a bunch of ammo if you're interested. Be well

I have several H&R slug guns. 20’s and 12’s. All have shot the accu tips good. But the Remington Core Lokt ultras are incredible. Long discontinued which is a shame. One of my 20 gauge’s shot the core lokts 1 1/2” group at 200 yards. I’ve taken 18 whitetail between 200-286 yards with 20 and 12 ga combined. All of them set up with ballistic reticle scopes. Set up a few 220’s for guys. Great shooting guns as well.

The wife and I just done that hunt last week 11/15. She killed a nice 8pt. We both use Savage slug guns hers the 220, mine the 212. I had her shooting plastic 2 liters full of water every weekend in Sept/Oct to prepare for the hunt. We took a chair and a tripod with a hog saddle mounted on it and clamped a piece of 2x4 in it to try and mimic a shooting rail because all the stands there seem to have a rail of some type. She got to be pretty darn deadly out to 100yrds with the 220. I could consistently hit them out to 150 yards with my scope set on 7x using the bottom tip of the duplex. We both shoot 2 3/4 Remington Accutips.


Good luck!