What would you do?

[Eterry]

Here is the scenario, you're in the woods, it's deer season, but today your hunting squirrels and such. You have a stout but not max load of shot in your 20 bore smoothy. You have an Any sex deer tag in your pocket. Your sitting on a stump and see a nice sized deer slowly making its way toward you on a trail. If nothing changes he'll pass about 25 yards away. The brush has you covered... do you try to run down a round ball on top of your charge of shot and go for the deer, or just sit back and enjoy nature? Explain why you'd do either, please.
Eterry

 

[Artificer]

If there is ANY doubt in my mind I could not make a clean kill with the load in my gun, I would stand up and shout "BOO!!" at the deer and wave my hands.

Gus

 

[BrownBear]

Best thing to do is pattern your gun at 25 yards, then closer until you know how close you have to be to get most of the pattern on a deer head.

Using modern guns I've whacked and killed deer twice with "bird" shot- once a 1 1/4 oz load of #6's at about 20 yards and the next with 1 1/2 oz of #4's at about 25 yards. Only times I've tried it and both kills were instantaneous. But with modern loads and chokes, velocities were higher and the pattern lots tighter than a muzzleloader.

My experience with shot loads in my ML's tells me that if I was faced with your situation, I'd need to stalk to 15 yards, but I'd be completely confident in the results with a head shot.

 

[Robert Egler]

For me the answer is easy! :grin: Watch the deer as it passes. I hunt squirrels. Only squirrels.

Squirrels.

I'll take some other small game as targets of opportunity, but its squirrels I'm hunting.

I haven't hunted deer in more than 30 years.

I have a nice video I took this year of a couple deer that came within 20 or 30 yards of me eating, they were there for half an hour. But they weren't squirrels, so they were safe.

 

[stantdm]

If he was far enough away I would pull the shot overcard and dump it out. Put a prb down and wait for him.

If not, if he comes close enough, say 60', then he gets the 1 1/2 oz. of shot.

 

[hanshi]

I'd let it walk.

 

[Katahdin]

Let it walk. I even let some deer walk when I am loaded for them ,,just cause I can "Catch and Release" deer style.

 

[spudnut]

taint legal to use birdshot on deer in michigan, maybe drop un undersized ball with wad onto he shot(I shoot a bess so maybe drop a 69 cal ball down the tube) have to go to he range and est her out

 

[Captjoel]

Now if my freezer was empty and the family hadn't eaten in 3 days, the check wasn't in the mail, and little jimmy needed new shoes, I would certainly take the head shot at the closest possible range. Circumstances can be a real b****! Bear, yea, I said bear.

 

[kurts]

why would you even think about trying to shoot a deer with a half ass load, not sportsman like at all. The possibility of wounding an animal like that would be totally uncalled for, in my opinion.

 

[Eterry]

Thanks all for the replies, but what I really want to know if any of you have ever run a ball down on top of a charge of shot, kinda like buck and ball in reverse. Let's say the deer was gonna pass out of your shot charge range, would you run down a ball on top ? I'm not condoning anything that isn't legal, I'm asking if it's a good idea to run a ball down on top of shot.
My dad lived in Alabama as a kid, he tells of killing two deer with a 16ga "cannon breach" single shot using No.4 birdshot, both at spitting distance.
Eterry

 

[Wes/Tex]

In a word "yes", I have done it while patterning shot loads. Ball doesn't always go where you think it will though. Usually low. Unless you've experimented with the possible scenario changes, better let Bambi go one by...too much possibility of a poorly placed or wounding shot.

 

[Eric Krewson]

I was duck hunting flooded timber and had a really nice buck walk the edge of the water at about 20 yards. He never looked toward the water, only the dry land side.

It was illegal in Bama to shoot a buck with bird shot, I was duck hunting not deer hunting, shooting him never crossed my mind.

I would rather eat tag soup (Alabama doesn't have a tagging system) than do something unethical in the woods. There are enough opportunistic hunting slobs in the woods already and I choose not to join their ranks.

Now, back to your question, If you know where your gun will shoot and a bunch of shot holes in the deer along with a RB hole isn't against the law, go for it.

 

[ncmtmike]

I totally agree with others,if not loaded for deer,it walks :wink:

 

[nit wit]

!/2 ass load? stout load with a ball,at 25 yards. I killed a bear last fall with 50 grains of powder in my .45 flintlock! Baaaaah!
Nit Wit

 

[Leatherbark]

Count "coup" on that deer. Someday you will sit around the campfire and talk about it. You will talk about how you could have taken it but you let it walk.

Bob

 

[gmannx217]

Let him walk every day all day.

 

[Eterry]

Well, it seems I kicked a hornet's nest here...the whole scenario is hypothetical, what got this started was a friend and I were talking about squirrel hunting, which is always best in the fall when deer season in on.

Actually, I have seen deer more than once while hunting bushytails, and always just enjoyed the show.

I was telling my friend I hope to hunt squirrels with a fowler, and he commented that it would be my luck to see the best buck ever while doing so. Which lead to us talking and discussing could you safely just run a ball down on top of the shot. My argument was its about the same as "buck and ball", only reversed, and the gun would stand the pressure. My friend, who has shot a black powder gun maybe 20x's, said it would either blow up, or wouldn't hit anything.

So, I decided to see if anyone had ever tried shooting a ball on top of a shot charge.
:stir:

Eterry

 

[azmntman]

Next time yer at the range give it a try? I would not shoot a deer with shot unless like 8-10 yards and I had minimum # 2 loaded, so likely not while hunting tree rats. Not legal here but with the roundball it might be.

Why? Cuz I have yet to wound but one deer, it was shot at 40yds with a 6mm and left about 4 gallons of blood and ran 1/2 mile and no more blood and no deer. I KNOW nobody else was in the woods with me so no idea what happened. Sick feeling though. And cold too, lanterns till 4AM with 30 mph wind and spitting snow.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

As suggested, I would pull the shot, load a patched round ball or a bare ball with some wadding on top.

It is the historic thing to do. :wink:

If I could not do that I would pass.