When I said 240, I meant 243...The difference is largely accademic anyway. The Deer Act is the point. Am I the only one who underdtands it around here?
Anyway, DS, as it turns out, I have recently found evidence of bark stripping in the wood. Now my weapons fall outside the law for deer shooting, so am I right in thinking that my first course of action is to get the Police Firearm Liaison chap to look at the wood with me, re: safety, etc?...Then get a suitable calibre slotted onto my ticket?
I could do an article on the cull, ....How to skin a Deer.......
The first deer I shot we brought home and hung it from teh apple tree by its hind feet. I went to my local, then two doors down, to see if they had freezer space, and a chap came back with me who was a retired master butcher!...He skinned it in teh garden, and paunched it there too, then carried the carcass into teh kitchen for gralloching. I had offered him some choice cuts in return, but he didn't like Venison, so I gave him a pint of Strongbow!!
Hello Joker. I have some insight I'd like to share with you on the use of 12 bore rifled slugs for deer. Where I live the shotgun with rifled slugs was the only legal firearm for deer for many years. Tens of thousands of deer have been taken with this combination. I assure you a choked shotgun will not blow up if you use a slug and an improved cylinder choke is best. One step up from no choke at all. I would stay away from guns using removable choke tubes for slug shooting. The most common slug used here is one ounce and I have never seen or heard of one leaving a three foot wide exit wound. Nor should you expect mostly lead and bone if you take a deer in this manner. A deer is so thin skinned that the slug doesn't have much time to deform before it's in the air again on the other side of the deer. A slugs trajectiry is somewhat different than a rifle bullet. The slug is spinning like a bullet but it also travels in a spiral. Hold your arm out at face level with finger pointed then slightly rotate your whole arm. That is the flight of a slug but you have to shoot one very far before the spiral is large enough to compromise accuracy. Are they accurate? I have seen several deer dropped on impact out to 120-125 yards. As with anything else, shot placement is critical. Mossberg has a factory guarantee on their mod. 500 "I own one" to hit a beer can at 100 yards with a slug. If the gun won't hit the can they will take it back and make it hit it. And yes at 100 yards there is plenty of energy left to humanely kill the deer. Recoil is substantial with slug loads so practicing can get a little painful sometimes. But practice is a must. I say shoot the heaviest slug load you can find. In the days when I used a shotgun I used 3 inch 1 1/4 ounce loads. Never had a deer take even one single step when hit by this load. I have seen many rifle shot deer run off never to be seen again. So anyway I hope this helps you some and I apologize for any feathers I may ruffle in posting. Have a great day.