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One can hunt game to about 150m-175m using scoped Tar-Hunt with ammo the barrel clusters well. Not a big problem as long as there are no substantial crosswinds.It's true that on the whole, rifles are more accurate than shotguns and are better long distance tools, but given the manner in which a lot of people talk, you'd think that a shotgun in the deer woods is only a slight upgrade from a pointy stick.
I even have a coffee table book on the subject of shotgun hunting for deer by a man who has decades of experience doing just that who devotes a good deal of the forward to lamenting the hopeless inferiority of the shotgun.
I don't get it. Even I (who isn't that great a shot by any stretch) used to be able to keep slugs in a deer vital zone sized target at 100 yards using a smooth bore with ghost ring sights. It's not going to win any prizes, but it would mean venison.
Rifles will kill game at longer distances, true, and I wouldn't want a shotgun on a pronghorn hunt in Wyoming, but a lot of the hunting territory in this country is so thickly forested that a 50 yard shot on game is unusually long. Even in thick woods territory people look down on the shotgun. What gives?
Back east I can for sure see the value of a shotgun for hunting, but outchere on the high lonesome, maybe not so much.....
Also, hunting for me has never been an activity I've taken to with a singular goal in mind. Even though it might be deer season, I'd rather end a day with a rabbit or few game birds rather than nothing at all. I like being able to swap out a slug for a load of birdshot and maybe bag some small game on the walk home after a long stretch of seeing absolutely nothing on the deer stand.
Some day, hopefully.Sounds like you need a Drilling - ask H&H Hunter about his
Most hunters are whatever the complete opposite of a "minimalist" would be.
This year for deer season, I'm going to the northern lower peninsula. I'm taking a variety of guns, one of which will be a 12 gauge shotgun. The other will be my Arisaka type 38 in 6.5 Jap, and I'll probably take the SKS as well. Depends on whether or not the wife call dibs on it. She normally uses the .30-30, but she likes that SKS.I'm not sure where shotguns with slugs are so looked down upon. I grew up in Michigan in a shotgun only area and shotguns and slugs were the only way people hunted for deer during the "rifle" season.
My first gun was a 12 ga Mossberg 500 combo with a 24 inch rifled slug barrel and a 28 inch vent rib barrel with interchangeable chokes. That gun took care of all of my hunting and shooting needs; deer, rabbits, squirrels, backyard clays. When I got married I added a 18.5 inch barrel and it took care of home defense as well. For a little over 20 years that was the only gun we owned.
(Then I inherited a little revolver and that kicked off a gun buying spree but that is a different story.)
For bowhunting antelope, a blind at a water hole works well. Or stalking behind a goat or cow shaped screen.How do people bow hunt in that type of country? Hunting with a shotgun would be the same except you would have 3x the range. Is a shotgun the best tool for the job? No. Could you get the job done? Yes.