Our new place is thick with deer, too. Lost our veggie garden until we ringed it with a 7' fence. Would love to exercise my archery skills on them, but I think the neighbors would not like a dead deer (or gut pile) in their yards. Can't shoot well enough to just drop them.

That aside, we saw probably 10 different bucks over the spring/summer. Most, of course, were small. The biggest seem to be 3x3. Not huge, but nice. The bucks seem to be away by early summer-maybe they move into Priest Point. They'll be a little more obvious now.

The deer I shot was as big of a spike as I have ever seen, on the Island or anywhere else...big curved 12" spikes trying to split into a two point, but not quite making it, and perfectly symmetrical.

Pro Tip: Don't get shot in the face with 00 Buckshot from 30 paces. There are 9 .32 caliber BBs in a standard 2 3/4" 00 Buckshot round...four of them hit the deer. One went thru an ear (made attaching the transport tag easy ), one went thru the muzzle...of of the other two that hit the deer, one went directly into the temple where I was aiming, thru the brain, and out the other eye, brain killing the deer instantly. The other went directly and all the way thru the neck just behind and below the jawline and traveled thru the carotid artery.

In the ten seconds it took for me to scramble thru the jungle to the deer it was already brain dead and quivering and spurting blood 12 inches out of its neck.

I repeat...don't let that happen to you. It is pretty effective.

I shot last year's buck with a slug. You also don't want that to happen to you. That one was at 50 paces, and I shot it directly thru the neck in almost exactly the same place that the pellet went thru this year...with the exact same effect:

Neither deer took even one step, or suffered any pain whatsoever, nor did one bit of meat get a hole or bone fragment in it.

If any of you have not experienced the hand-to-hand combat of shotgun hunting in the tangled brush of western Washington I would highly recommend it...just don't expect to have much of a success rate. It's pretty brutal...no sitting on a clearcut glassing up a deer and shooting it from 275 yards away, it's more like grouse hunting, only for animals that can hear, smell, and see you when you are way too far away to get a shot.

I feel pretty fortunate to get two in a row, and make fun of Nick a bit for getting a little buck fever and blowing a chance this year because I did the same thing last year, only I was able to chamber up a fourth shell while on the run and miss with that one, too...thankfully an easier shot presented itself later on the same day and I was able to close the deal.

The deer I shot this year was my second run in with the forest ghost of the PNW this season...last week I hopped one that presented me with two running shots at over 50 yards, and ended up doing nothing but shooting up some brush and disturbing the peace.

On this hunt I'll take hitting every other one as a pretty decent success rate.

Fish on...

Todd

+1 pretty much. The only part that I would add is that the hunting is non-stop from the second you get out of the vehicle until the time you return. There is no down time or a moment were you can relax (which was my mistake). It's pretty fun, very hand-to-hand and nothing like the hunting I'm used to.

Late season finally here. It's been a long couple of bye weeks. I'm pumped to get back out in the field. I hope to redeem myself and fill the freezer. Tag soup is the worst kind of soups.

Side note: In Redmond today, I came across a young doe INSIDE of a Microsoft parking garage (a below ground garage). She was about 1/2 down to the first sub level. Thought she was a German Shepard for a moment and had to do a double take.

Looking forward to seeing you get one this week, buddy.

Fish on...

Todd

When one trips the trigger on a buck, there is a responsibility to ensure a humane harvest. Accordingly, I can't abide buckshot out of a scatter gun that is set up for waterfowl. Mainly because it is an inherent crap shoot with limited range and terminal effects. Sure, when the CNS is poked full of holes at close range as in Todd's case, the desired outcome is obvious. Conversely, if you were only 1/27 true on your pass shooting, consider that deer punched in the paunch don't leave an easily discerned blood trail and will put a hell of a lot of distance between where they were stung and where they expire. Downhill without fail and especially if pushed from the get-go.

That said, consider a retube to a slug barrel or going for a dedicated slug gun with a sight system that will steer said slug with reasonable precision. Your effective range will go from 30 yards or so to more than a football field or 2. Have a retired .mil pard that can handily snap shoot clay birds at 100+ paces with his Mossberg 590A1 mounted with a ghost ring aperture rear sight (doubles the sight radius of typical irons) and another that has taken a goodly number of fine bucks with his old 870 20-bore slug gun with a fixed 4X optic.

Best of luck over the next 4 days....

Part of his problem with the short range buck fever shots is that he has a special buckshot barrel on his gun, and was shooting buckshot...at the range he was shooting his spread was probably about four inches, so he was effectively shooting a slug, he just missed

It's a hard call to make in the areas we hunt; we both shot deer with slugs last year, mine at 50 yards and his at about 25. The 50 yard shot was in a spot that is just about the farthest reasonable shot we would be taking...it is a jungle for the most part, and seeing 50 yards is rather rare.

That being said...the deer I shot two weeks ago would have been dead with either, and I didn't shoot a deer that was too far away to shoot buckshot out of the long barreled full choke Winchester I was shooting. Conversely, I missed one the week before about 40-50 yards on a gallop that I probably would have hit had I been chambered up with the buckshot.

Either way, both work, but neither is perfect for every situation.

I decided that *most* of the shots come close, on moving animals, so went with buckshot. If I had to switch back to my other gun and use a slug, I wouldn't feel bad about it, it worked just fine last year.

Nick's miss had nothing to do with his gun, it is set up perfectly for what he was doing, and had the correct ammo in it...he just flat out missed.

Fish on...

Todd

Yeah - I just missed. As Todd mentioned, I have a special buckshot optimizing choke on the gun. It shoots 4" spreads at 50 yards. Those are normally roughly 24" spreads at that distance with an IC choke. 75 yards is a dinner plate and I won't shoot past that with the special choke. I don't shoot at animals with an untested weapon and this one has been tested on paper a lot. I really like the set-up and I'm comfortable inside 75 yards. But I almost wish I'd had an IC choke in it for that deer I did miss, because then I probably wouldn't have! There is no perfect solution here (I don't think), except for "don't miss!".

Regardless, it is good advice. Thanks Gents and we hope to have some good news to share in a few days.

I've shot a lot of shotgun shells in my life, but have never hunted big game with a scattergun (though I've always wanted to).

What brand of barrel/choke are you using if you don't mind me asking? 4" group at 50 yards is phenomenal.

I used to chat with Stan Baker at his shop in Lake City (or was it Kenmore) back in early 90's. He was quite instrumental early on in the development of choke tubes. I always did want to own one of his barrels, but at that time in my life, they were priced out of my reach.

Good luck! Off to cut up my kids Idaho whitetail.

Here you go Snit...

Carlson's Winchester Buckshot Choke (near the bottom of the page)

Shooting a Winny SXP 26" pump ($350) with 2.75 00 buck. I picked that gun because its a tough working tool and I won't feel bad about a scratch here or there when the going gets tough. It can handle getting soaked. It cycles really fast with the auto-blow back feature (3 shots in about 1 second out of a pump, similar to a Benelli Nova). It takes some getting used to, but once you figure out the cadence of the pump, it works like normal. The Carlson choke is extended and ported. It has special ribbing to pull the wad off early and prevent down range shot disruption. At 50 yds (zero), all 9 pellets are generally within the size of an orange (+/- 1"). Occasionally, you may get a single flier that turns the spread into the size of a cantaloupe. I can deal with that. It's pretty amazing and does a MUCH better job than I thought it would do.

So when I shot at the deer at 10 - 15 - 25 yards, it really was like shooting a single slug. I'm certain I shot high.

PS> My SXP also has internal recoil dampeners + a limbsaver slip on pad. With the ported choke, the recoil is like a .410 and almost non-existent. It's twice as loud as a standard non-ported gun. It definately goes BOOM!

I shot last year's deer...and missed at my first one this year...with a 28" barrel and an improved cylinder, shooting slugs ..I wouldn't shoot buckshot out of that gun as I wouldn't like the spread past about 25 yards...

Nick had a family heirloom gun that he asked me to shoot two weeks ago, so I did...and that's the one I shot the deer with.

Nick can correct me if I don't get this entirely correct... it's his late grandfather's early 50's Winchester 12 gauge pump, 30 inch barrel with a factory full choke.

As previously mentioned...you don't want to be shot with that gun and 00 buckshot at 30 yards ;-)

Fish on...

Todd

Great info, quite impressive!

Thanks for the reply.

Soooooo......

If your shots will be inside 45 yards then your 3" - 4" pattern is too tight.
Why even shoot buckshot if you aren't going to take advantage of the pattern?
Might as well shoot a slug with a bazillion times more knock down.
Of course both would only work when you aim the 3" impact zone to the right spot.

Hee Heee Hee.

Unfortunately that kind hearted approach has no place here on the .........Darkside.

I believe part of the reason for the shotgun approach is that a high powered rifle bullet can reach some dwellings on the island.

No shotgun slugs allowed?
Regardless I'm sure Todd and Nick have it figured out and I hope they are taking bites out of the deer,s heart right now.
Man is a hunter gather.

Slugs are OK, rifles are not.

Spent some time in the woods with a couple of deer today, but no shots presented themselves, so Nick is getting antsy...lunch is over, back at it.

Fish on...

Todd

Given that scalded bucks get out of the starting blocks fast, 10-25 yards goes by in a snap. Shooting accurately always trumps shooting fast.



Just like looking at the rack on a lovely lass at first meeting rather than her eyes, focusing on the same of a sprinting buck rather than the boiler room when you trip the trigger will oft yield the same outcome....



What was that famous quote from Dirty Harry about limitations? I care not how fast projectiles leave the muzzle. I do care about how they retain same at POI. 00 buck has the G1 ballistic coefficient of a beach ball. It sheds significant velocity and energy such that each pellet packs about the same oomph as a .22 RF at fifty paces. Ya, there's 9 of them packed tight out of your particular tube but as I said in my previous post, they have terrible terminal performance to reliably crush CPS/CNS systems compared to a slug at that distance and beyond.

Watched a doe snuggle with a handsome fork horn at first light. I didn't intrude. Hope you find his big brother....

Very strong in this one, the fever is.

I have found it to be true that the amount of respect one possesses for the game they pursue is directly proportional to their amount of self-respect.

Over a handful of decades, my brothers and sisters that inhabit remote and wild places have graciously taught me many valuable and humbling lessons. Just because one ventures into their realm with a modicum of fitness and the presumptions of superior hardware and superior intellect does not make desired outcomes a foregone conclusion. As witness to the ineptitude of some "sportsmen" in their ability to seal the deal under such delusions, coming upon a gut shot elk and having to take responsibility for a regal beast's suffering will frost anyone's pumpkin. It did mine. Especially after traveling across three states for a solo hunt with a prized any elk tag in hand.

Perspective is everything--The one who initiated this particular chain of events likely carried on with their vacation and life, I witnessed a tragic scene as a result but suffered only a minuscule amount compared to the price that elk ultimately paid. The gift of life is the most precious one. Whether given or received....

If anything I've proffered in this thread will preclude such an event from occurring in the reader's future, that's indeed a good thing for all parties. May The Force be with you.