New to Me - M37 Deerslayer

[centershot]

FIFTY grains of Blue Dot!!! I don't even want to think about that!! You're a better man than me, curiousshooter!

[curioushooter]

That's what the Lee slug instructions say. And I was dumb and young. Believe me a 1oz slug rolling along at 1800 fps from that eruption of blue dot was no joke. It had a hard plastic buttplate. One of those slip on deals was immediately purchased. When I moved from Ohio to Indiana that deerslayer was promptly replaced by a 44 marlin. Now Ohio alllows straightwalls, ushering in a sort of renaissance. But boy, it hits the deer hard. Leaves a 1 inch hole of destruction and snacks them like an anchor was dropped on them.

I burned more blue dot in those years in a few shots than a decade of shooting it in 357/9mm.

I have a couple hundred shells still loaded up that I kept in case I wanted to hunt in Ohio again. I will probably never use them. I gave 20 to my brother in law to use. He returned 18 to me. He only could take 2 of them!

[Mr_Sheesh]

It wasn't the hard plastic buttplate that bugged me, it was the raised letters "Ithacagun" imprinted in my shoulder, personally.

Ithaca seems to be making these again, may make a thread asking about that. I know I liked the M37.

[megasupermagnum]

That's what the Lee slug instructions say. And I was dumb and young. Believe me a 1oz slug rolling along at 1800 fps from that eruption of blue dot was no joke. It had a hard plastic buttplate. One of those slip on deals was immediately purchased. When I moved from Ohio to Indiana that deerslayer was promptly replaced by a 44 marlin. Now Ohio alllows straightwalls, ushering in a sort of renaissance. But boy, it hits the deer hard. Leaves a 1 inch hole of destruction and snacks them like an anchor was dropped on them.

I burned more blue dot in those years in a few shots than a decade of shooting it in 357/9mm.

I have a couple hundred shells still loaded up that I kept in case I wanted to hunt in Ohio again. I will probably never use them. I gave 20 to my brother in law to use. He returned 18 to me. He only could take 2 of them!

They sure are impressive. I know so many think of shotguns as just bird guns, but in my experience they are devastating on big game. There is not an animal that walks this continent that I would hesitate to hunt with a shotgun. When you have a 73 caliber bullet that leaves a 1"+ gaping wound from end to end, it is hard to argue. Sectional density isn't everything, and a slug that doesn't flatten out can penetrate like crazy.

[centershot]

MSM, your point is well taken! Two years ago I started hunting big game with a shotgun again after a hiatus of ten or so years using rifles. A lead round ball moving out at 12-1300 fps isn't a long range proposition but, within 100 yards or so, nothing you shoot with it will live! If you work to make the load accurate, you've got all the penetration you will ever need. I think it was Randy Buchanan who said that the average guy with a shotgun in his hands really doesn't understand how much power he is holding on to! I started my "round ball journey" to find a load that didn't loosen my teeth and (hopefully) was more accurate than I could buy. I've still got my teeth, and my loads are at least as accurate as factory rounds though peobably not moreso. That's OK, the deer can't tell!