Shotgun opener, big 8!

[LeadHead72]

No, I didn't cast it myself, but isn't a sabot slug technically a "cast boolit"?
Friday morning was in the low 20's, 10-15mph wind and horizontal snow. My wife and I heard hardly any other shooting all day and saw only three deer total. As our good fortune would have it, this is the one deer that gave me a decent shot opportunity.
With a 22 1/2" inside spread and a gross score of 153" this is truly the best 8-point I've ever taken (if you don't count the barely-legal "sticker" on his left G2).

[Tripplebeards]

Sweet!

[jonp]

Wow, that is nice. Weight?

[BLAHUT]

Nice. What part of the country ?

[slim1836]

Very nice, congrats.

Slim

[LeadHead72]

Thanks, guys. Illinois buck, probably went 225-240 lbs.

[Bazoo]

Congratulations. Thanks for sharing.

[stubshaft]

Nice buck!

[marshall623]

That's a good one

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

[Milky Duck]

hope all that venison tastes good.....

[versa-06]

Looks like large branch's, Congrats!!!

[MrWolf]

You grow em big out there. Congrats.

[CLAYPOOL]

Deer numbers for older deer seem way down from 2 - 3 years ago.. Several real young deer thought..

[Pereira]

Nice. Congrats.

RP

[ChristopherO]

That's a fantastic buck. Glad you and the Mrs toughed it out and were rewarded with a dandy for your efforts.

Those lead sabot rounds are actually swagged, but there is a swagged boolit forum on this board so those qualify perfectly! I've taken quite a few deer with Lightfield lead sabots before Ohio opened to Straight Wall cartridges, which I now cast for. The big lead slugs in the rifled 12 ga work quite well. Glad for your success and thank you for sharing.

[LeadHead72]

That's a fantastic buck. Glad you and the Mrs toughed it out and were rewarded with a dandy for your efforts.

Those lead sabot rounds are actually swagged, but there is a swagged boolit forum on this board so those qualify perfectly! I've taken quite a few deer with Lightfield lead sabots before Ohio opened to Straight Wall cartridges, which I now cast for. The big lead slugs in the rifled 12 ga work quite well. Glad for your success and thank you for sharing.

While it's very gratifying to have tagged that animal, I'm still a bit disgusted with myself because I had worked up a new load for my Rehawk .41 Mag with Sierra hollowpoints and was wanting to see if it would do better on deer (blood trail wise) than my previous load using SWC's. We had the shotgun along mainly for my wife to use (she's a new hunter), and when she sort of panicked and couldn't find the buck in the scope she told me to shoot. In the heat of the moment I grabbed the 870 and took care of business, but at 60 yards it would have been the perfect opportunity for the Redhawk. While it feels like I really let myself down in this regard, I certainly can't complain too much because the buck is now wearing a harvest tag and who knows; maybe it would have been a miss with the .41.

[megasupermagnum]

What slug was it? Any pictures of the entry, exit, and organs?

[LeadHead72]

What slug was it? Any pictures of the entry, exit, and organs?

I was using the Federal Power-Shok sabot which has been discontinued within the last 2-3 years. Pretty sure they discontinued them because they were only about $8/box of 5 and there is more money to be made with the $15-20/box slugs. I'm pretty ticked about them doing so.
No pics of the carnage, but it certainly tore things up inside. We gave the deer to a friend who needed the meat more than we did since we had already butchered my good-sized archery buck from the previous week.

[lar45]

Great buck!

[megasupermagnum]

I was using the Federal Power-Shok sabot which has been discontinued within the last 2-3 years. Pretty sure they discontinued them because they were only about $8/box of 5 and there is more money to be made with the $15-20/box slugs. I'm pretty ticked about them doing so.
No pics of the carnage, but it certainly tore things up inside. We gave the deer to a friend who needed the meat more than we did since we had already butchered my good-sized archery buck from the previous week.

Are you sure they are discontinued? Those are my my #1 recommended sabot slugs. Not only do they cost less, they are consistently the most accurate sabot slugs that I have found. Some guns shoot the Remington Accutips really well, and the Winchester BRI is always good if you can find it, but the power shok sabot was available most places, and I've never found a gun that didn't shoot them good. I don't shoot them much since I cast my own slugs, but they have always performed well for my family. Expansion seems good, they don't blow massive holes through deer, but they don't destroy meat either. Only ever recovered 1 from a 20 gauge, and that one was expanded well, penetrated a long ways.

P.S. The power shok sabot slug is still listed on the Federal website. I did have a family member who was not able to find them last year, so I loaded him an equivalent using the same sabot sold as pull-down from BPI, and used a Lee 501-440rf pure lead bullet. He did not shoot a deer with them, but they shot pretty dang good on paper. BPI now sells both the sabot and powershot slug as pull-down for pretty cheap.