Most of my white tail deer hunting is in Lower Michigan’s restricted zone, which means no bottleneck centerfire rifles. Several years ago I upgraded to a Savage bolt action shotgun with a fully rifled barrel. After trying most of the premium slugs, a hundred-dollar plus experiment in itself, I settled on ¾ oz. Federal Barnes expander slugs and have been really pleased with the setup compared to the old days with Foster type slugs or traditional muzzle loaders. Every deer (only about 6 so far) that I have hit with them has gone less than 50 yards and my longest kill has been 147 lasered yards. I don’t feel the long shot was a stunt (second longest was at 129 yds) but I would have passed if it was just a little further. The only miss that I have had was under 75 and a stupid goof on my part, thankfully it was a total miss. To tell the truth the extra 75 yards or so has made me rather content, as I don’t find it too challenging to get within this range. The properties I hunt have a lot of fields, getting under 75 yards was a lot more difficult and I ended up letting a lot of deer go.

Now friends, gun store clerks, other hunters and pretty much anyone interested in the topic tell me that I have fallen behind the times again and even longer ranged solutions are readily available. So I wonder what ideas and especially experiences are out there. How do the new muzzleloaders and their ammo components, newer slugs, contenders (not with rifle carts) super revolvers and Indiana’s pistol cartridges in rifles really do? Have we reached the “Holy Grail” of duplicating the 30-30 or maybe even beyond?

Thanks.

I hunt with the same slug gun here in Iowa, and like you, getting within range is not usually a big deal. I use the Hornady 300gr SST in the slug gun, and my muzzle loader, which ia a Remington 700 50cal. I have never really tried for a real long shot because where I hunt it isn't real practical. The Savage clover leafs three slugs at 75 yards, and the muzzy will do it at 100. That seems to be sufficient.
I was watching a doe at about 150yd day after thanksgiving, and was thinking about taking the shot, then I saw one to my left at about 80, I took the closer shot, bang, flop, game over.

I use a remington 11-87 with the rifled barrel and cantilever scope mount with a 3x9x40 scope. It shoots remington 1 3/8oz copper solids into 1.5 inch 100 yard groups. Sadly, the 1 3/8oz are now discontinued and only the 1 oz are in production.
As far as muzzleloaders -- I have a remington 700 in 54 caliber that shoots about the same size groups with 2 pellets and barnes sabots. I think I could get 150 yards out of the muzzleloader as far as a killing shot.
The problem however is, the shotgun kills deer immediately and they seldon travel far. The muzleloader allows them 100 yards or more movement before death. In some of the areas I hunt, that means beting the brush to find your deer.

This year I put a scope on my DW in 357 max but no deer under 200 yards. I gave up trying to get the 1100 w/cantilever scope to group. We have an extra weekend next week of gun season then we get 4 days of ML after christmas. I am also in the buckeye state.

Rad

My beanfield rifle is an 18" twist .45 muzzleloader with a 475 gr bullet over 100 gr of Swiss 1.5 fg. Good to 300 yds.

Brent

What Brent said is a good way to go, but I wouold opt for 195 grain Barnes saboted bullets.

I am still on the learning curve, but if smokeless is OK where you are, the Savage ML -10 muzzleloader, in which smokeless shines, is a good option, and I know of many folks who shoot it accurately out to 250, so 300 as Brent says would not be a stretch IMO.

Good luck on that 'next' rig!

I have a 50 cal Bullberry barrel on my Encore and it will routinely put 3 in 3" at 300 yds. It actually fits the marks in the Burris I have on it. Just range and shoot but be careful the bullet is dropping fast a 300 yds. Have to practice and know what you can do. God Bless, Louis

I too hunt in the Southern Mi shotgun zone. My old shotgun was a Rem 1100LH with a "pinned" barrel. It was accurate enough, but the ballistics of slugs makes anything over 125 yards too iffy for me. At 130 yards, a misjudgment of only 10 yards was the difference between a hit and a miss.
Last year I used a Savage 110 long action to build a 32 gauge rifled shotgun. I use custom brass cases to throw a saboted .458 Barnes X bullet (250 gr) at 2100 fps. Accuracy is 1.5 MOA. First deer was a measured 163 yards, and he fell where he stood.

I hunt in Eastern Ohio. I leave my shotgun at home these days. I have a savage muzzleloader that shoots smokeless powder. It's .50 cal. Shooting 250gr Barnes muzzleloader bullets with 45gr. Vitivori N110 I think. Muzzle velocity is 2220 or 2320 I forget now. Everyone always tells me about how most of your shots are close and you never see deer past 100 yards....yeah yeah yeah blah blah blah. I've been using the muzzleloader now for 3 years. 2 years ago I shot a doe at 206 and a buck at 164. Last year a buck at 45. This year a doe as 220 and a buck at around 100. Needless to say I don't pay much attention when people start telling me how I won't have long shots. I put a Burris fullfield 2 3-9x40. I site it in for 100 and shoot it at 200 to know where to aim. It shoots on at 100 and 8" low at 200. Take power belts and throw them away. They belong in the trash. I used the Thompson Center bullets in the past, but decided not to any more based on rapid expansion at 200 making me wonder what would happen at 20. I've switched to the Barnes because they are all copper, so hold together better. I had a complete pass through this year at 220 with the Barnes bullets.

I'm a rifle guy. I love a well balanced well built rifle. The savage muzzleloader is not any of this. I hate the accutrigger. I hate the rear position safety. I hate the crappy plastic stock. I hate that it is most excessively barrel heavy. But I love that it shoots smokeless powder. The gun stays in great shape without the corrosion of black powder. The guns shoot well and show good muzzle velocity. PM me if you wish for more info.

Brett

Savage 10 ML 70 grains H4198, CCI 209M primer, Barnes TMZ 250 gr bullet with supplied sabot. Chronographed at 2480 fps average muzzle velocity

Savage 10ML here as well, 60grs N120 with a 300gr SST or 275gr Parker BE. Beats any slug gun I've ever used at any range I can kill a deer.

Savage ML10II as well here. I use mine in the Iowa SG season. 200 yards is not a problem when pushing a 250grn SST at 2350-2400 fps. 150 yd zero and only drops around 6" at 200. It will shoot 1.5" at 100 with ease and gives sub moa groups from time to time. My best group has been 1.5" at 200.

Good Luck

Reloader

Keep extending range and you will be regulated out of those guns soon. Shotgun only areas were because of high population, houses, roads, etc. Limited range weapons!
Not a laughing matter, someday they will wake up. All it will take is an accident from a bullet going too far.
Trying to beat the system can backfire.

quote:

Originally posted by bfrshooter:
Keep extending range and you will be regulated out of those guns soon. Shotgun only areas were because of high population, houses, roads, etc. Limited range weapons!
Not a laughing matter, someday they will wake up. All it will take is an accident from a bullet going too far.
Trying to beat the system can backfire.

You can keep tellin' them this , but they ain't gonna believe ya....