Standards are slipping a bit at the Mail aren’t they? Does nobody at the paper actually know that you don’t hunt deer with shotguns?
Standards are slipping a bit at the Mail aren’t they? Does nobody at the paper actually know that you don’t hunt deer with shotguns?
In Pennsylvania, deer season requires shotguns firing slugs, as the game comission & parks departments are worried about the range of stray bullets out of a rifled barrel vs the shorter stray range of slugs out of a smooth bore
Shotguns are illegal for deer in the UK. Effective range (depending on load and choke) just doesn’t allow for a likely kill at the typical proximity. Poachers still chance their arm I’m sure.
For that matter, slugs are illegal too. I forget, but I think it’s minimum six projectiles per cartridge.
@Interested – slugs are not illegal, they’re just Sec. 1 rather than Sec. 2.
And the “illegal for deer” has an exemption for farmers in the framework of pest control.
…and if I’m being an absolute pedant it can’t be excluded that the firearms in the cartoon could be double rifles. Unusual for deer in Scotland, sure, but not impossible.
But I’m sure the cartoonist’s knowledge doesn’t extend to such things.
The Septics do…
> depending on load and choke < …
… well I certainly wouldn't shoot a slug through my grandpa's choked Parker; but a modern gun with interchangeable choke tubes set to no choke should work fine
” well I certainly wouldn’t shoot a slug through my grandpa’s choked Parker; but a modern gun with interchangeable choke tubes set to no choke should work fine”
You actually often get best accuracy at 1/4 choke – modern slugs like a bit of squeeze at the end. You can chuck them safely through a full choke, too – the “rifling” on the outside of the slug deforms so that it passes safely through. Or if it’s saboted like the Lyman “gigantic air pellet” slug, the sabot deforms.
@abacab – yes fair point, I was talking generally. Re slugs, FAC a lot harder to get than SC but yep
Who doesn’t?
Remington used to offer their Model 870 shotgun with a rifled, cylinder-bored barrel (for firing slugs) under the brand name “Deerslayer”.
Just sayin’…
Shotguns? Who shoots deer in a kilt?
00 bucshot works on deer. . .and people as that is police standard issue.
Just to back up some previous comments. Shotguns are used extensively in the states and some parts of Europe for deer hunting. They are good in wooded areas with limited vision of who else may be around. Holland and Holland still make double rifles as do some others, although I cannot see a couple of kilted scots forking out £100,000 plus for one. And Brenneke make a whole range of slug shot that can be put down shotguns that have full choke. Yeah in Scotland you might expect a bolt action rifle, but you can hunt deer very successfully with a shotgun.
Confirm Dedalus’ statement. In Denmark, you Can shoot roe deer with shotguns, provided you are close enough and have a gun dog with you. However, they’re not in season yet.
Re deer and shotguns: there’s a reason they call it “buckshot”, you know.
A gentleman would use a longbow.
Rob – “A gentleman would use a longbow.”
And a Glaswegian would just rush up and nut it between the eyes?
Shotguns should be reserved for salmon surely?
For deer you need drones, except in build-up areas. There, the traditionalists insist AK-47’s.
Jack C – “Shotguns should be reserved for salmon surely?”
Hand grenades, my dear chap, accept no substitute.
People I know in Scotland fell on ultra-fine nylon mesh nets with cries of joy. They were not the people who owned the rivers.
“For deer you need drones, except in build-up areas. There, the traditionalists insist AK-47’s.”
Someone in America has taken to hunting pigs with drones. Which is fair enough I suppose. Not hugely sporting when it has a FLIR.
As for the AK-47, why go for half measures? The Russians make an AK-47-based shot gun. I kid you not:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vepr-12
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saiga-12
Who in their right mind decided that what the world needed was a 12-gauge AK-47-clone? I have no idea what the status of these is under British law but I want one.
Our American cousins have invented a 32 shot fully automatic tommy gun type affair called the AA-12. Tremendous fun on the deer, culls and minces with one pull of the trigger and the dear old gillie just has to shovel it up into bags rather than drag the whole thing back to the Land Rover and hang it up for for all that bothersome butchering. Tricky to get close enough to deploy but the helicopter helps. Haven’t been asked back this year for some reason, must have word with the Laird…