question
 

some one here posted that they used round ball loads in there shotgun..they said they poured no 7 1/2 or 8 shot around the ball...i m presuming they did this to help as a buffer to help with accuracy..was wondering if any body else has done this..i woulde try it in the 8 ga round ball loads if it would help...what do ya ll think...charlie

I don't think it is advisable but especially don't put small shot in front of the ball - it's like shooting with gravel and junk in the bore obstructing the ball :eek:

That would be true if a wad was not used.

Hello Charlie. I wouldnt add shot to the load. Just adds weight to the load and will significantly increase recoil.

I would wonder what the logic is - the bird shot isn't going to help with a deer,

The 18th century British Brown Bess load was a ball and three buck shot, to make mass volley fire more effective.

guess i ll just leave it alone and not add shot to the load..still wonder though why shot was added... next weekend i will hopefully get a shot with the round ball load our deer season begins...charlie

The biggest round ball I have is .54 cal. It fits loose in a 12 ga. plastic wad . The shot helps hold it centered and adds weight to help seal the load. If you had proper sized roundballs this idea wouldn't matter. But I don't.

thanks holeshot..my round ball is not perfect either but i can not use a wad with my round ball load its to tight in the hull by doing that...guess i will not get to try the shot with it..but i will keep your idea in mind even better it will go in my notes so i wont forget.after i get a deer with the 8 ga ball i will try the 10 and other ga s your idea might get put to use then.. charlie

I don't think you need anything in with the eight gauge ball to kill a 350 pound whitetail. The ball will be enough. We would like a report on the kill, however. Be sure to tell us how many pernts your whitetail has on his herns, eastern style, wun side. Or is it western style, wun side?

350lb. Whitetail? I'd love to see that one!

Daryl,

I spent six deer seasons working in a friend's father's butcher shop. You'd be amazed at the number of 300lb whitetails (according to the guys who came in to the shop:fg:) there are running around south-central PA.

Out of the 3500+ PA deer that came through the shop while I was there, the heaviest one I ever weighed was 174lb field dressed. We had bigger ones but they came from Iowa and Illinois.

Marcus

heaviest deer ive ever heard of was 245 lbs in my parts..bigest one on our old cotton scales has been 212 lbs... bill i dont know what lies ahead for the old 8 ga but it could be a five point the old gun gets five points equal 4 legs and a tail equal 5 points...eastern or wesrtern count.. charlie

The largest "verified" field dressed whitetail I ever heard of was a 355 pound war horse killed by a guy named Horace Hnikley in Maine back in 1955.

http://www.sportingjournal.com/main9.shtml

Largest field dressed whitetail I ever saw weighed in Maine was about 225 . The largest I ever saw actually weighed in Maryland was also over 200 . The largest I've personally seen weighed in Virginia was 185 dressed . Now in PA , VA and MD of all the bucks I've seen or killed etc were more in the 125-140 field dressed class .

I wish I could have weighed this Eastern Massachusetts deer from Nov. 2003.

Taxidermy courtesy of PGCA Member Scott Kittredge.



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That thing would have beat the socks off my two best bucks combined :whistle:

Are you sure that is not an immature moose? Wow!

I can't take credit for this one.

A friend who is a railroad engineer called me one night at 9:15 and said he had hit a deer with the train engine.
I said, "Big deal, you hit deer all the time."
He says, "Yeah, but this is the first one I ever felt!" "Please take care of him for me - he's still alive."
I asked when he hit the buck and he said "on the same run 24 hours earlier but I thought he was dead. When I took the train by tonight I saw that he was still standing."
Well, I hiked in with my bow to where he told me the deer was and I found him still up on his forelegs full of fight and rage. I delivered a quick arrow through his heart. Man!... he one big deer! Antlers scored 186 3/8 B&C points.

He is big enough to be a mule deer. Nice whitetail.

theres a whittail on record that came out of canada that weighed in excess of 600 lbs and had a spread of thirty inches... some people gona laugh on this one but its so fellows....charlie

.................:shock:

Around here we call a 350lb whitetail a heifer.

I shoot a non tipical white tail 17 points in indiana thar weighed 200 field dressed. It was a monster. Its rack looked like a briar bush.