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Sunday, September 14, 2008

Q: What do you hunt with a rifle, and what do you hunt with a shotgun?


I think you'll remember most of the answers you'll get from movies ...

Shotguns usually shoot a lot of tiny pellets / BBs
These little pellets spread out to about the size of a basket ball (much bigger than a single bullet)
When the pellets spread out, they also loose force, so they don't carry as much 'punch' anymore

So shotguns typically are used with smaller critters (birds, rabbits, squirrels, etc) and since these small critters are always running around the large / growing pattern of shot from a shotgun offers a larger area to make a shot on a small moving critter

This is why we 'practice' hunting with a shotgun on a trap or skeet range

When you eat something shot with a shotgun you get to pick the shot out of the meat (good reason to use steel shot, not lead)

Sometimes.. (exception to this rule) we shoot a slug with a shotgun
This is usually back east where the shorter range of a shotgun is good (I guess) They hunt deer, bear (and wild pig) with shotguns / slugs back east
There is also 'buckshot' which is just a few med size pellets used to hunt big critters. The pellets are shot out in a pattern and offer a lot more punch but there are fewer so the skill of shooter / quality of gun are important

We also use shotguns to hunt turkey.. yet another size shot (pellet) is used and we attempt to shoot them in the head so the meat is left untouched (lots of skill in turkey hunting IMO)

Then there is rifles.. usually (almost always) used for longer shots at distances shotguns can not reach
Rifles offer a lot of punch (power) with each shot too


Squirrel, etc
Duck, Geese, etc


Smaller rifles:
Squirrel, etc

Larger rifles:
Anything bigger than pig / deer
Elk, Deer, Moose, Buffalo, Etc

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