ORIGINAL: cayugad

Well I grew up in a part of Wisconsin that was shotgun only for deer. I hunted for years with a 12 gauge and shot and killed a lot of deer. I never had a deer make more then thirty yards after being hit. My Dad once, had a nice deer run past him. He fired three times with his 12 gauge and it finally dropped. All three hits were perfect placed, even grouped you could say. To this day we could not figure out how that deer ran getting blasted through the heart and lungs like that. Deer are amazing creatures.

With muzzleloaders, I hunted for many years with large conicals and a simple roundball. I'd hate to guess how many deer I have taken with a muzzleloader. Again, very few were ever shot and made it out of sight. Most were what I call a double leap and fold type drop. Only one I can think of ran off from me, and that was all my fault. Poor shot placement and nothing more.

Now that I am hunting with sabots and large conicals, and every time I am loaded with them... see nothing. Grab an old traditional rifle with a roundball and I seem to make venison that day. I guess I should have stuck with what always worked.

I should point out, I shot a lot of deer with modern center fire rifles also. While most dropped where they stood, some managed to run off a short ways, but I always had a blood trail for the most part. That is my big fear with sabots. After reading posts of how XTP's some times do not pass through, and other times they do. Maybe that is why I like big lead too.... it always worked for me.