Illinois Rifle Season for Deer 2023

[ButterBean]

Absolutely correct you are.
I know of NO cartridges with a 1.4" case length that will perform as well as let alone out perform a 12ga 2.75" or 3" or 20 gauge 3" sabot shell fired out slug rifle with a fully rifled barrel.
In the right well practiced hands (like mine) under the correct conditions with the correct saboted slug ammo my Browning A-Bolt Slug hunter and my Marlin 512 Slugmaster are no BS honest 250 yard deer guns. Please do not ask me how much $$$ I spent finding the correct ammo to be competent out to 250 yards. Back when I did this sabot ammo was over $2 a round.

My longest ever kill with my A-Bolt was a LRF confirmed 245 yards, my 512 was 235 yards. Cant tell you accurately how many deer I killed between 150 and 220 yards with both guns but its double digits for both.
Heck my longest shot with my 12ga Wingmaster shooting 12ga 2.75" 1oz Active Foster slugs was 144 yards back in the early 90's.

I can honestly say the only man that I have ever met that shot more 12ga Foster and Sabot ammo than I was Mr. Doug Henderson. No one else I have ever met has shot even 1/10th as many 12 ga Foster and sabot shells as I have. At one time I had shot every Sabot shell sold by: Winchester, Remington, Federal, Lightfield, and Hornady. Won't allow myself to even consider adding up all the $$$ I sent down range in 12ga Sabot ammo.

…

I shot all those and the Brenneke's as well in my 20ga! Good job! Settled on those hi speed Winchesters. Just bought 2 boxes at a gun show for $25 recently. First ones I've seen in 3 years!

You are correct on the slugs being deadly accurate but with that being said I shot a doe at 275 with a 12Ga Brenneke, it sounded like a mortar round as it flew through the air for what seemed like forever, it hit her dead in the shoulder, sounded lkeyit hit an empty 50 gal barrel and it looked like a sack of flour dropped on her for all of the dust it knocked off, she hit the ground like a sack of taters , stood up and limped into the woods never to found, no blood at all, I don't even think it broke the skin

 

[IndianaMatt]

There MIGHT be very accurate slug guns out there. I don't have one and I don't know anyone who does. In the Indiana slug gun days I preferred to take my muzzleloader. I felt way more confident in that platform than a slug.

 

[MW204]

I'd like to see some of the fancy slugs that people have tested or recovered slugs.
I've only tested a 12 ga Federal 2 3/4" Slug into water (I'm sorry it's been 4-5 years ago and I don't remember what version it was) and it looked like this after going through 2-1 gallon jugs of water and stopping in the 3rd one.
You can see that it flattened out, the hole in the center surprised me, it's about a 1/4" thick, and if I can find the slug again I will measure how much it opened up.
I was not impressed a whole lot.

 

[ButterBean]

There MIGHT be very accurate slug guns out there. I don't have one and I don't know anyone who does. In the Indiana slug gun days I preferred to take my muzzleloader. I felt way more confident in that platform than a slug.

I ended up with the H&R 20ga single shot and it shot MOA

 

[Shane Lindsey]

I ended up with the H&R 20ga single shot and it shot MOA

My H&R 20 ga Ultra Slugger is a sniper rifle...sorta

Loves the old Remington Copper solids at the price a Lapua round is...

 

[Glenn Tullius]

I'd like to see some of the fancy slugs that people have tested or recovered slugs.
I've only tested a 12 ga Federal 2 3/4" Slug into water (I'm sorry it's been 4-5 years ago and I don't remember what version it was) and it looked like this after going through 2-1 gallon jugs of water and stopping in the 3rd one.
You can see that it flattened out, the hole in the center surprised me, it's about a 1/4" thick, and if I can find the slug again I will measure how much it opened up.
I was not impressed a whole lot.

Winchester and Remington Foster slugs also produced what we used to call donuts, that would fall on the floor while skinning.

 

[Glenn Tullius]

You are correct on the slugs being deadly accurate but with that being said I shot a doe at 275 with a 12Ga Brenneke, it sounded like a mortar round as it flew through the air for what seemed like forever, it hit her dead in the shoulder, sounded lkeyit hit an empty 50 gal barrel and it looked like a sack of flour dropped on her for all of the dust it knocked off, she hit the ground like a sack of taters , stood up and limped into the woods never to found, no blood at all, I don't even think it broke the skin

Luckily. all my shots I have taken with my 20 ga. slug gun, have never been over 75 yards, and in fact, the longest was only 60. I can shoot a 100 yards through our thick woods, but early on I set a personal limit, as I saw to many deer wounded and lost by others past a 100.

 

[Glenn Tullius]

I'd like to see some of the fancy slugs that people have tested or recovered slugs.
I've only tested a 12 ga Federal 2 3/4" Slug into water (I'm sorry it's been 4-5 years ago and I don't remember what version it was) and it looked like this after going through 2-1 gallon jugs of water and stopping in the 3rd one.
You can see that it flattened out, the hole in the center surprised me, it's about a 1/4" thick, and if I can find the slug again I will measure how much it opened up.
I was not impressed a whole lot.

Here are two 12ga Winchester Partition Gold Sabots recovered from a big whitetail buck. My friend said quartering front shoulder shot on one, the other rib quartering to a front shoulder. They work friend!

 

[John Hammonds Creek]

Alls I can say to this is if it didn't change the quality of the deer in those places for the worse, then why is it that IL is being inundated with outfitters and hunters from the very states you are speaking of? Why? Because they ALL say they can't get deer like this where they are from. And they ALL say anything with a horn that steps out into the open gets shot and they don't get to grow. Same thing in MO. Lets see what Iowa has to say in a few years when they start loosing entire age classes of bucks.

I do agree with you on several points. Slugs are a very potent and lethal round when used properly as is any form of hunting. I also agree that this is a bogus solution to a problem we didn't have.

Grew up in Illinois hunting, moved to Kentucky in 1995, rifles are used down there since before I moved there. We have tons of outfitters and are in the top ten annually for highest scoring bucks annually. Rifle/12 gauge/crossbow has nothing to do with it. The biggest reason KY has been successful is one buck limit regardless of harvest mechanism. With proper hunting rifles you will have less wounded deer not the joke of a list Illinois came up with.