By Leo Laughlin

December 26, 2012

I gave up hunting for 40 years. About 5 years ago my son talked me into hunting with him. My first shot in 40 years nailed a big doe. I was using his Remington 870 with smooth bore and Federal Rifled slugs. I was the old man of the group and preferred to use rifle sights, just could never get the knack of scopes. This past fall we heard that Remington had a sale on the new 870 with a rifle barrel. We bought it and tried 5 different slugs. The Hornady slugs had the best grouping and we sighted it in at 100 yards.

The first night of the 2nd season in Iowa, I was sitting in a tree stand, about half an hour before sunset a large buck came out, but a tree blocked a shot and it took off up the hill. I thought I missed my chance, but it turned near the top of the hill and ran across directly in front of me. It was a long shot, but I tried anyway. I fired once and ejected the shell to try again, when it stumbled. Maybe I hit it. I waited another second as it was a ways to the woods, and it stumbled again. Then it stopped and laid down in the middle of a harvested bean field. I scrambled down the tree stand and up to it. Once I cleared the small knoll, I could see the head on the ground. It wasn't moving. And as I got up to it, it looked like it was asleep, but obviously dead. 1 shot on the run, right through the heart, about 3 inches below where I had aimmed. It wasn't until the next night when I borrowed my son's rangefinder to the treestand did I realize how long of a shot it was. 160 yards, and that was with rifle (open or iron) sights.