doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - The Under Deer

I bought a Browning Express before last deer season. It may sound silly but I wanted to kill an adult whitetail buck, 8-point or better, with each barrel before shooting does or smaller "meat" bucks. The gun had a Leupold 1.5-5x on it when I got it but it proved to have a little bit of a personality flaw...the over barrel shoots 4" higher at 100 yards than the under barrel when shooting 150 grain Core-lokt. The windage difference are negligible. I could stomach 2" higher from the over barrel (actually hoped for it) but 4" was too much. I solved the problem but finding a 180 grain bullet (Nosler ballistic tip) for the over barrel that prints within an inch of the Remingtons from the under barrel. At first, I didn't like having to keep track of separate ammo but quickly became fond of the idea. The green ballistic tip compared to the lead-nose Remingtons made it pretty easy to make sure the right ammo got into the right barrel but I also hit the bottom of the 180s with a black sharpie so I can tell by just cracking the gun open. The different bullet weights allow for a first-shot selection of either a 180 or 150 grain that might better fit the situation. I've hunted with double shotguns since 1985 so, even though I gave up on having different shot sizes in each barrel, I'm always keenly aware of which choke is in each barrel. I've found keeping up with the bullets in the rifle is no different of a mental exercise.



I know it sounds made-up but, the first time I pulled the trigger on a game animal, the Remington in the under barrel was a dud. I cycled the safety to switch the inertia trigger to the over barrel and dropped the "Over" deer in his tracks with the 180 grain Nosler BTs. I have a thread in this forum last year called "the Over Deer" but I had to wait for this season to finally get the Under deer.

Of course, I spent a little time in the off season figuring out a replacement for the Remingtons. That was the last core-lokt that I'll ever shoot at an animal and by last I don't mean "most recent". I mean "never again". I was so pleased with the performance of the Nosler bullet that I decided to put a 150 grain Nosler Accubond in the under barrel for this deer season. Nosler doesn't load a 150 grain Accubond in the .30-06 but Federal does in their Premium line...what's better is that the Federal Premiums are loaded in a nickel-plated brass so not only are the tips different colors, the cases are different colors. I took a pair of shots, one with the Accubond in the under barrel and one with the ballistic tip in the over barrel...at 100 yards with a red bulleye the size of my thumbprint the two barrels are as tight as I could have ever hoped. I was ready for this season.



I held off of a dozen "basket rack" 8's earlier in the season but finally got a chance at what I think is a 3½ year old eight-point. The Accubond on the high shoulder dropped him but he was still trying to push himself with his back legs. The biggest advantages of a double are redundancy and a quick follow-up so I opted to put a quick second shot in him as I mentally prepare for what I hope will be an African Plains Game trip next year.

That's phenomenal.

Here's my preseason pair...the under barrel was lower right and the upper barrel was upper left...I'm shooting a 1.5-5x scope at 100 yards so the gun's more accurate than I am.