Across much
of the U.S., upwards of 5-million deer hunters cannot head for a favorite deer
woods with a rifle slung over their shoulder.
These hunters live or hunt where the human population is so dense and so
widespread that hunting with a long range rifle has been banned. In some Midwestern states hunting whitetails
with a center-fire rifle has never been allowed. Instead these hunters have had to rely on a
shotgun that shoots a slug with some reasonable degree of accuracy, limiting
shots to under 200 yards. Today, an ever
growing segment of those hunters are moving away from the smooth-bored deer
hunting shotguns and heavy lead rifled slugs of the past, and are now going
afield with rifled 12- and 20-gauge shotguns loaded with far more efficient
slugs with saboted bullets.
The still relatively new shotgun slug
concept is very similar to the sabots and bullets which have popularized the
modern in-line ignition .50 caliber muzzleloaders. Thanks to the newer powders currently
available, muzzleloading hunters are now hitting the woods with a rifle and
load fully capable of getting a saboted 300-grain bullet out of the muzzle at
1,900 to 2,000 f.p.s. To tap the game
taking performance of these rifles, the Hi-Lux Optics 3-9x40mm TB-ML
multi-reticle hunting scope was developed to allow "dead on" holds
with the proper reticle out to 250 yards.
These scopes are now showing up on the modern sabot-slug shooting rifled
shotguns for the same reason - for more precise shot placement out to and past
200 yards. (Photo above shows the scope
on a Traditions .50 caliber VORTEK rifle.)

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