Some of those southern swamps would be just about unhuntable without dogs and buckshot. Not to mention many areas buckshot and shotgun is the only legal weapon.
See this is what I don't get. We have woods as thick as woods get. You can barely make it through some of them. I am talking aazzholes and elbows thick. We use carbines and/or handguns. Some use dogs on bear.
We do not have anywhere where buckshot is the only option. When we did have a shotgun zone in the southern 1/3 of the state, you could still use a muzzleloader, handgun, or slug. I always went with muzzleloader or handgun.
That said, I have seen more deer wounded with shotguns than all other firearms combined. But I lay that mostly on the hunters, rather than the guns. The shotgun is easily the favorite choice of the inexperienced around here.....
