Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Buckshot for Deer Hunting?

Interesting on putting em down asap. I've shot a lot of pigs and quite a few deer with buckshot. And its maybe a 50/50 at best to put one down. I don't recall one going more than 100 yards after being shot though. obviously head shots do the DRT thing. But body shots only if a pellet hits CNS and you simply never know there.

Determining where it’s legal WOULD uhhh derrr aid greatly in seeking the answer to your question. I.E. commonly used in context of deer hunting.






















dumb ass

You don't have a clue!

Correct spelling is Dumass

A lot of people still hunt with nothing but a shotgun here in Louisiana. One of our WMAs have a shotgun only hog season In February slugs or buckshot. A full choke will work with buckshot but each gun is different just like a rifle some shoot a tighter choke better. 75 yards with buckshot is a Hail Mary with the best pattern. A 50 yard shot on deer or hogs should be a dead animal. Buckshots best use is where dogs are used to drive the deer. Standing on an old logging road while the dogs run the deer out of the pine/briar thickets Buckshot is the best option.

These are the facts not internet make believe by old dudes who don’t get off the couch

Buckshot is still legal here in NJ for deer hunting. I killed my first deer, a doe, in a controlled hunt in New Jersey's Great Swamp in 1980. I used a Remington 1100 trap gun with fixed mod choke and 2-3/4" number 2 buckshot. The doe was running full speed at 100 feet or so, and I rolled her like a rabbit.

By the way, the State made us demonstrate we could shoot a killing pattern (I forget the distance), live fire.

I never found a specialty choke that shoots 00 significantly better than a standard full choke, and mostly they do worse.

Out of my Maxus II (Invector +) with a standard full choke and shooting Winchester Double X 12 gauge 3 1/2" 15 pellets 1,400 fps, this is what it will do at 40 yards on a 12"x12" target. A very good pattern.:


This is a Carlsons Buck Shot choke, .710, in the same gun with same ammo:



Out of my Winchester SX4 (Invector +) 12 gauge 3 1/2" with standard full choke and Winchester Double 12 gauge 3 1/2" 15 pellets 1,400 fps.:


Same gun and load with Buck Kicker Full:


Carlsons Buckshot Choke .710:


Patternmaster Big Game choke (total garbage choke IMO - doesn't pattern any buckshot load well):



I will say that Winchester Double X high velocity is the most tempermental buckshot load I've fired. 1,400 fps is damned fast for 00 load. Recoil is tremendous. Winchester Super X 3 1/2" 18 pellets at 1,200 fps tends to pattern a bit better and is a bit easier on the shoulder. The same shell loaded with 54 pellets of #4 patterns best - very well in fact.

My experience with buckshot is that the load a shotgun likes might perform well from any choke. In patterning many shotguns with buckshot I have found no rhyme or reason some chokes make tight patterns while others don't. I never shoot past 35 yards with buckshot and have had good results generally. I really like the 27 pellet load of #4 buck from Federal but finding it is tough. For the most part have used 2 3/4 " 9 pellet loads of 00. And mostly I have used cylinder or improved cylinder choked shotguns.

No, it doesn't, and this is an absurdly dumbazz thing to believe and pass on. The shot is contained in the wad like all shot are and fires in a normal way. The wad system and shot are designed to stay together for a good distance. The wad has fins at the midsection and rear to begin to slow the wad down and separate it from the shot. This is unlike a more normal shot wad that flowers out from the front. The Flite Control does so from the rear but the shot is in the front of the cup.

You are correct that a wad stripping or retarding choke hurts the performance of the Flite Control shells. A standard smooth non-ported choke tends to pattern best with the Flite Control shells. Some constriction is ok as long as the choke isn't retarding the wad as the shot passes through the barrel. One of my Benelli M1s patterns best with the #1 Buck Flite Control from a factory Benelli flush-fit modified choke tube. Only shooting patterns at various ranges can tell a shooter how each combination of shell and choke is performing. Anything else is guessing.

Slow down there, jerky….lol…..but you are correct that what I said about the flight control wad was wrong. My experimenting / discecting of factory loads is a few years removed. The shot coming out of the rear of the wad was something entirely different we were playing with….that strange wad was a 2 piece wad with the load pushing the front piece of the wad after all 3 components exited the barrel. The concept worked ok, but the wad in front of a load of shot ended up steering the load inconsistently and causing what was basically pattern POI shifts. I heard that some major shot shell manufacturers experimented with this as well.

Yes, the flight control wad has the fins farther back with the front part of the “cup” not having the traditional wad pedals. My H&K imported M-1s shoot flight controls about the same with cyl, imp cyl and skt chokes. Anything more restrictive starts to degrade patterning.

On the 00 / 000 aspect….many guys I hunt with say the 000 penetrates more and they get more exit holes than with 00. Basically the frequent times when 00 stops under the far side hide, the 000 would have punched thru leaving a better blood trail. That is what they say but I’m not sure I buy 100% of that.

Where is the TSS version of buckshot? I’ve been waiting on that to surface but haven’t seen any yet