Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting hunting with 00 buckshot?

Years ago, I killed an Ohio 6 pointer with 16 gauge choked full. Distance was approx 20 yards. #1 buck ammo by Remington. The deer ran less than 40 yards before toppling over in mid stride. Damage to the chest organs was considerable. I imagine that a 12 gauge shooting 00 buck is just as lethal but with more "reach."

TR

You have to try different chokes. My full choke in an 11-87 sprayed them all over but the modified held the tightest pattern of any shotgun I have used. It was wicked at 40 yards will all 15 pellets hitting a paper bag. By the way, a good old brown paper bag is just the right size to determine how many pellets will be in the chest area of a deer.

Mod or full for me. But I run plated #4 buck. Deadly swarm and plenty of power for our deer out to 40 maybe 45 yards.

I'e done some pretty extensive patterning with 12 ga. buckshot, and have killed a several deer with it as well from very close to about 40 yards out. While I would recommend testing various loads in your gun, I've had the best luck with a modified choke overall, though some preferred other chokes, usually tighter ones. The unplated 2 3/4" loads were some of the worst offenders pattern wise.

I've found that patterns get spotty past 40 yards, so much so that that's as far as I will shoot, even if an individual pellet has enough energy farther out, you can't place them precisely.

The best thing is, test for yourself. My best gun/load combo was an 870 express with a 28" barrel and a mod choke. That gun would put the Winchester super-x 3" 15 pellet copper plated load into some very respectable groups. at 50 yards, 9 of the 15 would hit in a pie plate. That's the only gun I'd consider going over 40 yds with.

I used to hunt a bit with 00 back when we ran hounds for deer, it would kill them with authority with a good patterning rig out to around 40. Past 40 it was pretty useless unless you had a good hound. I switched over to 9 pellet 000 and liked it much better.

My son took 2 does this year using Winchester 3-inch (15 pellet) 00 in a Beretta 390 with a modified choke tube installed. Distance was about 39-35 yards each time.

10-Roger, I was using a young deer bleat one morning in the brush, had my A-5 Browning with 1B, heard what I thought was a doe trotting in to the call, it was a big yotey, busted his ass at 15 steps, that 1B is rough stuff on varmints in close.

Gunner

Several years ago I was doing lots of Goose hunting. I reloaded all my ammo so was experimenting with shot sizes. Used mostly #2 and 4buck out of a mossberg 500 full choke. A friend told me about his grandfather using 00 buck on whitetail in willows along the river. Got some 00 and loaded up some 3 inch hulls and went hunting. A fork horn came honking out of brush on my left side. Went in front of me and angling away at about 35 or 40 yards. I did not take time to shoulder the gun but whirled and fired from the hip. he was dead in mid stride and broke one horn off when he hit the ground. Never made a twitch as he lay. The pattern hit at the rear of his head and back to in front of the shoulder. That day I gained new respect for the awesome killing power of a buckshot load.

Have not hunted dear with buckshot since as so many places do not allow it. I would use it if allowed here. (I have moved since that first hunt)

Actually think of it this way... Each pellet is a round ball delivered at a velocity of a non-magnum handgun. Meat damage is minimal for each pellet and penetration is rarely very deep.

There isn't nearly as much meat damage as you might imagine unless the animal is shot at point blank range which is very rare.

Most running deer shots here with shotguns are from 30-80yds and often you can't even see where the animal was hit until they're skinned.

Don't get me wrong... I prefer a centerfire rifle first last and always for deer hunting but the shotgun/buckshot hunters are pretty successful.

$bob$

It has been MANY years since I've used buckshot, but I would have to agree on #1. I used to use Winchester Mark V buckshot in #1 buck. It was "fantastic" when used at 50-75 yds. Now NH has made it illegal to use anything smaller than 00 buck. More genius............

I HAVE HAD MIXED EXPERIENCE WITH BUCKSHOT. I HAVE SHOT 3 DEER OVER THE YEARS WITH A SHOTGUN. I SHOT 2 THE SAME DAY, THE FIRST ONE WAS ABOUT 30 YARDS AND THE 00 HIT IT LIKE A TRAIN{DRT}. THE SECOND ONE WAS ABOUT THE SAME DISTANCE AND HIT THE GROUND HARD BUT JUMPED RITE BACK UP AND I NEVER SAW IT AGAIN, ONLY A FEW DROPS OF BLOOD. THE THIRD DEER WAS ABOUT 60 YARDS AND AGAIN I KNOCKED IT DOWN BUT IT GOT UP AS I WAS PUTTING THE SECOND ROUND IN HIM, HE BLED PRETTY GOOD FOR ABOUT 100 YARDS THEN QUIT. I KNOW ALOT OF PEOPLE THAT SHOOT SHOTGUNS WITH GREAT SUCCESS BUT AS FOR ME ILL STICK TO MY RIFLE.

The only deer I shot with buckshot was my first. I've patterned various loads through several shotguns. I haven't found a gun/load combination in my shotguns that I would use past 25 yd. YMMV, pattern before you hunt.

Wound 2 , kill 1. And you're just one guy.

Glad you converted back.

Sucks for the coyotes though. Now, they're back to eating chitlins.

When i was a little kid and dad, uncles and grandad and his brothers and their boys used shotguns for deer run by hounds in the East Texas piney woods country and on their forays to the Big Thicket, they all used no 1 Buck with full chokes. This was before the advent of plastic hulls and shot cups. FC was used for ducks, geese and squirrel.

Full choke guns typically shot no 1 buck in better patterns than they did 00.

Lead 2's and BB and no4 buck are hell on coyotes often to 80 yards.

I don't personally know anything about buckshot, but I can't imagine ever choosing to hunt deer with it. My 870 turkey gun has #4 buck in the butt cuff, when it is behind the door.

In some places, if you want to hunt deer, there is no other choice. I've killed a pile with buckshot. In my early hunting days, I hunted counties in Virginia that allowed nothing else. Most hunts were with dogs, running deer, ranges short, and brush thick. There are many folks in the South that just love to run deer (and bears) with dogs.

In my experience a modified choke and 2 3/4 magnum (12 pellets) worked best, before replaceable choke tube technology became the norm. Now special, ported buckshot chokes seem to give better performance. When hunting with friends and family running dogs, I use 3 1/2 00 buck out of a Beretta with a Kicks. Wickedly effective further than most would suspect, but I have a self-imposed limit of 50 yards.

http://www.kicks-ind.com/category/buckkicker.html

Most every shotgun is different , have to pattern yours with different chokes and buckshot. I use a Browning BPS 10 ga worked well with Federal copper plated 00 . Killed 2 with that combo this year. Its a good 60 yd gun and does best with a modified choke.

I hunted a private lease where buckshot was commonly used. I've had buckshot pass within inches of me three times by shooters up to 1/4 mile away.

I've killed deer with it and crippled deer with it. Buckshot that I have patterned tends to throw clusters of shot that could miss a deer's vitals with the pattern centered on the deer's chest. I wouldn't use it now unless I didn't mind crippling animals. But that's just my experience with it.

Please don't flame!
I look upon buckshot like I do all 24 and smaller cartridges. In the right, EXPERIENCED, handss, they are ok. I come from East Texas, where running deer with dogs was legal, but no longer. Hunters would try to get ahead of the dogs and spread out at fifty yards. I've seen people shoot at deer past the next hunter at over 100yds. I can't prove this, but I would guess a lot more deer are wounded and not found than are found. Many that use them have no business using them. Captdavid