Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting How effective is buckshot?

They are lighter and shorter than most shotguns. Why wouldn't they point as well or as quickly?

Shotguns were not designed for deer hunting. A fact that should be self evident. Much better tools for the job IMO........

That's what I get for not reading the regs close enough. Thanks for pointing out to me for what I didn't know.

I once shot an 8pt that would qualify as a dink and found 8 00 pellets in various parts of his body. They had encapsulated and had puss in most of the capsules. I'll never use buckshot because of that.

You fellows don't have a clue!!

Have hunted in the thickest $hit anyone would ever care to hunt in. A nice little lever action, carbine or big bore handgun are much handier than any shotgun will ever be.....

Why anyone would use buckshot, or a shotgun for deer is beyond me.

I can see it if forced by some dumba$$ law, but given a choice, not only no, fuuk no.........

I hunt a lot in very close cover, Florida swamps and palmetto thickets. A .44 Mag lever rifle does that sort of thing perfectly.

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.....

It sucks compared to a rifle but thousands of deer are killed every year in the south on dog hunts with it

Just as many are lost due to lack of blood trails and slow kills.
Very few here use shotguns when running dogs.
If I had to use a shotgun, I'd use slugs.

My thoughts exactly.

However, I have never experienced anything like Rick stated. 70 people hunting deer in the same place plus a pack of dogs? I just don't know what to think of it. Honestly. Sounds.......crazy May be a good time though. I will say it is not how I would ever prefer to deer hunt. But may be cool once a year or something. We don't use dogs either. Some do for bear though. I like my quiet solitude in the woods when possible. But am not totally unsociable. It is just something I am completely unfamiliar with. Sure we do deer drives sometimes. But maybe 5-6 people and no dogs.

My feeling is that some feel the buckshot to be better in a "spray and pray" type situation, and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Sounds like a lot of potentially wounded deer to me. But I am all for whatever is legal and personal choice. I just hope that hunters are responsible enough not to abuse the freedoms they have been afforded at the expense of the deer.

Not sure if deer drives with dozens of hunters and dogs were considered by the OP, but I guess in certain situations, in which I have no experience, buckshot may have it's place. As stated by Randy and Rick. For myself, however, I doubt I will ever use it on a deer..........