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

I've used buckshot some. Killed 2 with it and shot a few more that ran off dripping a little blood that I never found. All were within 50 yards. I wouldn't use it.

I am just saying that I sometimes use a handgun in close cover.( Not on a deer drive) Shots are deliberate and well aimed, not flung in a general direction. One bullet weighs 325gr.-400gr. and the other 270 grain usually. Shot in single action mode. All will shoot clean through deer and deer do not go far.

What is wrong with a large handgun in tight cover?

50 yards is about 15 yards too far. Might have something to do with your problems.

In general, I wouldn't use buckshot at any longer range than I would bird hunting with #6 or 7-1/2.

It's just 6 & 7 are for birds and buck shot is for.... bucks?

I have never got to hunt deer with dogs and buckshot but it's the one of things I have always wanted to do.

I patterned a lot of buckshot just to see what it will and won't do. A lot of you guys have no idea what a good shotgun and buckshot will do.

You guys should watch Bubba rountree outdoors on YouTube. Those fellows are deer killers with buckshot.

Dink

40 yards max

Bubba and his crew are slinging buckshot at deer 100 yards away. He came on my radar with his videos about patterning for coyotes. After watching that screwed up mess I watched some of his deer videos. I think he got his screen name honestly...

Would 5, .440 dia. round balls qualify as buckshot?

If not, never mind. Please disregard.

True. They do shoot at deer way to far.

Look at the ones they shoot 40 yards and under.

They seem to have a little knowledge of chokes and shot sizes so I'm not sure why they are throwing those 80 yard shots.

Dink

Because they're "Bubba's"?

Over a 5 year period of time my friend from Alabama and I tested all different types of buckshot through standard chokes that are available. The usual consensus is that 'open chokes' were required for shooting buckshot and that turned out to be horse schitt! The most effective thing we discovered after shooting many many patterns at various ranges out to 60 yards was a full-choked vent-ribbed barrel on a 26" Model 870 using 000! It delivered the best patterns out to 60 yards.

I guess all those bucks I killed in Alabama died from fright! And anyone that has ever hunted in SE Alabama knows what the terrain is like! When the hurricanes come up through that area of pine timber it lays criss-crossed pine trees down that are nothing but a jungle of briars and 'wait a minute' thickets and rifles are about as much use as a fart in a whirlwind!! And I won't even tell you how far I've seen my buddy Ned kill running bucks with 000!! None went over 50 yards from where first hit either!!

What kind of buckshot? What kind of shotgun? What kind of choke? Did you pattern it?

Winchester 3" Mag!

The rest is above!!

Here you go:

I'm finished with this post! It's quite apparent that some posters here are intellectually disarmed!!

rlott,

When those Ruger .44 magnums came out I bought two. I couldn't hit a fifty-five gallon drum from twenty-five yards with either.

By the time you acquire a sight picture with your scope or even using iron sights ,my deer is on the ground kicking its last . I filled a small cargo container with deer killed with all kinds of buckshot that we were forced to use as a kid. I have absolutely no qualms of having to use it ever again if regulations changed.

+1000

A few years ago I experimented with different loads in a few shotguns and fianally found a really great load of 000. It patterned all 10 pellets in about a pie plate at 35 yards. I thought wow, finally. Then I had a thought, why not just use a slug? Sometimes I think the advantage of buck shot is not to get a really small pattern. Too small and it becomes diminishing returns, obviously vis versa also. I get it, that in some areas you have to use buckshot no matter what.

How are pellets outside a deers vital area helpful? Seems to me that if my pattern were larger than 12" - 16" I'm wasting precious pellets. How many 000/00 pellets does it take to reliably kill deer cleanly? Just to be on the safe side, maybe 4 or 5? Then there is all that brush in the way and of course distance and the pattern opening up is a consideration. May have some bone to break. I'd rather have a center dense more concentrated pattern than a wide pattern to try to get as many pellets through cover and into the vitals as possible. Pellets in the gut or leg or whizzing through the brush completely missing the deer do no good. In fact, I think I'd work with Number 1 Buck for a close range load. Many more .30 caliber pellets would seem better to me than about half as many .32/.33 caliber pellets.