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

Hey look, another tard and/or sock.

That's a heck of a HOG, DD. Will those #3 Buck go through the shoulder of a hog that big and into the lungs?

I carry that load in the top barrel of my 20 O/U Citori when sneak hunting ducks and squirrel in East Texas timbered river bottoms in case a nice buck is jumped or comes by on the hunt for a doe.

If I spot ducks on the river I ecchange the buckshot for smaller pellets and put the sneak on them.





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Years ago most hound hunters in E Texas preferred #1 Buck. They used 12's full choke for tighter patterns and most guns patterned better with #1B than 00. This was especially with paper hulls and no shot cups.

My first gun after college and entering a practice in Lufkin was a 12 Ga Browning Auto 5, FC. It's unreal how bad it patterned 00 even with plastic hulls and shot cups at 50 yds. May get only 2 pellets to hit a 2ft by 2 ft target.but it was deer death with #1s.

Woodsman uncle killed a buck ahead of hounds once which was shot at 110 paces with #1s out of his single shot Full C Winchester model iirc 37.
That gun and load killed a heck of a lot of deer.

Hehehe. Great posts, Hardin.

Great info. I preferred the 2 3/4 inch magnum 1 Buck.

Seems they penetrated deeper. May have just been my thinking.

I've seen bucks hung and skinned that were killed by a couple of shot hitting behind and in front of the shoulder (neck) where a few shot that hit the shoulder fell out on the ground as the hide was pulled down after having not penetrated the shoulder blade. Of course those deer had run a bit before falling and I guess the pellets worked back shallow from it.

I think Buckshot gets a bad reputation from dumbasses who can't follow sign or fail to follow up and track the deer after the shot, as you know.

I've also found some real nice dead bucks withing 100 yds of feeders in West and Central Texas where the shooter failed to follow up after the deer didn't fall at the shot.

A lot of guys just assume they missed when the deer runs off.

I've used it here in Idaho during short range weapon hunts. A 3.5" 00 buck load with 18 pellets put a deer right down at 70 yards. I held a little over it's back and it was very effective.

Bb

Rabbit hunted for many years with 6's in the right barrel and no4 buck in the left ,just in case a deer jumped

Every hunter should experience it at least once in life. It's a lot of fun. I don't prefer it over still or stand hunting, but I am a dog lover who really appreciates dogs fulfilling their breed purpose. So much of the vegetation in the deep south where dog hunting is common is impenetrably thick. I believe having dogs put pressure on those areas is beneficial overall.

I have a few issues with dog hunting. The first is that in most places where dog hunting is allowed, the season goes from bow to dog hunting. I wish they'd give the still hunters a week or two in the woods after bow season without the dogs stirring everything up. Hunters might be working a deer and have it patterned but never get it into bow range. The instant the sound of dogs echoes through the woods those deer change their patterns.

I don't know if it's most, but too many dog hunters are goddam slobs. They'll let their dogs out in places knowing full well their dogs are going to push deer off of private property. They also set up to shoot down public roads. Litter is pretty common where they have set up as well.

There are a number of places in FL where dog hunters regularly use Buck shot. I killed my first deer at 7 years of age with a 20 Ga single shot and Buck shot.

Buckshot is effective if you hit something vital but you cannot control where each individual pellet is going to land.I killed exactly one buck with a 12 gauge loaded with 00 buckshot.The buck was running broadside about forty five yards away.I shot three times and he went down.As I was walking up to him,he jumped up and started running away.Bam,I shot him again and down he went.As I was walking up to him,he again jumped up and started running away.Bam,I shot him again and down he went.As I was walking up to him,he again jumped up and started running away.Bam,I shot him again and down he went,this time for good.I counted about twenty five pellets that hit him before I killed him.There was only eight or nine pellets in each 2 3/4" 12 gauge.He had pellet holes from his head all the way across his body to his tail.Deer shot with buckshot is way different than shooting one with a high powered rifle.Probably each pellet is more like a 22 rimfire.The wound channel for each pellet isn't much larger than the pellet itself.If your lucky and it hits the right spot,you got your deer.Closer the range,the odds are in your favor.The farther away,the odds are against you.Since your not going to find much blood,you probably think you just missed,but you may have wounded the deer and not even know it.I will never shoot a deer with buckshot unless I absolutlly had no choice.And if that was my only choice,I'd keep my shots within thirty yards.

Currently buckshot is not legal in Tennessee, but at one time it was legal for my county and one adjacent county by private act. This was during the early days of deer population recovery and the deer were in the deepest cover imaginable. About the only way to see one was to hunt with dogs (which was illegal) and let the dogs drive the deer by the hunters on stand. Shots would be close and fast, so buckshot was the ticket. Most of my family participated. I still remember my uncle reminding us not to shoot does, because that was where the bucks came from. Today there are so many deer that dogging deer is not used here any more. Matter of fact, if someone dogged the deer the hunters with tree stands would be PO'd.

I want to kill at least 2000 deer a day

Shooting deer off airboats, swamp buggies and in front of dogs a shotgun is a required piece of equipment.

I am not saying buckshot won't kill a deer. It will kill a grizzly bear. I do most of my shotgun hunting with aBrowning Auto 5 Magnum 12. I bought it new in 84. First day I hunted with it I went deer hunting and slipped through thick woods till I jumped a bedded deer and killed it. I emptied it at the deer and put several pellets in it. I patterned it later and wasn't impressed. I used to have an Ithaca Mag 10 and it threw a.vicious pattern of 00 Buck. It was too heavy and long to use where buckshot is useful. In my opinion a Handy rifle is a better choice. I would rather have a 30-30 or a pump or semi auto 30-06 for a driven or dog hunt. I have done both and.most of the deer I shot were slipping out in front of the dogs and not being pursued. They were not running but sneaking away.
If you have never deer hunted with beagles or hounds, I highly recommend it if you get the chance. It is fun and exciting to hear the race and have them coming to you.

jaguartx: I too killed my first deer with a Winchester 37 12 gauge full choke and buckshot. It was the first gun I ever bought. I worked for 2 weeks tearing down a shed for a man and salvage the lumber, nails, and tin on the roof. Rode my bicycle to work and back, 7:00-5:00 and brown bagged lunch. I was 13 and my mother had to give permission to the owner of Coleman’s Hardware. I got the shotgun, slip on recoil pad and 2 boxes of shells for a little over $40. This was1962. Killed the deer in 69 while hunting squirrels on the Bogue Phila River near Cleveland MS. Always carried a few buckshot with my high brass sixes. Buckshot are deadly on deer ahead of dogs. They are usually in high gear and near heavy cover. Also deadly on men. Had a neighbor with same last name but no kin. JT fought in Korea. 7 of 113 men on his company survived attacks by red Chinese and N Koreans. His weapon of choice was a Browning A5 with a mag tube extension and a duckbill spreader with buckshot. It would penetrate the heavy quilted clothing that they wore. He said they would stack their bodies up like cordwood to use for sandbags. He liked Browning 30 cal machine guns too. Said a supply Sargent back stateside helped him get the shotgun rigged properly. Used it on night patrols and probes. He had a bad drinking problem from his experiences. Hunted in several Mississippi clubs that used Walker hounds and beagles. Shotguns with buckshot used because of heavy cover, closeness of standers, running deer and valuable dogs. Easier with dogs than people trying to drive deer in heavy cover like sloughs, brakes, cutover.

For a feel of hunting with dogs and buckshot and shotguns, read “Race at Morning” by William Faulkner, one of the world’s greatest writers. It’s from The Big Woods. No wonder the culture of hunting with dogs is so prevalent in Mississippi. You’ll be captivated and taken along. The Bear is good also. Made into a movie.

Yes. I started out hunting deer in Virginia in the 1970s using an Ithaca M37 with an IC choke and 2 3/4" 00 buckshot. Then moved to a New Haven 600, just a rebranded Mossberg 500, with a C-Lect choke and 3" rounds. Even managed to kill some. I never lost a deer to buckshot. In thick woods where shots are close, or anywhere shots are close, it's very effective. I still use it, though I've moved to 3 1/2" rounds. (Winchester black box high velocity rounds are my go-to. Real shoulder breakers.) On weekends when the hunt clubs and their hounds are moving things around, it's great for picking off a deer that is slinking into the bottoms to avoid the dogs.

Virginia is a weird state. The eastern part is a mix of shotgun-only, rifles-in-stands, and rifle hunting counties. Some of the counties that have the highest deer numbers, and produce the highest harvests, are shotgun-only. Like Southampton - which perpetually produces the highest harvest. Our DWR, in the past, has actually advocated going to rifles state-wide, but the Va law lets the counties set their own rules. As a result, we have this (map I created after reviewing all county ordinances): (I hunt mostly red counties.)




Going from the Blue Ridge Mountains east to the ocean, this is pretty much the way it works.






That's my experience, with only a few exceptions. They run their dogs through property without respect for anyone already there. The dogs go onto private land and Va law allows the owners to enter private land without the consent of the owner to retrieve their dogs. Hunt clubbers use this as an excuse to drive on private land. Hound hunting is under fire in Virginia. Lots of land owners are getting sick of the trespassing. So far the legislature and DWR hasn't put a stop to it, but they won't have a choice eventually. Land owners are rising up and their $ and political clout is going to eventually get the practice banned or restricted. It's inevitable. And the slob, littering hunt clubbers will have brought it on themselves.

The good part about the hunt clubbers is that they generally don't go too far from their trucks. That would be effort. If one doesn't mind hiking to the center of a big property, across which the hunt clubbers will hope to run their hounds, you can pick off deer the dogs get moving. The clubbers don't like that. Apparently they think any deer their dogs move belong to them. But it's a reliable way to kill deer.

Whatever floats your boat. Go for 2001 if you want to. Not me, but “numbers” is part of the southern dog hunting heritage. Not much trophy hunting going on, but on some occasional “special hunts” there are horn restrictions.

There are slob hunters in every type of hunting. I’ve seen it in all types so no need to try to single out dog hunters. We should stick together. This is coming from someone who has been a licensed big game guide in the west and Midwest with a specialty in bow hunting.

The garmin collars we have now have changed dog unting in these parts. We rarely have a dog get off our property, and when we do we unload guns and find the landowner to ask permission to retrieve the dog(s). We don’t get permission, we don’t go. I’ve sat on a property line many nights trying to sweet talk a dog back across the line. Picked up 100x more trash than has accidentally flown out the back of my truck.

Until a few years back the SC deer season opened August 15th & closed Jan 1 with “unlimited bucks” written in the hunting laws. That is 4.5 months of consecutive rifle, shotgun, bow, muzzle loader or whatever you wanted to hunt with. There are now reasonable numbers restrictions. Ga has a 2 buck 10 doe limit and many guys around here hunt both states, and sometimes more than 2 states.

I’ve tested buckshot patterning from about every manufacturer and some homebrew shells. There is new technology that makes tight patterns easy as can be. Want to shoot a sub 6” pattern of 00 out of an 18” cylinder or improved cylinder bore? Can be done easy enough…..

Virginia is definitely a weird state when it comes to regulations. I live in Rockingham County 40 minutes from the Wva line. Rifle only , 2 week rifle season. Next county over which I hunt also is Greene , rifle but dogs are allowed and season runs 7 + weeks. Then I have a friend in Norfolk who has a big farm in Surry Co. I hunt with him and its Muzzleloader and shotgun only even if sitting on a field where a 270 would be undergunned

I haven't used buckshot for deer hunting in many years, it was in 1979 aboard Camp Lejeune with a well-used 12-gauge Remington 870 shotgun checked out from Special Services, the #1 buck did the job.

My family in the Low Country of SC used shotguns with buckshot for deer through the 60's and 70's when they ran dogs. I still have my grandad's Belgian Browning A5 with a full choke barrel and a front sight bead; can't imagine the number of deer that were killed with it over the years. My grandad was partial to Winchester high brass with #1 buck; it always seemed to work.

I have known a few people down east that used to run dogs and use shotguns with buckshot, but they have all moved on to "still hunting" with rifles these days.

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