hunting deer with buck shot

Wrong Way said:
Set up a standard sheet of paper at 30 yards (good representation of the kill zone of a deer) and shoot it with the buckshot.....you'll see why slugs are a MUCH better choice.
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with a proper choke/load combo, you'd have quite a few shot in the kill zone. at 30 yards most of the pellets should be in the deer with many in the kill zone UNLESS you are not using the right choke/ammo combo. the proper combo would be devastating for any deer out to 30 yards...anyone who says otherwise hasnt put in the time to find a proper load for their setup or is relying on hearsay.

i use sabots for deer, but mainly buckshot for coyote. if i can roll a yote at 40 yards by putting a few 00 buck in his vitals (along with a few others in the rest of the body) i wouldnt hesitate shooting a larger target with the same load.


to the OP, we cant sit here and tell you what will work better in your gun because each gun is different. the best thing you can do is get a few different chokes and loads to test out yourself. what works awesome in 1 gun may be horrible in the other...
 
Lets have a poll -

What would you rather be shot at, centre of mass, at 30 yards by a competent shooter.( Lets assume you would like to survive the experience ).

A slug or buckshot?

Save shot for birds.
 
Dukester said:
Lets have a poll -

What would you rather be shot at, centre of mass, at 30 yards by a competent shooter.( Lets assume you would like to survive the experience ).

A slug or buckshot?

Save shot for birds.
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Ya like you can't shoot a grouse with a single projectile!

at 30 yds would make no difference you won't be recommending either load.

OOBuck out of a bad choke is no worse than a slug out of a site-less gun where you really don't know where it's going!

If you want to compare slugs out of a slug barrel then use a proper choke you have patterned & keep your range appropiate & both will do the job.
 
I know we all have shot it at one time or another, not really a big fan of it but if I had to use it I would use the biggest payload I could find. I will say this though, OO Buck in myBrowning Gold 10, 3 1/2" (18 pellets) I would not hesitate to pull the trigger on anything inside of 30 yards. It's devastating!!:eek:
 
I have never hunted with buckshot, but have hunted with guys that do. One thing I will say is that deer wounded with buckshot (IMHO) bleed very little and make it near impossible to track if they don't go down.

We had one last year that was hit at 20-25 yards. Now I don't know what his gun was patterning like with the choke/shot he had, but there was fur every where. There was a couple of spots of blood and then nothing. We grid searched for 3 hours for that deer and never found it.

Personally, I would use a slug if I had the choice, but if buckshot works for you, have at it.
 
daveg01 said:
I have never hunted with buckshot, but have hunted with guys that do. One thing I will say is that deer wounded with buckshot (IMHO) bleed very little and make it near impossible to track if they don't go down.

We had one last year that was hit at 20-25 yards. Now I don't know what his gun was patterning like with the choke/shot he had, but there was fur every where. There was a couple of spots of blood and then nothing. We grid searched for 3 hours for that deer and never found it.

Personally, I would use a slug if I had the choice, but if buckshot works for you, have at it.
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any deer hit at 20 yards with the proper combination of buckshot and choke wouldnt make it very far. unfortunately your buddy was using the worst possible combo for his gun or he had one heck of a flinch;)

at 20 yards 100% of the shot from my gun would be in the deer...cant go far with 18 .33" holes in ya...

like i said before...those who are against using buckshot have never seen what kinda patterns a good combo can shoot. another big problem is inexperienced hunters think they only need 1 pellet in the animal so they shoot farther than they should be.
 
Tried several different loads, thru 5 different barrels and came to the conclusion that I couldn't guarantee good hits outside of 25 yards with my equipment. Limited to that range I might as well use my bow. I sure well within that range a deer would be dead.
 
Must be nice to be so young as to have had little or no experience, someday when you get some you will learn not all conditions are so perfect and that all calibers & all shot sizes have there place, till then continue to sit in your soya field with a 24x scope & 300 magnum & impress us with your 40yd shooting skills;)
 
Buck shot is best at close range. Best thing to do is draw a 30" circle on a large pieces of cardboard, place it out to 10 yards, and another at 15 yards, maybe also a third at 20 yards. Fire off a round of buck shot at each target. I did this a few years ago, and found that the full choke works best.

I was using a Rem 1100, 12 ga, 30" Full, with 2 3/4 factory loads of 4 buck and OO.[/QUOTE]

Ontario regulations do not allow use of # 4 buck for big game. (deer,moose.bear)
jgr
 
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