Is hunting with buckshot effective?

[duckhunt]

I have found some lower mainland areas to hunt blacktails
-sorry no specific areas- I was wondering is buckshot is worth it or should I use my bow.

[30-378-magnum]

buckshot not effective after about 30 yds. too many pieces of shot cause to much damage to meat especially on smaller blacktails that dont have much meat to begin with .if your comfortable shooting bow to 30 or 40 yds i would stick to it

[Jelvis]

Bo knows bows--use the bow= kill
Scatter guns don't keep them down they get up after.
Buck shot is lousy for hunting deer in my experience.
Jel--scatter gun not very good for deer.

[thatskindafunny]

Hmmm, disagree with the others. Done right and at the right distance can be very effective. Back of the head from a tree stand at 6 paces kinda puts them down real quick. They have new shells called hevi shot or heavier than lead. About $4 a shell and well worth it. Partner's kid dropped one at 40 paces 2 years ago, travelled about 20 yards and this year he himself shot a big Black Creek buck at 50 paces that dropped like he was pole axed. This was with 3 inch buck shot of the hevi kind. When skinning the deer out he found 9 pellets against the hide opposite of the side he shot at. Now that's penitration. Again one must go to the range with an assortment of buckshot and shoot at different ranges and find the right shell for your shot gun. My Ithaca pump 2 3/4 inch with hevi shot at 30 paces has 2 pellets a half inch apart and 4 more within 4 inches. The other 3 are out from there.

[Farmer John]

I'd rather go with the shotgun than a bow. Where I hunt blacktail in the LML, the brush is so dense that tracking a wounded deer would be next to impossible. everything is so wet right now and the deer seem to only come out of the thick stuff right at dusk. Id rather anchor the deer to the ground with a good blast of buckshot and ruin a bit of meat than lose the animal in the bush. And with a shotgun, at least you can get a follow up shot if you need one.

[kyleklassen]

shotgun is quick with the follow ups too

[BlacktailStalker]

I hate buckshot.

Pattern YOUR shotgun on a target and keep going back until your spread is 8-10".
IMO that is your EFFECTIVE range for that particular gun.

Anything further than that is not worth the risk of wasting a good (any) buck.

[kyleklassen]

sounds like an easy sight in tech. can't argue with that. buckshot very good in doorways.

[hunter1947]

Buckshot It works great if you get to within the right distance and your shot placement is on its mark.

I dropped a 4x3 in its tracks at about 25 yards ,this buck did not know what hit him.

[browningboy]

I was under the understanding you can hunt deer with a shotgun but only with a slug / single projectile, I couldn't see using buckshot as it would just be more prone to injury and having a chance to run away injured?
I can see buckshot working but just don't know if I would use it IMO.8)

[hunter1947]

I was under the understanding you can hunt deer with a shotgun but only with a slug / single projectile, I couldn't see using buckshot as it would just be more prone to injury and having a chance to run away injured?
I can see buckshot working but just don't know if I would use it IMO.8)


You can hunt deer in a area where it is open for 000 buckshot or SSG.

[sneg]

I shot two deers with 00 buckshot this season. One was at 47 meters, second around 35 meters. Both dropped at their tracks. Second deer was running just behind small hill and popped up for split second ,however still was partially obscured by bush. I felt comfortably for shot,nothing could stop that blast. Would you try it with bow ? First deer - straight chest shot , second -broadside chest-neck. pieces of fur and blood everywhere. I do not favour head shots, have seen twice people blast deer to head at 15-20 meters. Both times poor animals escaped without any blood signs. As said above pattern your gun,before going into bush.

[farside]

Buckshot is like anything else. Know your limit and play within it. I love the shotgun and like to get as close as I can to an animal or see how close he will get to me. All but 1 deer has dropped in its tracks. The one that didn't made it 100yds. Closest shot was about 10 feet and the longest about 20 yds

[Big Lew]

Must say that "BlacktailStalker" has your answer, there is a big difference in shot pattern between brands of shot, make of gun, length of barrel, and amount of "choke" in the barrel. Years ago, during the "lead" era, I used 12 ga. shells with SSG ( had 9 large pellets ) which was very deadly out of my choked long-barrelled rem. with a relatively close pattern out to 50 yards. The information on the box stated SSG would kill deer out to 90 yards, but I would assume only about half of the shot would hit the deer, and it would be anyone's guess where it would hit. I tested buckshot from the same gun, and, had I not the SSG, I would have used the buckshot out to 30 yards max.

[Dirty]

Better watch the by-laws of the area you are hunting in.

[BlacktailStalker]

Browningboy, generally a single projectile is not legal in an area where you'd want (um errr legally required) to use buckshot, reason being the single is more likely to cause damage/travel a greater distance (whole reason for the implementation of these buckshot zones) than the buck shot (reason being, dwellings, cars, people in the area)

Wayner, ssg is just the old term for buckshot and size 0-000 is all perfectly legal I'm pretty sure...

[kyleklassen]

#1+ is legal

[browningboy]

You can hunt deer in a area where it is open for 000 buckshot or SSG.


Well I stand corrected.:D


Browningboy, generally a single projectile is not legal in an area where you'd want (um errr legally required) to use buckshot, reason being the single is more likely to cause damage/travel a greater distance (whole reason for the implementation of these buckshot zones) than the buck shot (reason being, dwellings, cars, people in the area)

Wayner, ssg is just the old term for buckshot and size 0-000 is all perfectly legal I'm pretty sure...


Makes sense, thanks for the clarification!:D