My experience with the use of buckshot on deer was in Virginia, and I am pretty sure I never lived in any other state where it was legal, but maybe I have. I know for sure that everywhere else that I've lived, if rifles were legal,no-one used buckshot instead.

While in VA, I participated in a number of hunts inm which dogs were used, and the hunting parties consisted of as many as 30-40 people. So I did get an opportunity to observe a number of deer that were fired upon by a number of people using the stuff. In one instance, a smallish buckwas shot at by four guys using 12-ga guns from about 40 yards as it ran by them. The little fellow showed no signs of having been hit. That evening, as we were getting ready to leave the hunt area, one of the installation guides (Fort Pickett, Nottoway County VA) came over to our vehicle and asked us "you boys want that little buck you shot earlier? We just found him." Turned out that the little deer (about 90 pounds live weight) had travelled 1.5 miles from where he'd been shot. There were THREE 00 buckshot pellets through his lungs, and one had gone thru his heart. He'd travelleda mile and a halflike that before dying. If a hound had not followed him down into the swamp, we never even would have known that anyone had hit him.

I realize this is just one case. But if he'd been hit in the same spot by even a .243, he would not have gone over 100 yards! I still contend that there's a very good reason why buckshot is not allowed for deer hunting in a great number of jurisdictions...........