I going to stick up for buckshot here, it puts deer down hard and sometimes harder then slugs....Yes, it range limited, best result 40 yards or less. Two friends of mine, who hunt a shotgun only zone in high swamp grass, close range hunting, closed hunting zone a few hundred yards away. And they use buck-shot and top notch setups for buckshot. Rem 11-87sp with high dollar ported special buckshot choke tubes, and there is a reason those choke tubes cost 80 bucks, 25 yards 6inch pattern, 40 yards 8 to10 inch patterns. Up
close buckshot works better then slugs for them and maybe you.
Yes, slugs go faster, farther, higher energy, more accurate you name it, But,
at forty yards or less a tight pattern of 00 or 000 will put deer down quicker then slugs at that same range bar none!....before anyone jumps and say's slugs havn't dropped deer in there tracks ?....I not saying that, of course slugs have and can drop deer on the spot....But slug hunting is pretty close to black powder muzzle-load hunting. Projectiles can be dam close. a lot of deer shot well with shotgun slugs and blackpowder guns don't drop in there tracks.....a tight pattern of 00 bucks up close beats a slug anyday.
Yes, forty yards is range limited, however a lot of deer are shot at that range or
less....is buckshot for setting over a grain field with long shot possible, No, but
in thick woods and swamps it can be a real good option ! ....I have short brl 870, imp-cyl choke, can't pattern buck-shot at all, past 20 yards guess what I shoot slugs out of it. However my double barrel patterns buckshot well.....Buckshot gets a bad rap, because a lot of guns don't pattern it well and hunters shoot them beyond there guns range.....Now a scope on a shotgun, does help, however you can shoot beyond the guns range real easy ! a deer at 150yards looks like a easy chump shot(target )through a 4X scoped shotgun and if your shooting slugs that group nice and tight at 100 yards with that full-rifled brl shotgun you can shoot under that deer real easy at 150yards ....believe me I have shot under a too many deer with the muzzle-loader, just because in the scope they looked closer then they were....Range is everything with shotgun or muzzle-loader.
When you look across those coarse rifle sights, you know the differents between 75-100yards and say 130-150yards real quick....The words get closer
jumps to mind ....There is two sides to every story, both slugs and
buckshot have there place...Long range 50-125yards slugs WIN, under 50yards
tight pattern of buck shot wins.....0 to 125yard slugs got it covered and is always the better choice, just it's not the only choice.