anyone that thinks buck shots a great option for bear or elk, really should stack up three sheets of 2 ft x 2 ft square sheets or 3/4" plywood ,
and place a target on it , staple a sheet of typing paper 8.5" x 11" horizontally as a representative kill /vital zone
place the target stack of plywood out at 50 yards
fire two quick shots , with buckshot, if you do have buckshot hit the kill zone look at the rear of the plywood for buck shot pellet exits
your not going to find any...now repeat the process with slugs, in most cases they both hit the kill zone and exit the stack of ply wood, think that over
your potentially going to get out and look for that bear, do you want a dead bear or one highly motivated to get revenge on the cause of his injury.

https://www.savagearms.com/firearms/...s/212-slug-gun
yes they also make it in 20 ga for the guys that are very recoil sensitive
personally I want the 12 ga version, but I know several guys with both ga versions and both versions work,
on the deer and hogs Ive seen shot,
but theres no real comparison in how hard they hit
and as always proper shot placement and a knowledge of the games anatomy is required

I think it would be irresponsible to use buckshot for bear. In addition to what Hardcast just posted, with all the fat beneath the hide of a bear you would be real luck to find a blood trail to track because the fat would close the holes.

I see no upside to using Buckshot, the pellets start losing energy fast after 35 yards. While smooth bore slugs carry a lot of energy out to double that.

If you have a smooth bore; Brenneke classic slugs shoot hot (1500 fps) and don't really loose a lot of energy or velocity out to a hundred yards. I've shot 2.5 MOA with them at a hundred yards, 22 inch barrel 3X scope.

One thing people fail to consider with buckshot is the pellets are light, with a relatively large cross section and they don't penetrate fur well. I've gotten solid hits with 00 Buck at 35 yards on a running Fox and they didn't even slow down. Best guess is the fur greatly reduced the penetration. I've actually had good results with 2 shot, best guess is the smaller cross section of the pellets actually helps with penetration while passing through fur. I really don't understand the physics of it, but after shooting many dozen of Fox I can tell you for a fact smaller shotgun shot (BB or 2 shot) just works better on Fox. There is a reason the FBI uses 4 Buck instead of 00 Buck.

I've been underwhelmed with my 00 Bucks results on animals a whole lot smaller than Bear. I wouldn't even consider using 00 Buck on Hogs or Bear. Slugs are usually big hole in, big hole out and leave a good blood trail that is seldom needed.

If you choose a "slug" round for black bear, avoid most of the current crop of Foster type rifled slugs with a "hollow point." These soft lead thimbles quickly turn into a soft lead pancake with the center missing and often break into multiple pieces - severely limiting penetration.

For those who prefer buckshot, I suggest using the largest, hard cast buckshot round commercially available, the 12 gauge, 3 inch Dixie Tri-Ball Buckshot round. This buckshot round is in a class by itself, with three 60 caliber, 315 grain hard cast pellets at 1100 fps. Forty yard patterns from my 870 with a full choke tube usually run under 4 inches!