It is too quiet out there, I guess I have to stir things up a bit!!!! Up here in Maine both buck shot and .22 Mag is legal for deer. Now I do know a couple of people who use buck right, 25 yards and under but for the most part the 00Buck hunters seem to think they have rifle range and effect. Now for the .22 Mag hunters, well they know better, but with a jaw full of Skoal they will try anything. After all they say it is a great full moon rifle!!!! Now for Buck shot if you want to limit your shots to under 35 yards with a really tight choke then I guess I will go along with it but if not, then you should learn how to shoot and get a rifle if it is legal for big game in your area. I know that I am predjudice about shot guns for big game, (lets leave out the modern slug guns) but if you know how to hunt and can get into shot gun range then why use a weapon that for the most part is poor in performance. A 45-70 will knock any buck shot load into the weeds and will also reach out to 100 yards and more!!!!

I can see the buck shot....but a .22 mag?!?! A Rimfire?!? I totally disagree with that.

****putting a dip in****

I am totally against the use of a rimfire for deer hunting. I have taken one deer with buckshot 000, and will never use it again. S-P-I-T!

Jud, I' m with you! I don' t condone ANY .22 for deer, much less a .22 mag.!!!!!!
As for buckshot, I' ve used it 3 times for deer, (two were successful) but will never use it again! Out to 35 yards buckshot is deadly. The draw back is that if the deer doesn' t drop on the spot, buckshot does not give you much, if any blood trail. Plus, when you limit yourself to 35 yards, you are bound to see something good beyond that range! The last time I carried a shotgun into the woods, I saw a nice buck, standing still, broadside at about a hundred yards! Easy shot for my .308, but nothing I could do but, watch him walk away! No .22' s or shotguns, or 30-30' s for that matter for me!

I have never used a shotgun for deer so I don,t know anything about that. I have shot several deer with a 22 Mag back before they had a deer season. I never had one run off but I would never recommend the 22 Mag for deer. I shot quite a few with a 22 rifle also. My mother used to send me out for meat when all I had was a 22. I shot everything edible with that old winchester pump with the exposed hammer. If I got close enough for a deer then thats what we ate. We ate mostly pheasant and grouse and ducks as well as a lot of cottontail rabbits.

Rimfires and buckshot are illegal in my state for deer hunting, for very good reasons.

I don' t understand why anyone would use buck shot for deer hunting in the first place- they must get the impression that because its called ' buck shot' it must be good for shooting deer with. A 12 guage slug even out of a shotgun with poor accuracy will pretty much give you the same maximum range as buckshot and will pack a much bigger whallop.

Well, buckshot should NOT be legal for wounding deer, which is all it' s good for!! I have no experience shooting deer with the .22 Mag., so can' t comment on that, but it doesn' t SOUND like a good idea![&:]

I wish people up here in Maine all thought the same as you guys. A lot of kids are started out deer hunting with the .22 Mag up here. There are also some who will shoot at deer at almost any range with buck shot, they empty the gun hoping they might get " lucky" .

Judson, I semi-agree with you on this one. The .22 mag has no place as a legal deer caliber unless your a poacher. Buckshot especially OO or OOO is a formidable weapon if used within its restrictions. Growing up in New Jersey that is the only legal weapon we had at our disposal until the early 80' s if memory serves me . Our shotguns were patterned(870 buckmaster) and we tried different ammo until we got the majority of the of pellets in a pie plate at about 40 yards max. I restricted my shots to 40 yards with buckshot and never crippled or lost a deer in the process, on the contrary it was instant death and no tracking required. Like everything else if you have some yahoo with any kind of weapon in his/her hands they will consistantly test the bounds of their weapons and ethics whether shooting buckshot or the latest ultramag. You can' t legislate stupidity in most cases.

What you said is very true, and like I mentioned there are several guys who use buck and use it right. They pattern their gun and stick to it' s limits. All we can do is try to educate or shame the slobs that hurt our sport into being ethical hunters, but I am afraid we never will.