Has anyone killed a deer with buckshot?
11-06-2013, 06:07 PM
#11
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Virginia / West Virginia
Posts: 4,906
At 20yds, 3" or 3.5" 00buck will crush any deer you shoot with it. I wouldn't hesitate to use it. Over the years, I've killed a number with 3" 00. I would recommend under 40yds as a rule. Also, pattern your gun with whatever load you shoot. And make sure you aim, don't just point and shoot.
11-06-2013, 09:32 PM
#12
Dominant Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Central Florida
Posts: 25,116
I would rather use my 30-30 but most people have no idea how thick a FL bayhead is...In FL most of our land is thousands of acres of fields of palmetto s that can range from 1 foot high to 5 feet high and thick laura type shrubs...this is where the deer spend the nights feeding.....Then, about 30 minutes before dawn they enter in the bayheads....the bayheads is where it's wet...the outside of the head has a perimeter of briars and the inside is where the game is and the moccasins and gators live...most bayheads don't have a cypress tree fat enough for a climber...the ground is wet making still hunting a good choice...but the inside is simply a maze of twisted up vines and millions of small sapling cypress trees..but all the game stay here until dusk...the mosquitoes stay active in here all day...these cypress bay heads can range from 1 acre to miles....most hunters set up outside the heads hoping for a shot...they usually strike out...the hardcore successful ones still hunt inside the deer's habitat...you will always see snakes...guaranteed..
11-06-2013, 10:00 PM
#13
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 9,230
I hunt a couple of the Navy bases in VA pretty regularly, when I'm in the country. Due to the rules on these particular bases, buckshot is all you can use other than archery eqpt. Buckshot is effective if you keep the range to a max of 30 yards. I'd rather use a slug gun or my 6.5x54 Mannlicher, but it wouldn't be legal on the base.
I took this buck off one of the bases last year. If you look on his side you can see where the pellets hit him. They were 00 Buck and they tipped him over on his nose.
I took this buck off one of the bases last year. If you look on his side you can see where the pellets hit him. They were 00 Buck and they tipped him over on his nose.
11-07-2013, 03:52 AM
#14
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Onslow County, NC
Posts: 1,856
Nearly all dog hunters i know use 00 Shot 3" shells. It will do the job and never had issues tracking a deer either. As mentioned pattern the shots you want to use and pattern it at different ranges. Your max shot will be between 30-40 yards recommended.
11-07-2013, 04:33 AM
#15
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Where the ducks don't come no more
Posts: 4,420
I have killed DOZENS (and that might be a conservative estimate) of deer with buckshot. Like others have said, in eastern VA lots of the time that is the way you must do things.
Buckshot can kill deer at ranges twice that of what anyone else listed. Of course a 30-06 can kill deer at 1200 yards too... so that said, not every gun and not every shooter can do that (me included... not by any stretch).
Point is, buckshot has the energy to kill deer at 100 yards. I know of a FEW guns that can put 4 of 15 pellets of 00 in a 10" circle reliably at 75 yards. I know of three 10ga guns that can put 6 of 18 at that range. Still... at best you are talking about applied optimism. All that does is buy you some +/- yardage estimation when a deer busts out of cover and you only have a split second to shoot or not. Those are the guns that will forgive you if a deer is at 60 yards instead of 45.
Most people who hunt with buckshot have ZERO business shooting beyond 40 yards. Not just because they can't shoot (which in my experience half of people who hunt just flat cannot hit the ground with their hat), but because they don't take the time to find out what choke and load is going to perform best for them.
Most people OVERCHOKE buckshot. They use an extra full or a turkey choke. Seldom is that the best choice. Even buckshot specific chokes, like the Kick's Buck Kicker, while it may be marketed at a full or extra full, will only measure as a modified or improved modified if you put a caliper on it.... but it will give you full or extra full performance.
My experience, modified chokes (in general) work the best. And so does larger shot, meaning 00 and 000. My deer gun is an 870 wingmaster magnum. I shoot a Briley Extended Modified choke tube with Remington 3" 000 buckshot (10 pellets). At 40 yards it will put all 10 down the mouth of a 5 gallon bucket (12" circle), and all 10 will still be inside a 20" circle at 65 yards.
Nothing wrong at all with #1 or even #4 buckshot. I have killed quite a few with #1s when hunting in really thick cutovers. Never used #4s on anything but foxes. BUT, no matter how great that gun patterns, you are looking at NOTHING over 40 yards. Especially with #4s. While those loads have tremendous muzzle energy, they lose that energy very quickly. All buckshot does, but 20 yards in the buckshot world is like 200 yards in the rifle world; lots can happen over those 60 feet.
Don't feel like you must have 3.5" loads either. The 3.5" buckshot loads are not as fast as 2 3/4" loads and only give you 3 more pellets over a 3" load, but they do give you 50% more recoil and noise, along with an increase in price. Also, not nearly the selection of shot size, or plated/non-plated loads with 3.5" as there is with 3" and especially 2 3/4".
As for plated/non-plated shot: GENERALLY plated shot will give you tighter patterns, which is true with any lead shot as there is less pellet deformation. I have owned guns that shot plated better, but currently hunt with a gun that shoots plain lead better. Guns are fickle. Plated shot will also tend to penetrate better (the old Rem Preimier nickel plated buckshot would go through a deer LENGTHWISE), but plated shot doesn't flatten out against bones like unplated tends to... the nickel plated stuff definitely didn't. So occaisionally, you will have clean holes punched through shoulders. Now, as long as the pellet gets where it needs to go then it will kill the deer, but deer with broken shoulders don't go near as far as deer with a good leg in each corner. When a lead pellet hits a bone, it usually smashes it, and those bone fragments will continue into the vitals... and it works right good.
I like to shoot does in the head. I have a gun that can smoke a flat top dead at 40 yards. If they are in close to you, its the best bet, and you will have zero meat loss (that's why we shoot does anyway). With bucks, I like a higher shoulder shot, I like that shot with a rifle too. I want to break his infrastructure as well as take out what is behind it.
Deer shot with buckshot typically don't leave as good a bloodtrail as one shot by a single projectile and certainly no place near as one shot with a sharp broadhead. But it will be there. Best case is if the deer doesn't die right where you shoot it (in my experience the vast majority of them do), keep shooting.
No matter what, go to Lowes and get some contractors paper. Sold in the building materials department. Rosey red in color. 36" by 150' for $12. Cut some 36x36 squares and stick an orange target dot in the middle. Record the distance, choke and load and give it a swing. I have made cardboard circle templates of 10 20 and 30" that I trace around so I can record the number of pellet strikes (%) in each circle. That central 10" circle is what matters, the rest is just margin of error. Seldom will a gun shoot best what you think it will. Only way to know is to shoot it.
Buckshot can kill deer at ranges twice that of what anyone else listed. Of course a 30-06 can kill deer at 1200 yards too... so that said, not every gun and not every shooter can do that (me included... not by any stretch).
Point is, buckshot has the energy to kill deer at 100 yards. I know of a FEW guns that can put 4 of 15 pellets of 00 in a 10" circle reliably at 75 yards. I know of three 10ga guns that can put 6 of 18 at that range. Still... at best you are talking about applied optimism. All that does is buy you some +/- yardage estimation when a deer busts out of cover and you only have a split second to shoot or not. Those are the guns that will forgive you if a deer is at 60 yards instead of 45.
Most people who hunt with buckshot have ZERO business shooting beyond 40 yards. Not just because they can't shoot (which in my experience half of people who hunt just flat cannot hit the ground with their hat), but because they don't take the time to find out what choke and load is going to perform best for them.
Most people OVERCHOKE buckshot. They use an extra full or a turkey choke. Seldom is that the best choice. Even buckshot specific chokes, like the Kick's Buck Kicker, while it may be marketed at a full or extra full, will only measure as a modified or improved modified if you put a caliper on it.... but it will give you full or extra full performance.
My experience, modified chokes (in general) work the best. And so does larger shot, meaning 00 and 000. My deer gun is an 870 wingmaster magnum. I shoot a Briley Extended Modified choke tube with Remington 3" 000 buckshot (10 pellets). At 40 yards it will put all 10 down the mouth of a 5 gallon bucket (12" circle), and all 10 will still be inside a 20" circle at 65 yards.
Nothing wrong at all with #1 or even #4 buckshot. I have killed quite a few with #1s when hunting in really thick cutovers. Never used #4s on anything but foxes. BUT, no matter how great that gun patterns, you are looking at NOTHING over 40 yards. Especially with #4s. While those loads have tremendous muzzle energy, they lose that energy very quickly. All buckshot does, but 20 yards in the buckshot world is like 200 yards in the rifle world; lots can happen over those 60 feet.
Don't feel like you must have 3.5" loads either. The 3.5" buckshot loads are not as fast as 2 3/4" loads and only give you 3 more pellets over a 3" load, but they do give you 50% more recoil and noise, along with an increase in price. Also, not nearly the selection of shot size, or plated/non-plated loads with 3.5" as there is with 3" and especially 2 3/4".
As for plated/non-plated shot: GENERALLY plated shot will give you tighter patterns, which is true with any lead shot as there is less pellet deformation. I have owned guns that shot plated better, but currently hunt with a gun that shoots plain lead better. Guns are fickle. Plated shot will also tend to penetrate better (the old Rem Preimier nickel plated buckshot would go through a deer LENGTHWISE), but plated shot doesn't flatten out against bones like unplated tends to... the nickel plated stuff definitely didn't. So occaisionally, you will have clean holes punched through shoulders. Now, as long as the pellet gets where it needs to go then it will kill the deer, but deer with broken shoulders don't go near as far as deer with a good leg in each corner. When a lead pellet hits a bone, it usually smashes it, and those bone fragments will continue into the vitals... and it works right good.
I like to shoot does in the head. I have a gun that can smoke a flat top dead at 40 yards. If they are in close to you, its the best bet, and you will have zero meat loss (that's why we shoot does anyway). With bucks, I like a higher shoulder shot, I like that shot with a rifle too. I want to break his infrastructure as well as take out what is behind it.
Deer shot with buckshot typically don't leave as good a bloodtrail as one shot by a single projectile and certainly no place near as one shot with a sharp broadhead. But it will be there. Best case is if the deer doesn't die right where you shoot it (in my experience the vast majority of them do), keep shooting.
No matter what, go to Lowes and get some contractors paper. Sold in the building materials department. Rosey red in color. 36" by 150' for $12. Cut some 36x36 squares and stick an orange target dot in the middle. Record the distance, choke and load and give it a swing. I have made cardboard circle templates of 10 20 and 30" that I trace around so I can record the number of pellet strikes (%) in each circle. That central 10" circle is what matters, the rest is just margin of error. Seldom will a gun shoot best what you think it will. Only way to know is to shoot it.
11-07-2013, 04:52 AM
#16
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Where the ducks don't come no more
Posts: 4,420
I did an article for Whitetail Times on buckshot guns a few years ago. Actually found some of the patterns and the article in my email.
This is a pattern at 40 yards with a Beretta 390 Silver Mallard, Briley modified choke, Winchester supreme 3" 00 buck 15 pellet load. 3", 10", 20" and 30" circle.
Needless to say, the gun was a killer. My wife killed her bear with it a few years ago before I bought her a Browning Silver Micro Midas 12ga (she is short). Great shooting gun that Beretta was, but I could never shoot it as well as my Remingtons.
This is a pattern at 40 yards with a Beretta 390 Silver Mallard, Briley modified choke, Winchester supreme 3" 00 buck 15 pellet load. 3", 10", 20" and 30" circle.
Needless to say, the gun was a killer. My wife killed her bear with it a few years ago before I bought her a Browning Silver Micro Midas 12ga (she is short). Great shooting gun that Beretta was, but I could never shoot it as well as my Remingtons.
11-08-2013, 08:07 AM
#17
Dominant Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Central Florida
Posts: 25,116
Thanks so much for the replies guys....they were all very helpful..i picked up 3 boxes of 3inch magnum 00 buck Remington today...5.00 each....where i hunt you cant see past 20 yds...super thick
11-16-2013, 09:47 PM
#19
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 9,230
Why not? Believe it or not, buckshot does less damage to the meat than a high velocity soft point. You may have a few more holes but you don't get all the bloodshot meat. Other than a few bone fragments, it isn't a big deal. The pellets don't expand hardly at all so often you have clean round holes on both sides since unless they hit major bone they normally punch straight through.
11-21-2013, 12:18 PM
#20
Fork Horn
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 287
Never tried it with buckshot, but I used to gather up old tires and make some cardboard inserts. I'd get someone to roll them down a long hill and practice with my 30-30 and .44 lever guns. Pretty humbling at first, but I got better over the years.
