Dustoffer, that is wearing them out!!

quote:

Originally posted by Doubless:
Dustoffer, that is wearing them out!!

You are so right!

Not quite where this thread has gone, but I do wonder why folks feel that a 3" or 3.5" buckshot load has more energy/penetrates better?

Looking at most of the buckshot (and birdshot loads for that matter) as you lengthen the shell, your payload increases, but the velocity does not.

It would seem to me that it may increase your odds of getting one or more pellets on target, but that it would not appreciably increase your penetration. Having 9 pellets of buckshot in your near side hog shoulder or 15, it still is not going to kill the animal cleanly.

In bird shooting, I do tend to up the pellet count for purposes of making the 3-5 pellet hits required statistically for efficient killing, but if I can get that same number of hits with a short shell (by shooting them closer) why beat yourself up with the dramatically increased recoil? Similarly, with buckshot, you are trying to get multiple pellet hits in order to use an area effect weapon to get a vital hit. If the pellet does not penetrate, it doesn't matter how many you hit them with.

Now to what the thread was more about-

I know some folks kill deer with them. I know Peter Capstick thought they were the cat's meow for wounded leopard...in his books, anyhow.

I was also "privileged" to sit in on an autopsy once with the victim being shot with #1 buck. of the 7 pellets he was hit with, one hit a carotid and it (the blood vessel) dissected (meaning it did not penetrate the vessel, but rather weakened one side and then the vessel tore under blood flow), killing him, but not immediately. Blind luck for the shooter (or was it bad luck for the victim?) A case study of one, but why I have not been enamored of buckshot.

In any case, I would defer to someone like Dr. Pozzi who has not only a bunch of medical experience, but also a lot of hog shooting time. Looks like you would be best off to find anything but buckshot on hogs.

There is buckshot and there is BUCKSHOT!

Image: 12 gauge Tri-Ball buckshot with an equal weight of 00B.

quote:

Originally posted by dustoffer:
I use 3" mag #4 buckshot for hogs, but I'm shooting 'em under a feeder at 15-25 yds. Lays 'em in the dirt right well. Here's a pic of 5 with 1 shot I killed with a 20-ga #3 buck.



Just got to find a combo your shotgun likes, and don't expect long range kills.

As your photo shows, conventional buckshot can indeed be quite effective on smaller hogs. However, your most important point is "...find a combo your shotgun likes..." The most important thing anyone using buckshot can do is pattern test the gun/choke/load combination chosen. I suspect that many of the stories of buckshot failure are the direct result of operator error - failure to pattern test and failure to establish a minimum pattern/maximum range standard.