Hi!
I was wundering if any of you use/or have used Buckshots for hunting?? what sort of hunting? how did they work?
I have heard that they are very effective as a "stopper" at close range 0-25 yards..
//Overkill

hi,
I used buckshot 00 buck/sg 9 balls 8.4 mm 12 gauge once for whitetail deer, and there"s no way i"d do it again. It is very poor for killing deer, but i have used slugs to much better effect. I have shot goats with slugs and they are devastating, causeing good knock downs and excessive bruising. If i had to use a shotgun for big game, it would be slugs every time. I have nothing against buckshot itself, i"ve had good results against foxes with sg at surprising ranges.
Maybe others will dissagree, especially Americans who use it a lot more than Europeans in "shotgun only" states, and maybe at very close range it might be ok, but i"d be using slugs!
good shooting

Fortunately I've never had to use it but those that have say only if necessary [some areas here require it] and use 00 Buckshot at 25 yards MAX. Slugs are much more effective ,have much greater range and can be very accurate if using a rifled barrel.

My usual deer area is limited to shotgun, archery, handgun and muzzleloader this year. I own none of those right now and a shotgun seemed the best option, so I did some online study of various law enforcement websites. Here's what I learned:

1. Shotguns strike a crushing blow if you're shooting people at short range. Extend ranges much and that changes.
2. Using a shotgun past 20-25m is irresponsible because patterns become so large that they pose a danger to bystanders.
3. A shotgun with Vang Comp or Wadmaster modifications and selected ammo can put buckshot in a 10â€/25cm pattern at 30m.
4. You may have to test a large number of loads to find a load that shoots this well.
5. Unmodified cylinder-bore guns may group that well at half the range. Or not – it depends on the ammo and the gun, which vary wildly.
6. Buckshot gives the best patterns with Modified or Improved choke, and that tighter chokes tend to open the patterns.

I also did some research on slugs:

1. They can be accurate in fully rifled barrels, but again you may have to test a lot of ammo to find one that works well.
2. Wind drift can be a significant factor beyond about 60m.
3. There are no guarantees of accuracy with shotgun slugs.
4. Good slugs are astonishingly expensive, even compared to premium rifle ammo.
5. Accurate slug loads are virtually impossible to handload.

So it seems I need a specially tuned gun and a large ammo budget to make a shotgun a workable proposition for hunting deer. I've dedicated myself to using a revolver this year, but if I can't get up to scratch with it, I'll find a new area or concentrate on hunting elk.


Okie John

Have had plenty of expereince with buck shot.
It is cheap,and extremely effective under certain situations.

00 9ball buck shot is used almost exclusively for wild animal control work here in NZ, thats a polite PC way of saying helicopter culling .

You have to be close, so use your imagination as to the skills of our pilots (20-40m)and the shooter is always attempting head and neck shots.

The big advantage with buck shot is that there is very little meat damage from the occassional shot that isn't head or neck. low velocity. trust me in the right hands and under the right conditions its devastating.

I doubt that still hunting from the ground is ideal.