What is buckshot for?

As the name suggests, it was designed for deer. Obviously, there are better choices out there and rifled slugs solve the smoothbore shotgun hunting problem.

It's best suited for close range, less than 35-50 yards.

It's basically just bigger pellets inside the shell. It's recommended for HD scenarios as well.

two legged predators

Yeah, in my eyes it's perfect for Bad Guys, and not so hot for anything else.

two legged predators

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Slugs works rather nicely on them too.

I don't think it is good for much except HD. It don't think it penetrates deep enough for deer and certainly not anything bigger.

Peanut,
Try telling that to the load of deer I've killed/seen killed by buckshot.
Point blank to 40-50 yds depending on choke and pattern, and remember to aim the shotgun and you will kill deer reliably.
Buckshot is for deer, HD is the secondary use.

Really great for bucks and son's of bucks.

Peanut,
Try telling that to the load of deer I've killed/seen killed by buckshot.
Point blank to 40-50 yds depending on choke and pattern, and remember to aim the shotgun and you will kill deer reliably.

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Ok, it can kill deer. Why would you use a shotgun instead of a rifle unless you were required to use a shotgun and in that case why not use a slug? Buckshot seems pretty marginal, and I'm sure more have been injured than killed from people trying to use #4 buckshot which is far too light for deer IMO.

I've heard of too many deer having to be tracked a long way and still finished off by a rifle when found, so I'm not too fond of it for deer.

I agree with Floyd.
Hunting with dogs is real big here, and most all the deers are killed with buckshot. It gives us not so great shooters a better chance of a kill, especially when they are running or at closer distances.
I dont think Ive ever shot a deer with anything other than buckshot. I dont even own a rifle other than 17hmr, thinking bout getting rid of that(for an AR15).

in that case why not use a slug?

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Sometimes slugs are regulated just like rifles.

Shooting Bucks of coarse

Coarse = rough
of course = certainty

If i was starving and not worried about ethical clean kills as much as I was about eating then I would use buckshot over slug or rifle in some situations. close cover and Jump shooting deer.

I don't know why ppl don't think it's suitable for deer, I loaned my shotgun out to a friends' father last winter, he shot a 200lb buck at 60yds, 8 pellets entered the heart/lung area, of course this was with 3 1/2 00buck from a 26" barrel with a super turkey full choke(THE tightest available).

What is buckshot, what does it do

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Whoo eez yore da-dee, and vat duz he doo?


ETA: Sorry, I'm on all kinds of cold medicine, and haven't slept in two days. I thought it was funny.



And, buckshot is the only thing you want to use when running dogs.

what is buckshot???? Marginal for deer???? Yall need to get out more often.......:banghead:

Rifles are for deer.

Buckshot is for running deer and advancing bad guys.

Buckshot is certainly not for deer up her in WI. It just bounces right off dem deer hides dere, eh?



Actually, it's not allowed for deer hunting here. I'll bet that has nothing to do with it bouncing off.

Buck shot was developed and used first for hunting bucks. 000 is the largest size equal to a .36" bullet; the common 00 size is about .32" and comes 9 or 12 in a standard 12ga shell, or 15 in a three inch magnum shell. Smaller buck shot (#4 forty-one pellets about .25" in a 12ga 3" shell) have been used for hunting larger birds.

Some states do not allow buckshot for big game hunting (they require single slugs instead). When used properly within about 35 yards max range it is a humane killer on deer.

Buckshot is also a good choice for military and police use for close quarters combat. The US military has used hundreds of thousands of Winchester 1897 and Model 12, Ithaca 37 and Mossberg 590 shotguns, mostly with buckshot ammo (nine 00 per shell), for over a century.

Buckshot is also an excellant choice for self-defense for the same reason it is good for close-range big game hunting and close quarters military and police combat.

Buckshot was for deer. I think today it is illegal almost everywhere...maybe not.

Buckshot was developed for market hunting of deer in the days before hunting licences etc. Those were the days when deer, numbering probably a million here today, went extinct in Indiana. Buckshot was the tool, and rifles too of course, and the lack of regulation was the cause. The term "buck" for the dollar came from those days. A buck skin was worth about a dollar to the market hunter and there was an enourmous demand for buckskin for all sorts of things in the days before plastic.

Of course 9 or 12 .32 caliber pellets out of a shotgun is quite a load and it soon became a serious anti-personnel round...witness the USMC vs the Germans in WWI, stagecoach guns, etc.

So it is not so much what buckshot is for as what it was for.

i think its illegal to use buck shot on deer in pa.