Alabama Lifts Stalk Season Buckshot Ban:

[RMc]

The Alabama Conservation Advisory Board lifted the statewide ban on buckshot during stalk hunting deer season. Previously buckshot was only legal in areas and seasons open to dog deer hunting.

In returning the ammunition/firearm decision to the hunter, the C.A.B. recognized the popularity of buckshot for stalk, and stand hunting thick cover in many areas of the state.

 

[au01st]

 

[kentucky bucky]

How well does buckshot actually kill deer? Our state has never allowed it, so I've always wondered. What is max range?

 

[pikid89]

^well, they dont call it buckshot for nothin

 

[jimmyraythomason]

How well does buckshot actually kill deer?

Deer killed with buckshot are quite dead. It is very lethal within 50 yards. I don't use a shotgun or buckshot but have friends who use them quite effectively.

 

[41]

I've killed 2 deer with 00 buck, the farthest being about 45 or 50 yards. Both were does, but the pellets were against the skin on the far side of the deer. So I guess that they are effective several yards past 50.

 

[41]

I've killed 2 deer with 00 buck, the farthest being about 45 or 50 yards. Both were does, but the pellets were against the skin on the far side of the deer. So I guess that they are effective several yards past 50.

 

[RMc]

Buckshot size range.

Current factory loaded lead buckshot pellet sizes:

Run from 4B (.24 caliber/21 grains) to Tri-Ball 12 (.60 caliber/315 grains)

The most common size is 00B (.33 caliber/54 grains)

 

[Owen Sparks]

How well does buckshot actually kill deer?

Magnificantly if the entire pattern hits the deer in the vitals and the pattern is no bigger than a dinner plate. Once you get out past about 15 yards though velocity drops off rapidly and patterns get big and irratic. Round balls have very poor sectional density and a low ballistic coefficent. Buckshot is best on dangerous "game" in the 200 pound class at indoor distiances, not deer in the woods unless you know you can get right up on one.

 

[RMc]

Your perception of buckshot effectiveness appears to be stuck in the 1940's!

Yes, tight 40 yard patterns are easily attainable with buckshot today. Lead buckshot sizes in factory ammunition run from #4B (.24" / 21 grains) to Tri-Ball 12 buckshot (.60" / 315 grains), giving hunters the choice of penetration/pattern options.

 

[rugerman]

Growing up in south Ala. most of the deer hunting was done by running the deer with dogs so shotguns with buckshot were the gold standard and they worked. But they also wounded a lot of deer that were shot at too long a distance. I also disliked that you seldom killed a deer without messing up 1 or both front shoulders and the front part of the back strap and you usually got a pellet of two in the gut. The way I see it buckshot works fine for close up stuff but I prefer a rifle past 30 or 40 yards.

 

[Owen Sparks]

Your perception of buckshot effectiveness is stuck in the 1940's!

No, my perception of buckshot is "stuck" under the hide of a deer I helped clean a while back. My buddy broadsided it with a 3 1/2" load of 00 Magnum Buck at about 35-40 yards and it did not go down but his son droped it with a neck shot from a .30-30 as it ran into the next pasture. After the "autopsy" we found that of the 11 pellets that hit somewhere on the deer, the majority were found just under the hyde and had been stoped by the ribs. Only two actually went between ribs and made it into the left lung that had a moderate amount of blood in it. Sure the deer would have eventually died but probably not where it could have been found.

 

[RMc]

No, my perception of buckshot is "stuck" under the hide of a deer I helped clean a while back. My buddy broadsided it with a 3 1/2" load of 00 Magnum Buck at about 35-40 yards and it did not go down but his son droped it with a neck shot from a .30-30 as it ran into the next pasture. After the "autopsy" we found that of the 11 pellets that hit somewhere on the deer, the majority were found just under the hyde and had been stoped by the ribs. Only two actually went between ribs and made it into the left lung that had a moderate amount of blood in it. Sure the deer would have eventually died but probably not where it could have been found.

Perhaps your buddy fired at a much greater distance than 35-40 yards. My experience with 00B has been finding the majority of 00B under the skin opposite the entry point.

With small buckshot ie. 00B, I limit my shots to the range that I consistently get a 6 pellet strike in the 10 inch core pattern - usually 40 - 45 yards.

On the other hand with Tri-Ball buckshot complete penetration from any angle is the norm.

 

[Owen Sparks]

It was a 3 1/2" Magnum with an 18 pellet payload (standard loads hold 9). Actual pellet velocity is usually lower with magnum loads. This might have had something to do with the poor preformance.

 

[dogrunner]

To me, buckshot is problematic. Sometimes it'll work ok.......but in my humble experience it's really a better wounder than killer. I do stoke my old A/5 with the stuff, but the immediate followup round is always a slug. I have personally shot a buck at 40 or so yards dead on in the brisket & knocked him down, that deer got up and I again shot him in the right shoulder knocking him onto his left side. The thing then got up and was shot two more times by a friend that had only a .22 mag pump rifle. Sure, he died, but ONLY after running well over a hundred yards in very heavy oak scrub! And yeah, that buck was being run by dogs. Still I had trouble believing what I'd just seen

Again, I've personally known of one single pellet kills at fantastic ranges, but those are truly the exception to the rule.

Buck does NOT leave a very good, if any, blood trail even with solid body hits and I have never seen a single instance where full thru and thru penetration was achieved. As stated, in every instance I've dealt with the pellets were lodged against the off side skin.

Relative to that last, I well recall a homicide I investigated years back where in one sleaze bag killed the other. The weapon used was a sawed off single with a tube of approximately one foot in length. The shell was a plastic cased Remington 2&3/4 containing 00 buck. The victim was a skinny woman that might've weighed 90 pounds soaking wet. The gun was jammed into her lower chest just under her sternum and discharged at contact.......the angle was slightly upward and absolutely NONE of those pellets completely penetrated her body, NONE! That entire batch of pellets were lodged just under her skin between her shoulder blades! When we turned her body over it looked like marbles under her skin.


That last is subjective I know, but it truly reinforced my personal opinion that the stuff is truly best used as a very short range proposition.

 

[RMc]

"Buck does NOT leave a very good, if any, blood trail even with solid body hits and I have never seen a single instance where full thru and thru penetration was achieved. As stated, in every instance I've dealt with the pellets were lodged against the off side skin." Dogrunner.

With conventional small pellet buckshot like 00B, the lack of a blood trail is a well known problem. That is not true of cutting edge large pellet buckshot with .60 caliber pellets.

 

[RMc]

For what it's worth...

The small 4" Baby Dragoon .31 cap & ball revolver will penetrate 2 spaced 7/8th inch boards and lodge in the 3rd. That penetration is achieved at roughly 760 fps. - far less than the 900fps retained 60 yard velocity of 00B from a WW 3" 00B load. Hmm... that ought to penetrate deer hide and then some.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BTT/is_173_29/ai_n7578405/

In ballistic gelatin 00B pushes over 16 inches - after penetrating 4 layers of denim cloth. Hmm...

http://www.brassfetcher.com/index_files/Page541.htm

In wet-pack penetration ran:

Dixie Tri-Ball: 24"
00B: 7"
#1B: 5"
.30-30/170 gr. soft point: 14"


http://shootersforum.com/showthread.htm?t=39309


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These figures may pour some fuel on the discussion fire.

 

[RMc]

It was a 3 1/2" Magnum with an 18 pellet payload (standard loads hold 9). Actual pellet velocity is usually lower with magnum loads. This might have had something to do with the poor preformance.

Remington 3.5" 18 pellet 00B 12ga. Nominal velocity 1125 fps in a 30 inch full choke test barrel. Given the slow burn powders used, a 21 inch "Turkey" barrel would probably run this load in the neighborhood of 1025 fps.

 

[RMc]

DRT..

...tell us about the shot you made with buckshot that dropped the deer in its tracks?

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

What kind of patterns and what chokes do ya'll use? Back in the day when we used shotguns while hunting with dogs we used open chokes and did a lot of praying. We killed some deer, but wounded more that were never recovered. We spent more time hunting dogs and deer anyway.

 

[41]

I use a full choke with 3 or 3.5 inch 00 buck. I've only shot two deer with buck shot, and I killed both of them quickly. I've seen a lot of others shoot deer with buckshot, and very few were not recovered.

 

[CSA 357]

the key to buckshot is range, its not made to kill deer at 100 yards! its for up close i have killed alot of deer with buckshot and all shotguns dont pattern the same, some do very well and vice verca, in a thick place were shots will be around 40 yards buckshot will do the job, you should pattern your gun to see what size it does best with and what choke. tighter choke is not always better with buckshot.