whats the deer hunting range for 12ga 00 buckshot?

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All buckshot is not created equal. A lot of the stuff you buy off the shelf is very soft and will deform, thus decreasing penetration. I've experimented with BPI super buck, and that stuff really doesn't expand. I started to experiment with #0000 loads, but we had to move and put all our stuff in storage before I could get a good patterning load. Also, BPI is offering super buck in .500" dia. I wonder if a 3.5" shell full of those could be made to adequately pattern at "bow ranges"?

Sorry bout the tangent, I just can't wait to get back to my experiments and tests.
 
Jason good luck with the 0000 loads. Never had luck with 0 much less heavier but that was always full chock guns. I did have one shotgun i traded barrels with a duck hunting buddy before i found the right combo to hunt with. It would not shoot anything well enough to take to the woods. After the trade to just of a couple year newer factory barrel it worked. Still have that old mossy today. Just don't use it anymore as a smoothbore. Rifled slugs now in IL. Some dumbies will just not understand how well buck can work . Try hitting running deer krochus with slugs in heavily wooded or swampy areas.
ZIP7 some will never understand.
 
. Some dumbies will just not understand how well buck can work . Try hitting running deer krochus with slugs in heavily wooded or swampy areas.
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You guys spent the first two pages saying how tight your scattegun needs to pattern to be useful with shot and yet now you're saying the pattern is so wide it's much easier to use than a slug. Which is it.

And appearantly some guys who are willing to take hail Mary "hope this works" shots on running deer don't realize how innefective the stuff is
 
Jason good luck with the 0000 loads. Never had luck with 0 much less heavier but that was always full chock guns.
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I'm going to try an open choke and try to control the pattern with the right kind of wad. Might take a bit of messing around, but it should be an interesting process.
 
JASON W hope you have a strong shoulder or a lead slead.hehe Miss those young days of hunting,sure killed a pile of deer with 1buck.
 
JASON W hope you have a strong shoulder or a lead slead
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I don't usually shoot more than three or four rounds of the miserable stuff per session. Maybe 2 to get a pattern, and one into the test medium.

I shot a full box of 3.5" lightfield slugs once. I wasn't feeling quite right for a few days after that.
 
To you buckshot fans; What EXACTLY does buckshot do inside it's range better than a slug?
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Open up to a wider pattern that makes hitting a deer running in front of dogs a greater certainty.

You guys spent the first two pages saying how tight your scattegun needs to pattern to be useful with shot and yet now you're saying the pattern is so wide it's much easier to use than a slug. Which is it.
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Both. Do I really have to explain this? A slug is what? less than an inch wide? A buckshot pattern that expands out to about a foot, foot and half wide gives you quite a bit more probability of putting pellets in the vital zone on a running deer.

Sorry you had a bad experience on the "ONE" deer you shot with buckshot. But if I wrote off every bullet, broadhead, ammo, weapon, etc, etc, that "ONE" random person on the internet had "ONE" bad experience with then there would literally be nothing left I could hunt with. Especially when I have no way to know the full circumstances of that one incident.

No, I think that I will base my opinions of buckshot on the dozens of deer I killed with it back in the dog hunting days around here. I never had a problem with it. Some deer dropped. Some ran a bit which was never a problem since we had dogs for tracking if need be.

Heck I shot a deer right over the heart with a 270 once and had it run 110 yards and crawl under the farside of a downed tree top. Like to have never found him. D@#N RIFLES, they just suck for deer hunting. LOL!
 
. Some deer dropped. Some ran a bit which was never a problem since we had dogs for tracking if need be.
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Key


So in your own words you're saying you'd lose deer using buckshot were it not for your dogs and that if not hunting with dogs there's no reason on gods green earth to use buckshot vs a slug.
 
Use the foster style slugs.
Not only will it be much better ballistically but you will be able to shoot much farther.
One of the longest days I ever had during a past deer season many years ago was helping an older man track down a five point buck he had shot using a 12 gauge H&R single barrel shotgun with a fixed modified choke and loaded with 00 buck.
The shot was 29 yards.
We found the deer hours later.
Only two of the nine pellets had struck the deer.
One was high on the back strap and the other was the eventual and painful killing shot.
A classic gut shot.
Save the ballistically inferior buck shot for fun or home defense.
Use the slugs please.
 
Cant We All get along. I mean really there are places here that the only alowed means of hunting is by using buck shot so the slug comments are unwaranted. The op asked a simple question and that question was not Buck shot or slugs? I often find myself in our public hunting areas where the only way allowed to hunt is with Buckshot. it all depends on preference and what is allowed. I would say that the OP came with a question and we should help where aplicable.

BTW to the OP I consider my range with the 000 and a modified choke to be at 35 yards and I can get about 40 yards with my full choke with 00 buck anything further and my pattern is pretty far open. Being as where I hunt I cant see through the woods for more that about 25 to 30 yards I usually use the 000 buck I hope this helps.
 
I would say 50 feet.
Possibly further, however the pellets will start such a wide pattern that some will miss while maybe one or possibly two hit the area you are trying to hit.

50 feet and under I would think would be the most humane kill.
 
krokus must have one of those super slug guns that does it all with out ever missing ,makeing a bad shot and can shoot 400yards with it . Bet he shoots turkey and ducks with slugs to.He is the king.
 
Abel no not at all. Full choke barrels would typicaly shoot 1buck and 4buck but not the 0's. Any from there to the cylinder bore barrels would throw the bigger shot better. Not always but most of the time .
 
hardluk1 said:
krokus must have one of those super slug guns that does it all with out ever missing ,makeing a bad shot and can shoot 400yards with it . Bet he shoots turkey and ducks with slugs to.He is the king.
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I'm just gonna reply by quoting my own previous post


IME shot from a shotgun is the most worthless stuff out there for deer hunting, I'd rather see folks using a .22lr. Shot is for birds and small game it has no place in the deer woods
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On some WMA's it's a matter of legality.
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Than it's a very ill advised law, what would a game and fish commission hope to accomplish by essentially advocating creating wounded non recovered and NON TAGGED harvests. Which they all have their regulatory brain fart moments here we can shoot coyotes wit a 30-378wby mag but you use a 357 and you're breaking the law and then in many WMA's with hog overpopulation problems you can only hunt wit a a rimfire or shotgun shooting no larger the T shot (as if you see T shot sold everywhere)
 
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Maximum Effective Range is 40 Yards. It has an Maximum Range of 800 Yards. Buck is deadly up to 2/3 of a mile be careful.
 
I read an article by John Wooters that made the claim that 000 buck at 100 yards had the equivilent foot pounds of energy of a .22 short.
Not much there for stopping a game animal the size of a deer by hitting them in the body at that range.
Can it kill...Yes.
Read my above post #34.
I agree with Krochus a law requiring buck shot only for deer anywhere is a bad idea thought up by someone imho who knows not what they are talking about or who cares not a wit about the game animal.
If you chose to use it just know it's limitations.
Which is very short.
 
Shot 2 doe in 5 minutes with a Benelli 28 inch barreled M1 with full choke. Rem No 1 buck 2 3/4. Both were kicked up in a field and were shot at a distance of 20 and 30 yards. Rolled both. 1st one required a second shot to finish it off. 2nd one expired after a minute or so. Won't use it again as it has a very lmited range and penetration compared to a slug. Buckshot is for home defense IMO.
 
Wow, this thread has legs.

I know a 75 year old trapper that killed a 4 point buck with a hatchet. Now who wants to debate that he was under"gunned" and should have had at least a splitting maul to ensure a clean kill?

Deer aren't the hardest animals to bring down. I lost one to a bow shot a long time ago when I first started bow hunting. Since then, I've skinned every one I hit with anything. I got one the morning after an evening bow shot, but I got him. If you shoot a deer in a vital area with buckshot inside 40 yards it will die. Like anything else, if you don't hit a vital area you got problems. Deer are not armored - at close to medium range a 30/06 - 270 type cartridge is really overkill for whitetails.

I think no matter what you want to use a particular gun/load for you can find someone here that will tell you it's not enough. And that is why everyone needs a .470 Nitro Express double rifle - the true do it all gun!
 
And appearantly some guys who are willing to take hail Mary "hope this works" shots on running deer don't realize how innefective the stuff is
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I'll take my 40 years of experience with buckshot telling me how effective buckshot is, over your experience shooting one deer with it. I don't know how many hundreds of deer I've seen killed and killed myself with buckshot, but it's been a bunch of them. I've shot myself a total of one (1) deer more than twice. All the rest took two shots, but they never moved out of their tracks (Neither did that other one, but she took a couple more shots to anchor her). I've never to track one anywhere.

Personally I've never had much use for 00 and not many people I hunted with did either. Number 1 was by far the most popular overall, with 000 being second. Personally I'm a "Three inch, Number 1 out of modified choke guy." Range? 40 yards tops. I've heard of longer shots, but they were just dumb luck or exagerations.

Why not use a slug?

Number one. Because it wasn't legal where I hunted.

Number two, I would have had to buy a rifle sight "slug" barrel (Yea, I know you CAN shoot slugs out of a regular barrel). With buckshot I could use the same gun I used for rabbits, squirrels, groundhogs, turkey shoots, tossed tin cans, and copperheads.

Number three. It killed like lightening.

You can use anything you want. It's ok with me.
 
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