whats the deer hunting range for 12ga 00 buckshot?

[R.W.Dale]

would you buckshot fans listen at yourselves?

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,

If you've killed hundreds of deer with the stuff and not managed to make a killing shot ONCE out of the first round using buckshot that's not amazingly effective, it's a spectacular unmitigated FAILURE

Number three. It killed like lightening.

that's not what the first paragraph said

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

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again another illegitimate pro buckshot arguement. If you need a "pattern" make hits on a deer sized critter at 40 yds even with a smoothbore bead sighted gun.........well

 

[Todd1700]

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.

No I didn't say that. Perhaps a remedial English course would benefit you some in the area of reading comprehension. You know a refresher of sorts.

If a deer ran out of sight hit with buckshot we would very often just let the dog walk us right to it. We would have recovered them but why not use the dog. It's standing there. By your logic I guess I should pass by my truck sitting in the yard tomorrow morning and walk the 9 miles to work. You know, because it's stupid to use a convenient, useful item that you already have close at hand. LOL!!!

there's no reason on gods green earth to use buckshot vs a slug.

Well a slug has a much better range and killing power than a bow. So invoking your logic there is no reason on God's green earth to ever use a bow. Right?

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

Yeah and all those guys out there taking hail Mary shots at ducks with shot shells should stop too. You know sometimes they miss even though they are using shot? Pathetic losers!!! They should be shooting at flying ducks with slugs and hitting them every time like Krochus. Cause he can hit anything no matter how fast it's moving with one solid slug. Those guys shooting skeet in the Olympics are losers too. They should be shooting skeet with a 22 rifle like Krochus. LOL!

People have run deer with dogs down here for many generations. In that time I think they have learned a thing or two about it. If slugs out of shotguns had put more meat on the table then that is most assuredly what they would have gravitated towards over the years.

Buckshot on running deer works best for the same reason that birdshot works better than a single larger pellet on a flying dove or quail. It not only gives you a wider killing field but a stream or cone of pellets to intersect with the moving animal.

We never had any trouble killing deer with buckshot back in the day. My friends and family killed many, many, many, deer with it over those years.

Sorry you had so much trouble. But here's a tip. Next time aim at the front shoulders instead of it's @$$. You can tell which end that is cause there's a neck and head attached to that end.

 

[Todd1700]

So in your own words you're saying you'd lose deer using buckshot were it not for your dogs

Well are you saying here that any weapon that has the potential to result in a lost animal should be banned? Cause congratulations that's the end of all hunting right there. Deer are lost after being shot with rifles all the time. And lord have mercy don't even launch into how many are wounded and lost each year by bow hunters. Do people lose deer with buckshot? Yep, for the exact same reasons that they lose them with everything else. They didn't put the shot were it needed to go. Because a load of buckshot behind a deer's shoulder inside it's lethal range of about 40 yards will put deer on the ground. Some will go down fast and others will run a bit. But running a ways is not the horror story proof that buckshot shouldn't be used. Keep in mind that all deer, unless spined by the arrow, will run when shot with a bow. Doesn't mean they are not lethally hit. Or that bow hunting deer is wrong.

People use buckshot for a specific purpose like running deer with dogs and in some places where it's all that's allowed. Outside of that I would opt for something else too. I said in my first post that it's not my preferred thing to use. After all why limit yourself to bow hunting range with a firearm unless you have to? When I want to limit myself to 40 yards or less these days I carry my bow.

But it will do it's job if you do yours. I stand by my assertion that most people never pattern their shotguns with buckshot to find what choke or type ammo it shoots the best. And the difference you can see with different combinations of those two things can be drastic. Also many, many, shotguns do not throw patterns to the aiming point of the bead sight.

It's the same with my turkey guns. For example one of my shotguns with a Kicks choke and Remington turkey loads will not put 70 pellets in a 10 inch circle at 40 yards. Screw in a Rhino choke and switch to Hevi-13 ammo and it will put 230 pellets inside 10 inches at 40 yards. I also have a Mossberg shotgun that throws very good patterns but throws them high and left of point of aim with the bead sight. It required an adjustable sight to correct for that. And shotguns are just that picky about choke/ammo combinations with buckshot too. And just as likely to perhaps throw the center of a buckshot pattern left/right or high low. Patterning reveals all and sadly many never do it with buckshot.

Going into the woods with a shotgun you have never patterned is, to me, just as bad as going into the woods with a rifle you have never sighted in.