00 Buckshot

[andyhinds]

Has anybody ever used 00 Buckshot for deer hunting.  In Michigan (where I live anyways) you can only use shotguns for deer hunting, I don't have a slug barrel (nor do I want to buy one).  I was thinking of using buckshot, but I'm unable to find the lethal range for buckshot.

[Viper]

I would assume that it would not be very far, 100 yds or so. No rifles for deer, I bet there are a lot of wounded deer in Michigan.

[Farslayer]

Nope Andy, you've got use a slug.

[Ganef]

Here is what I found:

BUCKSHOT
Buckshot is NORMALLY used for deer hunting, although a large percentage of Law Enforcement agencies and the military employ it for anti-personnel use. #4 buckshot is the smallest size, and O is the largest. #3 is recommended for the 20 guage, and either #4 or OO is recommended for the 12 guage. Effective range is USUALLY 25-35 yards.

some other good info:

Buckshot from a shotgun offers no real range advantage over bullets from a pistol. The legitimate usefulness of both pistols and shotguns (loaded with buckshot) seldom extends beyond twenty-five meters.

In order to put people down quickly, all nine (00 buckshot) pellets need to hit the target simultaneously. At twenty-five meters and beyond, the pellets from most shotguns have spread apart to the point where some of them will miss a standing person, even if the bulk of them hit. A hit by even one 00 buckshot pellet will smart, to be sure, but it is best if all hit at once.

Buckshot smaller than 00 has an even lesser maximum effective range and is less effective when it hits. The advantage of using 00 buckshot, and the reason I have it in my shotgun right now, is that it is incredibly lethal, far more lethal than any pistol round and even many rifle rounds. People struck with buckshot in nearly any part of the torso go down quickly and rarely get up. Trauma surgeons describe most buckshot wounds to the torso as “non-survivable.â€￾

If your shotgun were loaded exclusively with slugs, the situation may have improved slightly, because slugs can be accurately fired at human targets out to eighty meters, sometimes even further. Shotgun slugs are also very lethal, but they have a recovery-time problem. Slugs are heavy, and the recoil is such that it takes time to bring the front sight back on the target after discharge. Big people find this easier than small people, but everyone finds it challenging to one degree or another.