#4 buck, 40 @ 40yards.

[Britsmoothy]

I'm simply relaying my own experiences. It seems to me you are likely more experienced with fox than I am.

I did rewatched your videos, and noticed you mention your Pederosli 10 gauge shoots low. Mine did as well. Unfortunately I never did come up with a perfect solution for that. I had been shooting mine with a slip on cheek pad, but it felt weird shooting it and seeing so much of the top of the barrels.

I haven't noticed it shooting low with shot before this test. Recoil was low really. I think more powder is needed and may lift the muzzles a pinch for me.

Most of my foxes are shot with rifles but my favourite shot is #4 bird. As you mentioned shotguns don't primarily work on the chance a pellet just happens to hit the right spot ( although that can and does happen) but rather the accumulative effect from many hits. There is always a compromise mind. Pattern verses pellet count, pellet count verses penertration etcetera etcetera.
I do think a lot of folks look at pellet size and think no go bigger when under most circumstances they actually would be better with more strikes from a higher pellet count.

It is illegal for me to use buck shot on deer in the UK but I have been so close to deer on numerous occasions it would be a viable option despite what the critics say. I don't need an expert to agree with what I already can determine for myself! So come the great tribulation I guess I am somewhat ready, God willing.

 

[nhmoose]

After 55 years of deer hunting I will pass on buckshot. To many times we had to trail wounded deer shot with it. I stopped using it in the 1970's, unless I was hunting where visibility was 10 yards or so.

That would be in the hemlock swamps using waders. There I liked #1 buck loads at max capacity. Complete penetration resulted with a good pattern. Past 15 yards deer could not be seen.

However today with ML I pass on all buckshot for deer. RB's rule. I do like buckshot for vermin and defense. My vermin loads use "F" nickel plated lead 16 grain .220 pellets devastate fox, and coyote. Coyote to 60 yards with a full choke tube in an unmentionable and 40 yards with a 12 gauge fowler.

Also film in landscape by turning the phone sideways. The other way makes you look like a teen age girl

 

[hanshi]

I began losing faith in buckshot at the police range. I noticed sometimes the 50 yard silhouette would be untouched by the 12 ga and buck. When I got a 12 ga BP double and tried that, results were actually better; not ideal, just better. I even hunted with it a couple of times but saw no deer.

Most hunters are once-a-year tyros and lousy shots. Once while in a tree stand on private property a shot some distance away caught my attention. Fifteen minutes later a deer limped into range. The doe had been shot in the front leg but the bullet had also made a terrible open wound across the chest. The wound was non survivable so I dispatched it then and there. Another time I shot a buck following behind a doe and he dropped DRT. Upon examination I discovered the buck had been shot with an arrow that hit high on the left side, skidded across the ribcage exiting lower on the right. Massive lumps of scar tissue suggested it wasn't that bow season; likely the previous year.

I can think of at least one scenario where a dbl with buck rules. That would be tracking a wounded cat in the bush. It should also be the answer to a wounded bear as well.

 

[Treestalker]

Great video

Buckshot is for hunting whatever invades your domicile at 2am, or your chicken house with bad intent! Rolled a Big Red Son Of A Biscuit Eater with #4 buck one time, he'd been here many times, warning didn't work, the 'concerned' owner came looking for his doggie. 'Have you seen so and so?' Why no, but I'll keep an eye out, I said, standing about where I buried that chicken murdering rearranged piece of canine filth.

 

[Treestalker]

Here is the intro. After a bout of illness I get chance to try some buckshot.

Close up of the shot and improvised 2oz measure.
View attachment 79699
OK We got the squirrel with around 2oz of airgun pellets, hey they were free so deal with it .
Shot 1.


View attachment 79698
That's about 13 pellets out of 40, I don't think that's bad.
Shot 2.

Not so good on this shot but a smaller target! In fact roughly the size of a roe bucks chest it would indeed be dead. BUT NOT LEGAL EXCEPT FOR UNIQUE RARE CIRCUMSTANCES!
View attachment 79700
Shot 3.

Just three pellets in the small target, but it would of killed a fox!
View attachment 79701
I think that has ruined a fox's day!

So there you have it. Totally unscientific I know but it shows potential.
Wad column was a thin card, lube, leather wad. Brown paper ball, thin card, buckshot, thin card.
A lot of shot struck low in the dirt. Next time I think I will try 120gns.

Why Brit, You missed your calling, who knew you were an actor in disguise! Well I simply MUST have an 8x10 signed glossy of your lovely mug to hang up in the house to run the wife crazy, LOL!

 

[ADK Bigfoot]

I began losing faith in buckshot at the police range. I noticed sometimes the 50 yard silhouette would be untouched by the 12 ga and buck. When I got a 12 ga BP double and tried that, results were actually better; not ideal, just better. I even hunted with it a couple of times but saw no deer.

Most hunters are once-a-year tyros and lousy shots. Once while in a tree stand on private property a shot some distance away caught my attention. Fifteen minutes later a deer limped into range. The doe had been shot in the front leg but the bullet had also made a terrible open wound across the chest. The wound was non survivable so I dispatched it then and there. Another time I shot a buck following behind a doe and he dropped DRT. Upon examination I discovered the buck had been shot with an arrow that hit high on the left side, skidded across the ribcage exiting lower on the right. Massive lumps of scar tissue suggested it wasn't that bow season; likely the previous year.

I can think of at least one scenario where a dbl with buck rules. That would be tracking a wounded cat in the bush. It should also be the answer to a wounded bear as well.

On a trip to Africa, I was asked to come along to investigate a farm worker's report of something that scared her away from her washing by the windmill. My host did not inform me object of the mission, only asked me to bring my "two two" (22 rifle). When I got to the scene and discovered that the quarry was a 14 foot python, I shouted "You don't hunt snakes with a "two two!" That is what 00 Buck was invented for!!!!" I went back to the house and retrieved my pump 12 gauge and six rounds of 00 Buck and we solved the problem. Buckshot has its uses, for sure.

ADK Bigfoot

 

[Booneliane]

I’ve shot an awful lot of fox and coyotes with BB lead. In modern shotguns though.

No need for buckshot. More pellets over bigger pellets.

 

[Britsmoothy]

After 55 years of deer hunting I will pass on buckshot. To many times we had to trail wounded deer shot with it. I stopped using it in the 1970's, unless I was hunting where visibility was 10 yards or so.

That would be in the hemlock swamps using waders. There I liked #1 buck loads at max capacity. Complete penetration resulted with a good pattern. Past 15 yards deer could not be seen.

However today with ML I pass on all buckshot for deer. RB's rule. I do like buckshot for vermin and defense. My vermin loads use "F" nickel plated lead 16 grain .220 pellets devastate fox, and coyote. Coyote to 60 yards with a full choke tube in an unmentionable and 40 yards with a 12 gauge fowler.

Also film in landscape by turning the phone sideways. The other way makes you look like a teen age girl

"Teenage girl". Cool, makes me feel sassy. Wish I had waggled my hips more now.

 

[Valkyriemc]

I’d love to see a ‘sportsman’ go down to the swamps of Louisiana and tell one of them old boys they shouldn’t use buckshot on deer. I used to hunt down there around Houma and the deer were always on the run and if you got a shot at all it was 7 yards away and you had to be fast on the trigger. Of course, those boys mostly logged or worked shrimp boats and if they missed the shrimp or the Mills weren’t taking lumber it was Possum in the pot, deer full of buckshot, or government cheese. Absolutes don’t work in a world that has more than one frame of reference.

I used triple exclusively when close range hunting in dense swamps in North East Nc and South East Virginia. Loaded in my Browning BPS Stalker 10 ga insured they only took one step - if that. Poking one through the lungs with a rifle, and it's a jump ball where he's going and finding him.

 

[SPQR70AD]

After 55 years of deer hunting I will pass on buckshot. To many times we had to trail wounded deer shot with it. I stopped using it in the 1970's, unless I was hunting where visibility was 10 yards or so.

That would be in the hemlock swamps using waders. There I liked #1 buck loads at max capacity. Complete penetration resulted with a good pattern. Past 15 yards deer could not be seen.

However today with ML I pass on all buckshot for deer. RB's rule. I do like buckshot for vermin and defense. My vermin loads use "F" nickel plated lead 16 grain .220 pellets devastate fox, and coyote. Coyote to 60 yards with a full choke tube in an unmentionable and 40 yards with a 12 gauge fowler.

Also film in landscape by turning the phone sideways. The other way makes you look like a teen age girl

buckshot is horrible for deer. hunted in NJ for 20 years saw 80% of the deer run away after being blasted more then once with buckshot lit by smokeless powder. when NJ finally switched to slugs I no longer lived there

 

[Britsmoothy]

buckshot is horrible for deer. hunted in NJ for 20 years saw 80% of the deer run away after being blasted more then once with buckshot lit by smokeless powder. when NJ finally switched to slugs I no longer lived there

Ahhr well that's where the error was! Lit by smokeless! You were constrained by cartridge dimensions! Classic mistake

 

[Britsmoothy]

I used triple exclusively when close range hunting in dense swamps in North East Nc and South East Virginia. Loaded in my Browning BPS Stalker 10 ga insured they only took one step - if that. Poking one through the lungs with a rifle, and it's a jump ball where he's going and finding him.

Funny looking trad muzzleloader, where the flint go?

 

[SPQR70AD]

Ahhr well that's where the error was! Lit by smokeless! You were constrained by cartridge dimensions! Classic mistake

I would think smokeless buckshot would be faster then lit with BP. am I right?

 

[Britsmoothy]

I would think smokeless buckshot would be faster then lit with BP. am I right?

More speed is useless if the pellet count is low brother. With a muzzleloader you can add more shot. At the ranges buck should be used over the velocity difference between black powder and smokless powder is not going to make much difference. In my humble opinion ofcourse.

 

[SPQR70AD]

More speed is useless if the pellet count is low brother. With a muzzleloader you can add more shot. At the ranges buck should be used over the velocity difference between black powder and smokless powder is not going to make much difference. In my humble opinion ofcourse.

The main problem with buckshot was lack of penetration that I saw. do you think you would get better penetration with your load?

 

[appalichian hunter]

Mega, so you recommend buck shot in order too off set poor marksmanship, I agree buck shot is a crippler on deer, sure sometimes one will get lucky and kill one with buck shot but I do believe that is not the norm. Buck shot is designed as one thing a man stopper and then at close range.

 

[SPQR70AD]

Mega, so you recommend buck shot in order too off set poor marksmanship, I agree buck shot is a crippler on deer, sure sometimes one will get lucky and kill one with buck shot but I do believe that is not the norm. Buck shot is designed as one thing a man stopper and then at close range.

you are exactly right

 

[Britsmoothy]

The main problem with buckshot was lack of penetration that I saw. do you think you would get better penetration with your load?

Just sufficient.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Mega, so you recommend buck shot in order too off set poor marksmanship, I agree buck shot is a crippler on deer, sure sometimes one will get lucky and kill one with buck shot but I do believe that is not the norm. Buck shot is designed as one thing a man stopper and then at close range.

That seems to be a leading question and certainly not in megas context.
He clearly described the circumstance it has a use.
The fact it gets a bad press is more symptomatic of its misuse than a defect with the product.
Miss using a rifle or whatever will give similar results. It's just that with buckshot the envelop for misuse is large.
It's never going to be the person's fault who never tests grandpa's gun with the cheapest ammunition he can find is it. No its going to the ammunition!
If someone's terrain is unsuitable for its use then ofcourse, it should not be used. On the other hand........

 

[appalichian hunter]

Thin skinned game or pests such as fox, coyote, that sort of thing sure, A deer is a strong willed creature and very surprising sometimes, Brit the damage it can sustain, regardless of the issues of snap shooting through cover or not what ever the projectile. I have shot a lot of buck 00 Remington copper plated law enforcement 8 rounds per shell, in a Remington 870 pump riot gun 25 yards is the furthest it will satisfactorily perform and this on a controlled range with wide open shooting lanes. I stand bye my convictions that buck shot is not a excuse for the inability too make a good shot, or ones poor marksmanship skills. I should suggest if one is so un-sure of the shot what ever the load do not shoot.