When I bought my house about 7 years ago I was cleaning up some stuff left behind and found an old box of Remington 12 GA 00 Buckshot. There were only 6 rounds left out of the original 25 round box. The box was beat up and says "New Plastic" on it describing the shells. Instead of a crimp like is found on buckshot the top is open and there is a paper disk instead of a crimp at the top of the shell. There is also a pulley hung up in the garage that may have been used to hoist up deer back in the day. The previous owner had only lived in the house for a couple of years and wasn't a hunter so nobody knows the history of the shells or the pulley.
Since I found the shells I decided I wanted to try and harvest a buck with one of them. I've gotten deer every year but am not a big fan of buckshot so I never carried out my plan. Yesterday was the second day of shotgun season so I decided to break out my NEF Single Shot 12 GA and hit one of my stands. About 45 min before dark a 3 pt buck came by. I waited until he was close, about 5 yards from the base of my tree, and touched off the shot. I aimed for his shoulder as this spot is real thick and I wanted to anchor him. I was amazed to see him take off after the shot although he only went about 30 yards. The pattern stayed pretty tight at that close range and was probably about 4" around. The state aged him at 2 1/2 yrs old and he weighed 137 lbs which isn't bad considering he probably lost some weight during the rut.
I decided to send the skull out to do a European mount. I've shot plenty of bigger deer but this one was kind of neat. I'm still not a fan of buckshot and know if I had hit this deer with a slug in the same place he wouldn't have taken a step. I wonder about who might have bought these rounds in the first place and how many deer were taken with the missing rounds. I'm going to box up the remaining 5 rounds with the spent shell I took my buck with and save them for my son who turns 9 this February. Maybe one day he can take a deer with one of the remaining rounds and pass them on to his kid one day.
I don't post much here but thought I'd share my long story. I didn't get any pictures as I drove the deer to get checked and then to the butcher. I plan on taking some pictures when I get the mount back with my old box of shells. I have one more buck tag left which I hope to fill with my bow or my 20 ga slug gun. Thanks for your time and hope you enjoyed the story.
