My uncle who has now passed away, hunted deer with buckshot his whole life. I know for a fact that he shot well over 150 deer with buckshot. And this was in the old days, when deer were harder to come by, at least around here...
He used 00 buck, and he patterened his shotguns until he found one that would pattern 00 well, beyond 50 yards. He had no problem killing whitetails at 70 yards. He put his max "forsure" range at 80 yards but he knew he wouldn't drop them in their tracks at longer ranges, although some did.
Many years ago my dad used buckshot quite a bit, as did us kids, all with good success, although we kept our ranges to 40 or so yards. My dad ALSO took great pains to pattern his shotguns to see what the max range THAT shotgun would keep THAT load in the kill zone. My dad also spent a lot of time handloading custom buckshot loads trying to get better patterns at longer ranges.
There's nothing wrong with buckshot, it's like rifles, bows and handguns, it's the person behind the gun that's the problem! MOST take any shotgun and any buckshot and go hunting! Those saying to use a tight choke with 00 buckshot are living proof! RARELY will a tight choke pattern 00 or any bigger buckshot well. If folks took the time to pattern it, they would already know this.
Lastly, i learned something from my dad and uncle as a kid, and that is, where to aim with buckshot! Us kids learned early on, on anything but quite close shots at deer, you should wait for a side shot and then ain half way between the head and shoulder of the deer! As the shot moves away from the gun, it starts spreading out, and with the aiming point half way between the head and shoulder, most of the shot will go into the ribs and head of the deer.
Pattern "your" gun with "your" ammo, and see at what ranges, where to aim, or don't use buckshot on deer!! IF you aren't willing to do that, then i agree with the anti buckshot crowd here...
DM
