Is hunting deer with Buckshot ethical?

yes,provided the shooter is
close enough range
hit is in vitals,most or all pellets in that area. i would say like 80% or better in a 8"-9" circle.

its legal in NJ, been like that for years,probably because of the land being flat in most areas,thick brush,swampy areas that hold deer.

i load with buckshot if i'm stalking. #1 buck 12ga 16 pellet load.

my father killed a spike buck years ago,somewhere like 18 i think. using #1 buck. deer was no more than 30 yards away,there was a fallen tree between him and the buck and it was bounding. the branches were riddled with shot holes. the buck took 2 pellets to the ribcage,dropped after going no more than 50 yards. 30 yards to me is within archery range. i bowhunt too:)
 
It is if you respect it's pretty limited range. Out to about 45 yards it's pretty lethal but it runs out of steam very fast after that. Hard for people to let a good buck pass at 55, 60 yards though and not sling some buckshot at it. Deer gets away wounded and the buckshot gets wrongfully blamed. Also most people don't pattern their shotguns to see how good a pattern that it is throwing with buckshot. Same people will spend countless hours patterning turkey shot however. Go figure.

We used to run deer with dogs when I was a young man and I killed a good many deer with it. It works if you don't ask too much of it.
 
SCcdp
Both were controlled hunts or canned, if you wish and under control of the military. That was their requirement and even provided the guns and shot.


Be Safe !!!
 
Buckshot is all that's allowed in Illinois. I don't consider shooting an animal from 20 yards away with a 12-gauge to be all that ethical. I'll also add "sporting" element, just to prove how old I am!

Come deer season, I much prefer to use a compound bow. I never use a stand, but stalk my winter's supply of venison. It's ethical, and it's sporting!
 
I had a bad experience with buckshot and deer when I was younger and it turned me sour on it for years. Now, with all the new ideas incorporated into slug guns, turkey guns, and the newer chokes, I think buckshot would be O.K. if you experimented first. You have to admit, if you are older, that slug guns were a joke years ago.
 
Ethics (also known as moral philosophy) is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality; that is, about concepts such as good and bad, right and wrong, justice, and virtue.

using that small piece of knowledge, an ethical hunter is best described as those who do the utmost to harvest an animal LEGALLY and HUMANELY.

buckshot does not meet those requirements. the animal survives to die from infection after a month or so. ive found to many deer shot to hell with buckshot that lived a month. its not good to see a deer thats swollen and infected like that, its not at all a pleasent way to die.
 
I have taken 2 deer with 410 000 buck shot but I usually prefer to use 12ga...
then again I also archery hunt. I think as long as you know the limits of your weapon and follow those limits then it is ethical.
 
What size buckshot gives the greatest range?

How far would you stretch your 12 gauge buckshot load on deer or wild hogs?

Which is the best size:#1B, 0B, 00B, 000B, or Tri-Ball?

1B - .30 / 40 gr.
0B - .32 / 48 gr.
00B - .33 / 54 gr.
000B - .36 / 70 gr.
Tri-Ball 12 ga. - .60 / 315 gr.
 
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when hunting deer with my 12 I usually use 00 buck shot and ill shoot any thing >40 yards away... I think I could kill some thing farther away if I had to but I like to play it safe, I don't want any wounded animals running around.

000 may do a little better but I don't like it in a 12... though it does go well in a 3inch 410.
 
@Newton 24b

I agree with what you've said, on the surface of it.

That said, I've never seen a deer survive a full load of .00 from 10-20 yards, more than a few seconds. Shooting a deer from longer ranges may be unethical, especially if the hunter doesn't know his weapon. Indeed, not having a thorough understanding of how the shot pattern will spread, out to 40 yards, and taking that lack of knowledge into the field, is unethical.

Earlier, I said that I used a compound bow, rather than my shotgun. I may re-assess that position, since my last hunt (I hunt for a winter's worth of meat ... feeding my family is ethical). In that hunt, I put a four-blade broadhead into the deer from no more than 15 feet, and the arrow pierced two chambers of the animal's heart, and one of its lungs. It still took 30 minutes for it to die.

That the hard part about being ethical. There are so many variables ...
 
The foundation or ethics, is morality. Now ask yourself; Whose morality and there lies the confusion, at least to some.

By my measure, Ethics is doing your absolute and honest best, in your own best ways.

With that in mind, I have developed my own personal Hunting Code of Ethics. What works for me may not work for you and some of the things I do, you may not like. That is how it works. Even anti-hunters have a personal hunting code and that may be as simple as they not accepting the killing of poor defenceless animals. A great start on building your Hunting Code of Ethics, is to start by following all hunting laws and build on that.

So getting back to the question and my earlier responce; Is hunting deer with buckshot ethical?
Yes, it could be. :)

Be Safe !!!
 
30 minute bow kill?

I used to hunt with a real bow (recurve or longbow) and never had a deer go more than 70 yards, some running flat out. Two blade heads, you can usually hear them go down if they are in brush or leaves. Think about the time there. Running flat out,down in 60 yards. Dead in under 2 minutes, probably less. Maybe you should reexamine ethical.
 
30 minute bow kill?

Wow, if you actually took out the heart and one lung of your deer,
(30 minutes is an awful long time for it to expire). I bow hunt a lot (and have for the last twenty five years). In my experiences so far, every deer I have ever shot through the heart/lung died pretty quickly. Sometimes they run a bit when shot through the heart but always expired quickly (if actually shot in the heart). Just like a car, when the oil pressure is gone, its over with. Might want to change broadheads?
 
Newton: just because the animal survived a shotgun wound for a month before it finally died a painful death does not mean that it was the fault of the buckshot that was used on it (assuming that was the ammo used).

We/you do not know what distance the animal was shot from, but I think we can fairly agree on two very likely causes:

1. the shooter tried to take the dear at too great of a distance (either did not know the limitation of the ammunition, or cared more about taking a shot regardless of the known limitation)

2. shooter simply took poor aim and did not hit the vitals

Either way, it is not the fault of the ammo used, but the user that made it unethical, under the specific circumstances.

I don't see any arguments that a .30-06 may be unethical, but If I didn't bother to sight it in out of laziness or even ignorance (for example), then using it to hunt would be just as unethical as anything else could be.

Just my opinion
 
How many pellets do you guys think is the minimum effective payload to bring down your average whitetail?
Ill start by saying more than one. I'm not suggesting no whitetail has ever been dropped by a single pellet from a buckshot load. I'm just saying you wouldn't hunt deer with a single shot .38 special if you had other options.

That being said, the gun your using has to be patterned at various distances to determine what its "effective" maximum range is.
If you are delivering 3 pellets from a 9 pellet load of 00 into the kill zone at 50 yards, I would think that is a relatively clean kill.
The tighter you can pattern those pellets, the longer you can extend your effective killing range. Longer barrels, extra-full chokes, and specialized wads can all add to that range.
 
I have to agree with uncle ben on this one. I did land clearing/logging for about 2 years when I was younger, and working the thick brush in late January-February really shows you something. Rifle and slug hunters have no idea how many deer are lost during their season. I suspect a lot of inexperienced hunters mortally hit deer and don't know it. I know a lot of times I shot deer and there was not any real reaction to the hit. I always check it out even if I am sure I missed, but there is always the lazy guys that just don't care.
 
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