What shot size?

N

Northern Sod Breaker

New member
First off let me say that I am well aware that there is no shot size that will excell at everything. What I am looking for is a shot size that will be acceptable(not the same as excelling) for the wide range of uses. Here is my list of uses.

HD
Coyotes
Stray Dogs
and the like.

I've considered buck shot but don't like the small no. of pellets. Also it is is fairly hard to find in my local. What got me thinking is that the local hardware has a sale on #4 shot. Is this worth a try? I'm not worried about animals of the feathered kind because I buy #6 for that.

TIA
 
Anything between #2 and #4 is perfect. Those loads are more often than not what people in my AO use for deer inside of 30 yards, and they'll do a number on stray dogs and BG's as well.
 
If I had to pick only one "do it all" shot size, it would probably #6. Probably not the best thing for skeet or trap, perfect for upland game, will take down a duck if need be, and in close quarters will certainly make a BG see Jesus.

There's really no reason to limit yourself to only one shot size. I prefer #8 for trap and skeet, #6 for upland game, #4 for duck hunting, and #2s for goose hunting. I think the #2s should be good against BGs as well.

For deer hunting, I'd rather go with a slug or a rifle, but that's just me.
 
Anything smaller than #2 shot is pushing it. For HD, I would not go with anything other than buck shot.

Remember, a miss with 500 pieces of shot is not any better than a miss with 9 pieces of buckshot.

As far as availability, order through one of the many internet providers.
 
A shotgun is arguably the greatest single versatile firearm there is. Swap out a barrel or a few chokes, and you can deal with BGs, large or small game, fur or feather.

Having achieved such flexibility with a single firearm, it seems unfair to penalize it, and yourself, by limiting yourself in the ammo department. Number 6 is probably the best all around for hunting, but I would gamble five to ten bucks on another box of something else before I made # 2s work overtime for home defense, or buckshot for geese.

Are you under some logistical constraint? Storage, money, whatever?
 
Arizona Fusilier. My main constraint is money and availibility. I checked my supplier of ammo (mail order) They realy didn't have much to choose from in the way of HD ammo.
 
see if you can go #1 buck, ideal for HD, and dogs/yotes i'm sure it would do a number on...a bit more pellets than 00 as well.
 
banditt007 has it right. #1 buck is superior to the ever popular 00 buck for defensive purposes. It will also work superbly on the four legged critters you mentioned as well.

From firearmstactical.com: "Compared to the total combined cross sectional area of the nine pellets in a standard #00 (double-aught) buck shotshell (0.77 square inches), the # 1 buck shotshell has the capacity to produce over 30 percent more potentially effective wound trauma."
 
My first question is how close?

How close are you going to be to the dogs and 'yotes.? If not rock throwing distance I'd opt for slugs.
Depending on your home circumstances they could sure work for hd as well,just a mite more wall-penetrion possibly.
 
Federal NO. 4 buckshot sounds about ideal. 34 pellets, makes a great long range Turkey and night time predator load.
 
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