Lets Talk About Buckshot

Now, I have never shot a human with buckshot but I have shot a truckload of deer with them and my results have been varied but the best I have found by far in killing power are #1 buck and #4 buck. They both have plenty of penetration and offer denser patterns than 00 or 000 buck. I can't tell you the number of deer I saw shot where the "magic bb" was what stopped them, a pellet to the spine puts them on the ground but not out every single time. Back in the day I used to shoot Activ nickel plated buckshot and that stuff was very hard and resisted deformation. A lot of the pellets ended up under the hide on the far side and could have been reloaded and shot again. The #1 was good to 40 yards and the #4 was better at shorter ranges and aimed at the neck.

My HD shotgun has #4 tungsten buckshot in it now. The way the house is set up anyone coming up the stairs will lose their head and there will be less overpenetration of the structure behind them. The larger sizes in tungsten penetrate like crazy and I wouldn't want to endanger the neighbors. And they aren't cheap, I wouldn't go shoot 3 gun matches with them.