Which shotgun load is best for deer is somewhat a question of application.
QUESTION: I’m hoping you can help a group of us that shares a hunting camp settle a debate about which is better for deer hunting, slugs or buckshot.
ANSWER: It’s impossible to say outright that one is superior to the other since much depends on circumstances and. to some extent, personal preference.
First and more importantly, both are short-range loads. With a decent slug-gun combination, you should be able to attain 3-inch groups at 50 yards. However, slugs can drop as much as 10 inches over 100 yards, creating a considerable margin for error past 50, unless you’re very familiar with the ballistics of your equipment. That being said, a slug will retain enough kinetic energy to be lethal out to 100 yards and beyond, provided you hit what you’re aiming at.
Maximum effective range for buckshot is about 30 yards. Beyond that, spread is too wide and the pellets too light to reliably hit a vital area and deliver enough impact to do sufficient damage.
Intended application is also different. Think of slug guns as big, short-range rifles designed to be aimed and fired at a stationary target. Buckshot is designed to work like birdshot, producing a pattern of enough smaller projectiles that at least some strike either a stationary or moving target. You’re basically unleashing between 9 and 12 .30-cal pellets with each shot.
However, it’s important to understand that beyond 30 yards, that pattern might be wide enough that you could miss a deer entirely or, more likely, hit it in an area that is not immediately (or ever) lethal. It’s better for close range shots in thick cover, often at moving targets, like on deer drives or when hunting with dogs.
Bottom line: You might miss more deer, or more shot opportunities with slugs, but if you hit the deer, you should recover it. That’s less often the case with buckshot.
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