My livestock guardian dogs appear to believe the deer are a type of goat. The dogs don't mess with the deer and the deer have no fear of the dogs.

Keith

I've considered buying a crossbow for a use case where one is shooting from an elevated position, there is no backstop for shooting from the ground with a firearm, and neighbors or livestock are just over a 1/4 mile away.

Think ridge tops during firearms season with deer traffic that is consistent. A year round tower blind in such areas would work well, I would think. It is one of the very few reasons I'd buy a crossbow. Every year I've watched deer in this spot, nice bucks, but with a firearm the chance of skipping a round or if you miss not accounting for the bullet in a backstop is a no go.

It might be an idea for your nuisance permit.

Buckshot is a crap shoot, some guns will pattern tight most don't seem to, from what I've seen keep the range as short as possible, like under 40 yds, but YMMV....
baited in close and a 22 to the head has killed a lot of deer...the pro deer exterminators use a 22 suppressed magnum over bait and pile them up....most of the regular nuisance guys I know now use a 20 gauge slug....at night with a light