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

Why don't you PM the OP and get his address?
Maybe make a sizeable donation to cover his losses?

He said baiting to get the right angle, not baiting to draw more in

OP I would go with a .22Mag and headshots if they are that close

I would go with a 22 mag HP. Head shots only. Knew a guy who used a 22 hornet for his permit deer. Years ago up in the Cleaveland area there was a guy trapping deer in one of the city parks. He was using a 330 with an apple on the trigger, set up in a tree. Took a while but the park rangers finally caught him. Herter's used to sell deer traps. They were fairly strong traps with real high jaws.

I hate buckshot.I would say nothing past 15 yards.

The effective range of buckshot outperforms your pattern. You can kill coyotes at 100 yards but you are lobbing them out there. It'll smoke any close range deer I'm sure. I'm not sure 3.5" are worth fooling with but I've shot a lot of them. Seems more handy to have more qty 3" rounds in the mag tube. It was common to stagger my shells. i.e. the last couple shots were 00 assuming I needed the range by the time I got there but primary was actually copper platted BB, for yotes. Truthfully F and T shot outperformed 00. I have some 3" F mags I bought a case of 20 years ago. I'll be sad when those are gone.

Tighter choke isn't necessarily better. They bunch up, deform, and begin to flair coming out. I like the Carlson coyote chokes. If you call them they know the patterns well enough to suggest one for your shotgun.

Target area probably depends on range. Id think up close brain stem would be pretty effective but if it was out further typical boiler plate shots taking out the lungs would be the way to go. 3 or 4 .22+ cal chunks of lead passing through lungs and heart is 3 or 4 times more effective than an arrow I'd think. With 3" @ 15 pellets per at close range I'd think you'd be pretty effective.

22 mag pistol might be fun too and may not have the negatives of a full out rifle.

Suppressed rifle after dark would be ideal I'd think. Thats how the states do it when they get serious about it.

I like the quote that "pistols put holes in people, rifles put holes through people, and 00 buck throws body parts on the floor."

Keith effective range depends on the gun and gow well it will pattern different loads. Every gun i have shot it in its been very close range. But my cousin had one he had set up for shooting it anf it smoked targets 80 yards away.

I suspect the way your place dropes off in the valy behind the house you can shoot about anything you want and be safe just pick your area you dont take a shot. I cant remember where the neighbors houses were.

Im thinking your leaning more at a target of opertunity vs wasting time staking out for them?