What's the effective range for 12 gauge 00 buckshot on deer?

Should you target the heart, or are neck shots okay at close range?

I had to get a new nuisance permit for deer. I have deer eating my fruit trees and saplings within a few hundred yards of neighbor's properties. What distance, shooting at a downwards angle, is safe from 00 traveling that far?

At times, the deer are coming within a few feet of my house. I could hit them with a 6' stick from my bathroom window. I can yell at them and they will just stare blankly at me. They are not often giving me the shooting angles I feel comfortable shooting in, when they are doing the damage up close.

Will 00 ricochet off of ground like a hayfield?

I think rifles and slugs could go farther than I feel comfortable with. I can legally use any round and harvest 8 deer, 24/7.

I might have to bait them to give me an angle that is safer. I am seeing deer in broad daylight, even mid day and at night. They have cost me thousands this year.

Keith

Can you use a bow

25 yds hits a silhouette of a human body. What about a 17 cal, w/fmj in the head? Better range, put it in the ear canal, will drop like a ton of bricks.

Buckshot will bounce around like ping pong balls.
Range I would not feel comfortable beyond 40 yards for buckshot,slug 60-70 yards.
A 20 g slug will go right thru a deer sized animal.
I have killed a truckload of beaver with 00 12ga buckshot.
Take a few shots to pattern your buckshot.When the pellets spread to 8-10 inch pattern thats your good effective killing range.

Killed a buck with 3" 00 buckshot that was standing broadside at just over 100yds. 2 of the 9 pellets punched right thru his ribcage. No clue where the other 7 pellets went.

This was with a 12 ga modified choke with just a bead for aiming. Bead and barrel view covered up nearly entire deer sight pic.

Stupid of me to fire on that spike buck that far, but a 17year old kid does dumb stuff sometimes...lol

Best to pattern to see how far it'll hold tight enough to be effective. In a good patterning gun/load combo, check out federals flitecontrol loads or hornadys similar versatite, I would have no problems reaching out to 45 yards. But a poor pattern at that range might scatter pellets over the entire length of a deer.

Also be aware that the shot will carry much further than you might think and far beyond "effective" range. My brother caught two pellets of 00 at 125 measured yards. One through his calf muscle that was stopped by the denim of his pants as it exited his calf, the other by his foot as it was stopped when it cracked the outside bone of his foot.

As for placement, anything in the front half is going to put it down if you get a good pattern. Buckshot will chew up the lungs/heart if a rib cage hit but I've seen them run spitting blood. Even a gutshot is going to be lethal but you might need to follow the buzzards to find it. I like a square on break down the shoulder shot. Take out the running gear and get some of the lung/heart that way. Dont care for neck shots as they tend to go down but bounce back up.

Came up buckshot only deer drive with dogs so I've killed my share with 00. But I long ago switched over to slugs, if used a shotgun, for deer for better range and more effective accurate through and through shots.

…. Or just quit overthinking everything and kill the dang deer

#1 buck give better patterns and more pellets

In hindsight, I've had to help bloodtrack more buckshot hit deer than any other. That might be due to the far more common use of buckshot but I don't think so. One thing I do like about buckshot is it's ability to break all sorts of peripheral things like legs. I recall one raking shot dad made on one facing him that broke the back hip. Another that a buddy hit low and broke the onside shoulder and shattered the offside foreleg, he then shattered the onside back hip as it was going away. That one was an easy track.

Large caliber air rifle is your best option. Head shot drops them fast. Little noise compared to a shotgun or rifle.

22lr aim between the eyes
Sight it in with CCI mini mags hollow points

It will go around 400 yards with the right skip off a pond, thats going off childhood memories of shooting my dads chicken barn from way further than I thought I could.

I wonder if Goose loads would be suitable at close range? My dad once thought he would "sting" my moms goats when they got out and at around 70 yards it did more than sting them. I would guess a good BB load at 20 yards or less would end a deer pretty quick.

Baiting in deer and using a nuisance permit just doesn’t seem right.

Why?

I've killed dozens and dozens of deer with buckshot. I feel comfortable up to 45 yards if I have a history if decent patterns.