Buckshot Parkers

[Stan Hillis]

Up to a point, Jeffery. but, you can go too tight, particularly with the larger sizes, and start getting too many fliers. I think my Super Fox would likely be too tight for 00 or 000, but without having patterned it to see I can't say for sure.

I know I've got an old Montgomery Ward S X S with 32" extra full choked barrels that blows a load of 000 all over the place. I don't shoot coyotes on my land, but am willing to help out a neighboring cattleman if I see a coyote in his pasture. Once tried a shot at one with it, at about 35 yards, and 000, and they struck the ground all the way around him, over, under, and on both sides without a one ever cutting hair. There was a "coyote sized hole" in the pattern, evidently. No more 000 in that "truck gun".

[Bill Murphy]

To answer Phil C's question, the Charleston Gun, CH grade ordered to shoot buckshot in the 32" barrels, is bored at .735 with .030 chokes in both barrels. No choke designation was specified in the order except "To shoot buckshot". I'll shoot it someday.

[jeffery c]

Thanks, Stan and Bill! Parker bored at least one buckshot gun to .030" and it may be that tighter than that can cause blown patterns.

[Bruce Hering]

Just thought I would put this out there for your collective buckshot information....

A friend was a long time PH in Kenya. Did a good bit of guiding on leopards and if a client blew a shot on the cat and it went into the thick stuff he and his best guy would have to go get it as you might assume. His guns of choice were 12 ga SxS's loaded with rounds supplied by Kyoch that were OO buck strung together on piano wire and affixed in an "x" pattern.

He showed me a leopard skull he hit with one of these loads at about 10 or so yards and it was destroyed.. The wire had cut through the skull in several places and the rest of it looked like it had been put through a rock crusher. Oh, yea, that was an in the air shot as the cat had lain in wait and leapt for him.

He gave me a couple of these but I never tried one out. I gave one to a friend who is a big ammo collector and he was amazed by it.

[Stan Hillis]

I read all of Peter Capstick's books many years ago, right after they were published. As I recall he also used a shotgun for wounded leopards, but made himself a suit of armor from linoleum tiles wired together to form a breastplate of sorts. He said that a leopard would leap for your head/neck area, grab you with it's front feet and use it's rear feet like buzz saws to rake your chest and abdomen.

Obviously the shotgun was used to prevent that from occurring. I can't remember for certain what action type he used.

Blue whistlers (buckshot) are serious business at close range, no doubt.

[jeffery c]

Buckshot obviously worked back then! A lot of people carry it in shotguns for bear to this day.

[Tom Flanigan]

The one thing I learned, back when I used buckshot for swamp deer when I was a kid, is that you need to pattern your gun with multiple sizes to find out which shoots best out of an individual gun. My best patterns were obtained out of a modified DHE barrel using #1 buck. It was a true 40 yard gun. The full barrel patterned ok but not as well as the modified barrel. I bought my buckshot from Herter’s in five pound bags. The larger size buck didn’t pattern that well out of that gun. Results would probably be different with a different gun.

I took a few swamp deer with that gun and load. Two wend down immediately and one ran for about 25 yards. None of the deer were shot over 30 yards. I melted candle wax over the shot as a buffer. It worked well. About ten years later I shot another deer in that swamp with buckshot just for the hell of it. I shot it on the run and it collapsed immediately. I generally don’t shoot at running deer, but that one was about 10 yards away and it was a broadside shot.

I no longer use buckshot for anything. For one, its illegal in NY. As I got older, I decided not to flaunt the law. Second, I found that the best tactic for me was to use a .243 or .270 and pick an opening in the brush. I never shoot through brush. You sometimes don’t get an opening but that’s ok. A couple of years ago I passed on a big nine pointer that I really wanted. He didn’t step out of the brush and I couldn’t find a clear opening, so I passed on the shot. He was only twenty yards away. I felt good about not chancing a shot through brush.

[charlie cleveland]

I ve killed several deer with buckshot in the 8 ga the 10 ga and the 12 ga...I still use it every once in a while...tom arbrust loaded me some 8 ga 00 buck several years ago it worked great...charlie