buck shot

[Ripper]

Why risk it, just go buy a box of slugs. They're cheaper than an emergency room visit or a funeral! 

[BLKBEARKLR]

Just got done finishing up a bear over 6 ft that was taking with 00buck. One shot one kill at around 35 yards teh guy said. Shot it in the head, what a lot of sewing...  It can be done, I myself prefer slugs

[Shootmoore]

All good advise.  I would not use #4 buck as reasoned in an above post.  00 buck would be fine inside of 25 yards, however I would pattern it to find the spread characteristics from your gun.  Out of a mod 18 inch barrel the "average" rate of spread is about 1" per yard.  So at 25 yards you are looking at about a 25 inch pattern.  Again this is just a AVERAGE and each gun, choke, brand of buckshot will be different.

00 buck is .33 cal and considered "low velocity" firearm as is slugs and pistols.  It would be close to shooting something 9 times with a 9mm however the instant multi hit seems to have more "knock down" affect than shooting something 9 times with a 9mm.  

I would suggest purchasing a few different brands and testing them through your shotgun.

For myself I prefer the 2 3/4 inch Federal Classic in both slug and 00buck.  I have been shooting it for years in many different 18 inch 870 smoothbores.  The buckshot is pretty consistantly tighter pattern than other brands I have shot and tend to strip pattern up and down instead of a circular pattern.  This allows me to adjust consistantly in keeping the pattern on target.  The 2 3/4 inch slugs "when I used to shoot alot" I could consistantly clover leaf 3 shot groups at 50 yards and keep 3 shots within 6 inches at 100 yards.  This was with a 18" bead sight.  I found the 3" 00 and slugs were not as accurate and the recoil for follow up shots was significantly increased.  I probably tested 10-15 different brands with none of the ones I tested meeting the consistancy and accuracy of the Federal Classic.  

In other words if you put in the time to know your ammo and how it performs in your gun I would say there would be no problem taking a bear with the shotty.  I have used the Fed classic on bears 3 times, on bear when asked to go in after others wounded bears in the brush.  The only failure I had was my fault when I hit a bear at about 10 yards between the eyes with a slug.  The angle of the skull allowed the slug to strike the skull and "skip" up along the skull.  It gave him enough of a headache that the second follow up shot in the throat did the job.  It was my fault for trying a facing headshot.

Here ends my diatribe on buck and slug.

Shootmoore

[Machias]

Good stuff Shootmore

[backyard bucks]

GREAT STUFF SHOOTMOORE.
what i don't understand is people instanly thinking buckshot in the same catagory as birdshot. TOTALLY DIFFERENT ANIMAL.
great advise about getting out and shooting it for yourself.. we shot plenty of them, and found the ones we liked and that performed the best.. it is like any weapon a hunter chooses to use, weather rifle, pistol, bow, muzzel, or shotgun.. get out and practice with it and learn your weapon.. then make your judgement on what you have learned, not just what others say.
 

[bobcat]

The person that posted the question just happened to have some buckshot "laying around" and wanted to know if it would work on bears. A little different than testing several different loads and chokes and finding the best combination, and KNOWING your maximum range with that particular load.

[Shootmoore]

The person that posted the question just happened to have some buckshot "laying around" and wanted to know if it would work on bears. A little different than testing several different loads and chokes and finding the best combination, and KNOWING your maximum range with that particular load.

In that case NO, for all the reasoning I put in my above post.

Shootmoore

[backyard bucks]

good point bobcat.
i guess i should of said test them out and do some research on them instead of shoot away.
i was going from my hunting partners, friends, and my own experiences with it.. but again we have used it alot.
as shootmoore said.. each brand is a bit different and each size is as well.
get to know it and it is a very efficient weapon.

[Kain]

All good advise.  I would not use #4 buck as reasoned in an above post.  
Shootmoore

And the fact that its not legal.    Got to have #1 or larger buckshot for bear.

Definitely need to make sure you are going to hit it with more than a couple pellets in the vitals.  00 may be .33 but unlike a bullet it will not expand.  I always have 00 buck in my shotgun when calling if bear or cougar season is open, just in case.  I also carry my 44 mag revolver with me even though my effective range is about the same with both I would prefer to use the 44.

[ICEMAN]

From the discussion above, what you have laying around is not the optimal load for bear for a quicky hunt. How about not testing it on a bear...