I have a Remington 870 express magnum and I recently missed a running deer with slugs. You can imagine my dis-appointment! My thought was to alternate slugs with buckshot to increase my chances. Any thoughts? These NorthWest Washington Blacktails are wiley creatures that stick to the thick brush.

Without any hard data to back up my belief, I would have to say no, you won't hurt a rifled barrel shooting buckshot. I imagine you would need to give it an extra bit of cleaning after firing a few rounds to get rid of any lead left on the rifling. A dedicated shotgun forum may be the better way to find your answer.

Now, I really hope you did miss that deer. We have killed some deer while bow hunting and when they were cleaned, buck shot was found in them. In fact, one deer had buck shot and a 30 caliber bullet in it. I have killed one deer with a shotgun, but it was from a stand and I was hunting by a creek with thick brush. So, it was either use a shotty or a rifle with open sights.

Good luck!

Buckshot is not legal in my state so I have no experience with it but I would make sure I patterned it first. I read somewhere that rifling causes the pattern to open up much faster so it might not work too well. I would also be concerned about lead or plastic (from the wad) possibly fowling the bore since the plastic in wads is a lot softer than that used in sabots.

GO WITH BUCKSHOT

Because of the rifling the load starts to spin and when exiting the barrel spreads to a nearly useless pattern beyond about 15 yards. Missing a running deer is the norm. It is something that maybe you should refrain from doing. You can shoot slugs accurately through a smooth bore and buckshot. My deer shotgun is an 1187 smooth bore modified choke and it groups 4 inches at 100 yards.