Buckshot or bird shot?

[Maddy McCall]

I keep hearing reference to Cheney using buckshot to hunt quail and that he shot Whittington with #6 buckshot.

I just find that hard to believe. Can someone point me to the source that states Cheney was using buckshot?

If Cheney shot anyone at close range with buckshot, that person would be dead...buckshot is what you use to hunt deer, not birds.

Thanks to anyone who can clarify.

[benburch]

1. Nonsense.

If you hit a quail with buckshot, you'd leave nothing to take home and cook.

AND it would be a much harder hit to get.

[Pavulon]

5. Birdshot..Size of a small bead(nt)

[benburch]

7. Right.

Only way to take down small fowl.

[Island Blue]

19. So it's about the size of Bush's* brain then.

Okay, that gives me some perspective.

[Mythsaje]

2. Obviously wrong...

Birdshot it is.

A shotgun blast at short range with buckshot would destroy a human.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. It had to be birdshot, don't you think?

That's what I heard at first, that it was birdshot. If you shot a quail w/buckshot it would be useless.

[Kagemusha]

4. Using birdshot to hunt birds is not an exceptional thing.

even for Republicans.

[saltpoint]

6. The part of the story they're not reporting, Maddy, is that Cheney

mistakenly believed the guy was a LIBERAL and he called in an air strike, feeling that the buckshot might not be enough. The veep was opting for the shock-and-awe approach, since it worked so well in Iraq.

Then his gun inadvertendly went off when he set it against a tree to call in the air strike, wounding the Austin millionaire. This naturally changed the course of events and so the air strike was miraculously averted.

[karlrschneider]

8. It is common, if not accurate, parlance to refer to anything loaded into a

shotgun shell as "buckshot" even if it is very small like #7 size. Not that anyone would every try to shoot a deer with it. I started to make a thread explaining all this a while ago but it's too complex. Google or Wikipedia can lay it out pretty well.

on edit: I used to get .22 cal 'birdshot' in which the pellets were WAY smaller than any you would ever find in a shotgun cartridge. I don't know if they still make it but I would say the size on those was less than 0.5 millimeter.

[benEzra]

20. Yup. CCI makes them in most pistol calibers,

from .22LR (tiny, tiny pellets) up though 9mm and .45 (slightly bigger shot size, but still tiny).

They're mostly made for shooting rats and snakes, I think...though I don't think the .22LR shot size would do more than tickle a 6' eastern diamondback...

[Silverhair]

28. Yes, they still make .22 "ratshot".

That's what we called them when I was growing up. I bought some a few weeks ago when I had a rodent problem.

[Jacobin]

9. num ber 6 is right for quail hunting

the uninformed call all shotgun pellets 'buckshot'. buckshot is many times the size of number six.

number six is about one third the size of an english pea

[karlrschneider]

11. Maybe a very young baby English pea. More like half the size of a BB

...

[Maddy McCall]

16. #6 Bird shot, you mean?

I'd never even heard of "#6 Buckshot" until today. :D

#6 birdshot is about the same size as a BB, if I recall correctly.

[bliss_eternal]

10. Here's a link to an article about it--

this article states "shot gun pellets." :shrug:

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060212154709990003

WASHINGTON (Feb. 12) - Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, spraying the fellow hunter in the face and chest with shotgun pellets.

:hi:

[Launch Pad]

12. If I'm not mistaken...

Buckshot and birdshot are the same thing. The smaller the number, the bigger the shot is. A bb is about the size of a number 5 birdshot. The police commonly use 00 buck. (double-ought buck) for close range maximum stopping power. They do have what's called "slugs" which is just a long round piece of lead that is about the same diameter as the gun barrel itself. That might be what you're talking about when you say hunting deer. I've never heard of hunting deer with a shotgun. I've always known deer hunting to be done with a high powered rifle, most likely a .30 caliber, but some can manage to drop deer with a bow and arrow.

Hope that helps

[benEzra]

22. Yup--higher the number, the smaller the shot...

#6 is small. Buckshot is usually 00 or #1, but there is also such a thing as 000 buckshot (eight or nine 9mm balls in the 3.5" loads, meaning that a single blast of 000 buckshot is equivalent to a long burst from a submachinegun.

00 buckshot is around .30 or .32 caliber, IIRC.

A bore-diameter slug in a 12-guage is 0.729 caliber. I don't think they make slug loads for shotguns as small as 28-gauge, though.

[Hubert Flottz]

29. Buckshot is used to hunt deer in flat country because a rifled slug

will kill for a fairly long distance. In flat brushy country, buckshot is safer to hunt deer with, because they will kill a deer about as far as it can be seen in the brush. High powered rifles and shotgun slugs are better in hilly, or more open country where a deer can be seen farther away and the ground will stop the projectile, instead of letting it travel farther than the hunter can see and perhaps hit another unseen hunter. A shotgun slug is heavy and it's weight causes it to drop fast, but it can and will, kill someone, for up to a mile away if it hits them. A shell with buckshot will probably not do much damage out past 100 yards. A high powered rifle shoots a flatter trajectory than a shotgun slug and will kill even farther out from the shooter.

Buckshot is for deer, or criminal hunting, #4 and #5 shot are good for squirrel, or for turkey hunting in flat country. I would use a .22 magnum rifle to turkey hunt with here in the mountains. #6 is good for rabbit hunting and usually #7 1/2 and #8 shot are bird hunting shot. Usually the bird hunting shells, are loaded with a lighter powder charge(Low Brass, or Short Brass shells)then regular hunting loads, which are loaded with the larger size, heavier, shot. #8, 9, and 10 are usually used for shooting clay targets, or in shotgun matches called turkey shoots.

#6 shot in a long brass load, is deadly to a human, or a dog at close range(out to about 30 yards)and will kill a deer out to about 30 yards, if you hit the deer in the right part of it's body. If the guy Cheney shot was closer than 20 yards and Cheney was hunting with long brass loads and #6 shot, I'd say he hurt the guy pretty badly. I've been shot with #10 shot with a low brass powder charge and it hurts like hell. I was shot in the face and arms and the shot never penetrated the skin at 35 yards, but it caused welts and bruising. If I'd been hit in the eyes I probably would have been in big trouble.

[tularetom]

13. I've seen assholes around here

using what we used to call "duck and pheasant" loads (#4 shot) on doves. So it wouldn't surprise me to learn that cheney & co. were using buckshot for quail.

[Maddy McCall]

18. #4 birdshot and #4 buckshot are two different things.

#4 birdshot is smaller than #4 buckshot...if I'm wrong, then my father was wrong when he taught me how to use guns.

[Road Scholar]

14. Birdshot is often wrongly reffered to as Buckshot. nt

[Jackpine Radical]

15. It had to be birdshot. #6 makes sense.

There are about 250 little lead pellets in a standard 1.125 oz. load of #6 birdshot. There are 9 pellets in a load of OO buckshot. At 30 yards either load would spread out to about 30-40 inches. With buckshot, the shot would spread so thin that you wouldn't even hit the bird with one pellet half the time.

As an aside--
In modern hunting, buckshot isn't used for deer. Most sporting goods stores don't even sell it because there is so little demand, other than maybe for homeowners who might have it for personal defense. If you hunt deer with a shotgun, you would use a slug--a single projectile sort of like an oversized rifle bullet. These oversized bullets don't travel very far compared to a rifle bullet, so they are sometimes preferred (or required) for hunting deer in more populated areas.

[Ksec]

17. Buckshot would be something like marble sized.

Used for big game or riots.

OO buck is like five big marbles or ball bearings (steel)in a shell. Birdshot is small , used for small game like Quail or rabbit. If the guy got shot with Buckshot he'd be dead with a big hole through him.

[evirus]

21. witness said he got sprayed

prehaps it wasn't point blank but spraying sounds like buck shot to me, then again im only aware of "spraying" ammunition being used in buckshot

[benEzra]

24. I don't hunt, but I've shot a 20-gauge shotgun a couple times...

at paper targets using birdshot, and "sprayed" is a good description. The target like someone took a small nail and poked about 300 holes in the target (range was maybe 20 feet).

I don't know how a 28-gauge patterns (I've never shot one), but I'd imagine it spreads out fairly quickly.

If the load were buckshot, the victim would probably be dead. (Shooting someone with 00 buckshot is like shooting them 20 times with a .32 caliber pistol, IIRC.)

[meisje]

23. those were FREEDOM BB's

[Solly Mack]

25. Bird - but saying "The Buck(shot) stops here" is funnier

:)

[Buns_of_Fire]

26. I'm sure it was birdshot. Birdshot for birds, buckshot for bucks...

and chickenshot for...

[Silverhair]

27. Most people don't know the difference.

One DUer is even talking about Cheney having used a rifle.