Is it just me or does buckshot really suck?

[Strelokest]

15 meter shot right into the side of a roe deer doe and it doesn't even hit a single vital organ. At 30 yards in reality, buckshot goes straight through the broadside of a deer. Not to mention when I had one roll in not 5 meters away, shot right at the center of the chest, and it ran off. Buckshot at that short of range IRL would put a hole the size of a basketball in it, a tiny roe deer would not be running off after that. It also has an insane spread in game, IRL it has a much tighter spread and shots at 40 yards are the norm. I remember never having any trouble with buckshot in TH classic years ago, so this seems a little strange.

Are they throwing realism out the window for balance since it unlocks early or do they actually think buckshot is this weak? It's like the shot is made of rubber or something.

[Monke]

Buckshot has been an issue for a while. They have tweeked it from terrible up to really bad. At no point have they commented or responded on this issue which is pretty par for the course.

[Koala]

It's not you, and it's not just buck shot. All weapons and ammunition lack a great deal of penetration relative to real life performance.

[cybvep]

Buckshot definitely lacks power. It's harder to kill the animal with buckshot than with any other class 2 weapon. What is more, buckshot is bugged and will give you 0 integrity in most cases.

Bidshot, on the other hand, works perfectly well against rabbits and geese. Slugs are effective, too. Only buckshot is the real problem IMO. It should be much more powerful close range and its integrity should be fixed.

[cybvep]

Here is a typical example of buckshot annoyance:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1506505749

I hit a female kudu broadside from about ~20 meters, so both the range and the angle were perfect for buckshot. Despite this, I got 0% integrity and 19% quick kill. The kudu ran for quite some time after being shot.

For comparison, here is the result of a single lung shot made from ~225 meters using .270 and soft-point bullets.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1506506090

100% integrity, 97% quick kill. The kudu ran only a short distance before dropping.

Buckshot really needs some love. Its integrity should be fixed and its power should be increased. The devs managed to make birdshot very useful against the geese and the rabbits. Time to make buckshot useful as well.

[Rookie-31st]

20GA buckshot currently gives 40% integrity for blacktail deer, but it has good penetration and able to hit vitals

[mickey1940]

after i leveled up to 60 i started using the 12ga shotgun as buckshot was the starting ammo, i was suprised that it didn't give 100% on deer ,after all it is named bhck shot so was made for deer.

[Leadmagnet]

Seeing all of the accuracy / quick kill problems on the forum with buckshot on deer is why I never bothered to even buy the shotgun. "Medium sized pellets" in the game description doesn't give enough info. Assuming the load uses 00 buckshot, that is about 9 or so pellets in roughly a .32 caliber. A full choke to throw the tightest possible pattern is the only way to go to get a decent range and have a reasonable chance at a quick kill.

Only reason I can think of off hand for the birdshot being more effective is that it would have a greater number of pellets. It'd be interesting to see the number of pellets in the buckshot versus the birdshot and also what they use to calculate the pattern thrown by the barrel.

[cbrrrman]

yep... it generally sucks