Why use shotgun for hunting?
March 3rd, 2010 by eranio
I asked a gun expert why people use shotguns for hunting, instead rifles. And he replied :
"Shotguns are generally used for hunting birds, which fly very fast. It would be very difficult to hit a flying bird with a rifle. It would also be very dangerous to fire a rifle up into the air."
I’d like to know your opinion on his answer please. I mean tell me what’s exactly the danger of shooting a rifle up into the air, etc.
Posted in used shotguns
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
Even a .22lr bullet can fly well over a mile through the air. This would mean missed shots fired at an upward angle could hit a person and kill them a mile away, and the shooter would never know it happened. And the .22LR is one of the shorter range rifles. Some rifles could accidentally kill someone at over 2 miles.
The small pellets from a shotgun fired into the air will fall, pretty much harmlessly to the ground after a couple of hundred yards. Even if someone were hit by birdshot pellets after 100 yards, it would probably hurt no more than walking through a heavy sleet storm for a couple of seconds.
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
IT SHOOTS FAR
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
its more stronger to kill animals with it?
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
Well, shotgun pellets have a large spread, so you are much more likely to hit a bird with a couple of pellets than with an actual shell. Also, the shell is dangerous if there is anyone hunting around you, for it could come back down on top of them, and kill them, unlike pellets from a shotgun would do (they don’t travel as far either.)
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
id perfer a sniper but thats just me,shotguns cant shoot with great acurracy the pelletts spreads out(more damage,less acurracy)
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
why not?
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
Rifles are dangerous to shoot into the air because of the shell. With a shotgun you have pellets that are not nearly as dangerous coming back down toward the ground as a rifle shell would be. Rifle shells falling back towards Earth after being shot in the air have been known to kill people. there are usually at least a handful of reports of those types of deaths around the 4th of July. Shotguns have a larger spread and are therefore more likely to hit and kill a moving target like a bird whereas a rifle would be used for accuracy because it has a single projectile.
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
A rifle unlike a shot gun bullet will travel way out of sight range before it will come down. And if you can’t see where it will come down how would you know if it is or is not going to come down on somebody or something that you are not intending to shoot. Law of gravity, what goes up must come down. As for a shot gun, they don’t produce enough velocity to out of sight therefore you will know that between you and what you can see is where the pellets or slug will land. Unless you are shooting over a ridge in which case will be just as dangerous as shooting a rifle. To be safe you need to always know where your bullet or pellets are going to may there resting point…
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
the ballistic trajectory on the rifle will go for miles.
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
Shotgun for short rang and fast moving target. Riffle for big game and shoot at a long distance. Very dangerous to shoot rifle into air at bird, the chance of hitting it would be very slim.
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
a rifle and even a shotgun loaded with heavy buckshot or with a slug should never be fired into the sky, since these projectiles can travel long distances and hit someone far away, possibly having enough momentum or impact force to cause severe injury or death.
shotguns are safer then a rifle for air shooting because the small pellets used in most shotgun loads won’t travel far and don’t weigh enough to be a danger at distance, in other words they don’t have enough momentum to be dangerous in most cases.
the man who answered you was also right, shotgun’s were invented to improve the hit ratio you can have on a moving target.
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
Rifle bullets generally travel faster and farther than shotshell loads. The shot column from the average 12 gauge shotshell has an effective range (for game birds) of around 50 yards, although a lucky shot might be made from a bit farther. The shot spreads out and loses velocity very quickly. The spreading out part is good for hitting a fast-flying bird, but not so good for maintaining velocity or kinetic energy. Most shotshells produce between 1100 and 1400 feet per second of velocity at the muzzle of the gun.
If you were to fire a 12 gauge shotgun straight into the air, the shot column would go maybe 300 yards or so into the air, and then eventually rain down on the ground. By that time it would be so spread out that you might not be hit by even a single pellet. If you were, it would feel like a big raindrop or a small hailstone. Individual shot pellets are not very heavy, compared to a rifle bullet. Shotshells used for game bird hunting contain hundreds of small lead or steel pellets that at short range create a cloud of tiny bullets that can intercept a flying bird with a good chance that one or more will strike the bird in a vital organ and bring it down. Depending upon the size of shot pellets in the shell, each pellet may only weigh 1 or 2 grains (there are 15 grains in a gram, and about 30 grams in an ounce).
A typical deer-hunting cartridge, such as a .30-’06 Springfield, propels a single bullet weighing in the neighborhood of 165 grains to muzzle velocities that approach 2700 feet per second (more than twice the speed of sound). Such a bullet is capable of traveling 2-3 miles or more with enough velocity to kill anywhere along the way.
The danger with shooting a rifle bullet into the air is that "what goes up must come down". If you were to fire a rifle bullet straight into the air, it would probably go more than a mile into the air, then begin to fall back to earth. The odds are that it would not come down on your head, since air currents would move it around during its flight. But it might come down on someone else’s head. If it did, it would be capable of inflicting a fatal wound, due to its mass and the acceleration of gravity. Many people are killed each year by falling rifle bullets that were fired into the air in celebration (you may have seen such firing into the air on the news – it’s common in the Middle East).
Shotguns used to be called "fowling pieces", because they were made for hunting birds. Special barrels can be purchased for many shotguns that allow the use of a "rifled slug", which is essentially a large bullet loaded into a shotshell. Rifled slugs are made for use in hunting deer and some other game animals at ranges out to about 100 yards. Barrels made for using rifled slugs usually have the kind of sights commonly found on rifles, rather than a single bead on the end of the barrel, as is typical of shotguns meant for hunting birds or for shooting clay targets.
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
Also – as a side note —- In many counties you are not allowed to hunt deer with a rifle… They are shotgun only….. Rifle bullets travel much farther than deer slugs so that why some counties near large populated areas are shotgun only……
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
You’re getting some good answers here. As someone else said, in some jurisdictions they’re the only authorized hunting arm.
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
hey,
well they use shot guns cause they have about 20-70 pellets in them so instead of being accurate you cna aim at it and get a spreat of hits so you will wbe able to hit it on the run or fly and kill it the pellets vary on what you are hunting 7s are for birds and like 2s for kangaroo
or buck shot for deer
if you had a rifle you got one shot no spread. shotgun is oppiset but rifles have more range shotgund barley shoot 100meters.
thank you
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
Many public game lands prohibit hunting with rifles because of the range of them.
When I was stationed in Jacksonville, NC years ago, a Marine Corporal was hunting on the base (out in one of the further corners of it) and killed what was at the time a state record Black Bear with 12 ga 00. One shot.
The 12 ga is almost the perfect gun. You can hunt small game from quail, rabbits and squirrels, to dove, ducks and geese to larger game like hogs, deer and bear. It also works reasonably well as a personal defense weapon.
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
It’s all ammo related. Rifles only shoot bullets… but shotguns can shoot a slug , or buckshot, or birdshot. the result is a greater range of options depending on what you are hunting.
A flock of birds would be taken down easier with a wide spread of what are essentially BB pellets packed into a shotshell…. the spread as they are fired and are able to take down the birds, leaving their bodies intact (a rifle would destroy the meat on a bird much worse than birdshot)
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
what goes up must come down.
rifles have a much higher velocity and effective range, which means that they’d shoot farther into the air, meaning that someone a mile away could be hit if you miss your target.
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
why use a shotgun for hunting– the same reason why you’d use a rifle for hunting.
sometimes you have to use a shotgun because it’s a state law or it’s a personal preference.
but with a shotgun, you have more than one projectile which is going to the target/animal, which means, like buckshot over one bullet- you have more than one projectile going to the deer’s vitals that you shot at, which means more points of penetration
some people can shoot a bird in flight with a rifle, but that takes skill and practice shooting trap/skeet.
yes, it is dangerous to shoot a rifle into the air- going back to the one projectile again- a rifle bullet can travel for miles, the shot from a shotgun can travel a good hundred yards or so, so as the bullet is coming back down to the ground, it will gain more momentum than the shot would. and because of that, it’s more dangerous than shot from a shotgun which is shot up into the air.
also, using a shotgun over a rifle, you have less drop to worry about when shooting it. a rifle bullet will drop considerably compared to shot from a shotgun- that means that you have to compensate for that if your taking a long shot- and sometimes, taking a long shot, if your not experienced with it, can injure the animal. with a shotgun, you have to be closer in range, and the drop is much less than that of a rifle.
but other things affect how much a rifle bullet or shot from a shotgun will drop- the weather, the humidity, the area’s terrain, etc…
and to the folks that said something with ‘shotgun bullets’ in your answer- it’s wrong automatically because you can NOT but bullets into a shotgun- it’s either shot, buckshot, bird shot, or slugs
you only put bullets into a rifle, handgun/pistol (aint gonna say anything about muzzle-loaders b/c i don’t know anything about them)
also, you do NOT aim with a shotgun- you point.
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
A rifle bullet will travel for miles and it might come down on something you didn’t intend to hit. And it would be almost impossible to hit a moving bird with a single rifle bullet, thus a shot shell is used which creates a barrage of tiny pellets.
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
rifles have an incredible range and the bullets have high velocities. hitting a bird with a single flying projectile would be extremely hard, so shotguns, which fire groups of pellets that spread out, are used to increase the odds of hitting the bird. shotguns also fire slower (lower velocities) and have a shorter range, so the chances of accidentally hitting someone decrease greatly.
shotguns are also more versatile. rifles are mainly for large game. shotguns can be used on any type of bird, but also for small game (use smaller gauges), sport shooting (clays), and for deer (when fitted with a slug barrel and firing slugs). shotguns can also change gauge buy changing the barrels and reciever (usually only with over/unders and side by sides).
shotgun ammo is also significantly cheaper than rifle ammo.