There are 3 primary kinds of shotgun ammo, which are Birdshot, Buckshot, and Slugs. There are different varieties within each of these 3 types of ammo, but I’ll get into some of those variations later. Here is a basic overview of the 3 kinds of shotgun ammo. Birdshot uses small pellets or very small balls of lead, steel or tungsten. These pellets are typically between 0.09″-0.23″ in diameter. Buckshot is similar to Birdshot, but the pellets in Buckshot are much larger, typically between 0.24″-0.36″ in diameter. Slugs are different than both Birdshot and Buckshot because instead of firing a large amount of pellets that spread out as they fly, a Slug is one solid piece of lead or steel.

Now that we’ve covered the 3 kinds of shotgun ammo let’s look at the various options within those 3 kinds and their applications.

1. Birdshot, this type of ammo comes in various sizes, the smaller sizes are effective for hunting small game and upland birds at close range. The benefits of using a shell with smaller pellets is an increase in pellet spread which gives you more margin for error in close shots, but it does reduce the effective range of your shots. Another benefit is these smaller pellets will typically help to preserve more of the games meat than the larger pellets and with small game there is typically very little meat available so you want to make sure you are not damaging more meat than you need to. The larger size pellets can be used for slightly larger game such as waterfowl (ducks, geese, etc). The larger pellet size offers greater effective range, which allows you to take down game from a further distance.
2. Buckshot, as the name describes can be used on Bucks and other large game. Buckshot is also a common type of ammo used in home defense as it offers the advantage of spreading pellets so your aim does not have to be perfect. Similar to Birdshot, Buckshot comes in various sizes. The smaller sizes are good for closer range shots on deer and hogs. The larger sizes of Buckshot can be used to take down very large game animals such as Elk or even Moose.
3. Slugs come in various shapes and sizes, some shotguns even have a secondary barrel that can be used when firing slugs. Typically these barrels designed for firing slugs have rifling inside of the barrels in contrast to most shotgun barrels which are smooth bore (meaning the inside of the barrel is smooth). The advantage of having a rifled barrel is added range and accuracy. Slugs can be used to take down large, powerful game such as Elk, Moose and even Bears.