[GoodOlBoy]

#4 buck is going to tear them up pretty good, BUT alot of how much pelt damage depends on how far you are, and if you are shooting head shots, etc. Either way you aren't going to want to shoot beyond about 35 yards to ensure a clean kill, and even then you are talking about some pretty good spread and damage to the pelt. For damage control to the pelt I would keep it under 20 yards. Personally if I were shooting yotes I would consider going with rifled lead slugs (Assuming you have a smoothbore shotgun, not a rifled bore). Take your gun out, check where you are hitting on an average of about five shots and get comfortable shooting it with the slugs. Your range (depending on you, the gun, wind, etc) will be 75+ yards, AND you will be knocking only two holes in the pelt. One in, one out. IF you are going to try to save the pelt either use head shots, or try to find (They are VERY hard to find btw) a non-hollow point rifled slug. It will do much less damage comming out. The Hollow Point rifled slugs will do the job, but you might see some pretty nifty pelt damage on the exit side.

If your gun has a removeable choke, you might consider finding a rifled choke for it and using sabot slugs, however I would ONLY use sabots with a rifled barrel OR a rifled choke. With a rifled choke I doubt you are going to see the accuracy you would see with rifled lead slugs in a smooth bore, but you never know until you try.

If I can be of any other assistance please let me know.

Thanks

GoodOlBoy