Very possible. The stuff is a poor performer past about 20-25 yards. Wife has a UNWR tag in a few weeks. choke instead of IC. If you are shooting No.3 or No.4 buckshot, you should keep it under 30 yards. I was discouraged by the results, which prompted me to head back out and pattern test both shotguns with a small variety of ammo on hand.----- I used two guns for testing. All of these shotguns are excellent in my opinion, and Ive pointed both brands at more than a few criminals in my law enforcement career. Shot recovered from 50 yard penetration test. Occasionally you'll see a 12-pellet load. The driving determinant of drag force is the velocity that an object travels at in this case the 00 buckshot was initially traveling radially outward at 5 ft/sec while the muzzle velocity of this shell was 1300 ft/sec. The standard sizes of buckshot are #0, #00, #000, #1 and #4 buckshot. Loaded with our Power-Piston one-piece wad for consistent patterns. I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. RE: Buckshot for deer. if you are shooting a good patterning, full power load of 12 gauge 00 or 000 buckshot, 50 yards is about the max. Deformed #4 buckshot is not acceptable for self-defense at any range, Penetration differences between shot sizes begins to become less significant with spherical #1 buckshot, Heavier buckshot has an increased ability to penetrate because of a large increase in mass with an accompanying small increase in surface area. I am sure many dead deer would argue that yes buckshot is lethal at 50 yards. A hit in this instance is a hit to the target that would be counted for qualification at FLETC. Dont do that its dangerous and unethical to shoot something you dont clearly see. Then we took it out to 25 [yards], and then 50, and then 100 yards. Check out the video above. Shooting done during Standard Atmospheric conditions. 00 Buckshot is a good mix of power, easily tailored loads, and controllable recoil. Ammunition How Does Buckshot Perform at 50 Yards? Very interesting thanks. Finally, I tried the 3 inch Magnum load. For defense against people my max range with 00 buck is 15 yards and slugs 35-50 yards. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,600],'guntradition_com-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_9',112,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-guntradition_com-large-leaderboard-2-0');The individual pellets of No.4 buckshot often dont go deep enough to reach anything good. I'm sure it depends heavily on the load, but the tests in the video were performed with a full-choked shotgun (a Mossberg 500) to give the test the best odds. Remington Ammunition Issues a 12-Gauge Premier AccuTip Ammo Recall, FIRST LOOK: Glock Just Very Quietly Unveiled the New Glock 47 Pistol, Police Sidearms: The Handguns of Americas 10 Largest Departments, FIRST LOOK: Rounds Downrange With the new Mossberg Patriot LR Tactical, 5 Common Myths on How to Survive a Gunfight, Understanding Stand Your Ground Laws and Castle Doctrine, Long-Distance Shooting: 5 Must-Know Tips For Spotters & Shooters, IMPACT Experience Events Redefine Your Long-Range Shooting Limits, Sniper Skills: Taking Your Shooting Precision to the Next Level, Self-Defense Myths that Could Get you Killed, 4 Home Defense Myths You Need to Stop Repeating. For really long range shooting, Federals 00 buck loaded in its Flitecontrol wad is hard to beat for tight patterns. That was an important lesson of hunting with buckshot. If you are shooting No.3 or No.4 buckshot, you should keep it under 30 yards. At SHOT Show, George and Scott Trulock of Trulock Chokes showed me their new Boar Blaster buckshot choke tube. The wad itself is very thick (like a platic cup) and we have found that the the pellets are remaining nestled in the wad for a longer distance while traveling down the barrel. Here is what I have observed: Admittedly, there is a lot more to say about buck shot, but I will leave it to the voices of experience to chime in and agree with me or set me straight. Easily. I didn't buy a cylinder choke, but I might well try it. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Figure 50% hit at 25 yards, but now the pellets have slowed WAY down to around 900 fps or about 110 lb-ft of energy PER PELLET! CHRIS: I dont know if you guys know about the #1 FliteControl, but its a difficult load to get ahold of, so we didnt have a whole lot of it on hand. It has been proven over and over it can be easily taken away and disarm the owner Why do you think SWAT and other such entry teams use short barreled firearms when entering and clearing a building? I only had one 3" shell, with a full choke at 20 yards I had one hit in an 8" circle. The spine and neck are great targets. Still, at least half of your pattern area is missing the animal. If you are the intended victim, you will not have the element of surprise nor the initiative in the opening moments of the conflict two elements critical to the survival of such an event. Tungsten Super Shot (TSS) has mostly been a good thing for turkey hunting. Vang installed his compensation system on the barrel, back-bored the chamber, extended the magazine, installed a dome safety and sidesaddle spare shell carrier and worked on the action. Believe it or not, there is a fairly good way to measure the killing power of a bullet. [Federals advertised velocity is 1100 for the #1 versus 1145 for the #00. The #00 still was. GDubya Registered Joined Mar 25, 2010 1,630 Posts Then at 50, the #00 was penetrating about where the #1 was at 25. As lightly noted by the presenter, the gauge doesnt matter much as far as energy delivered to target by projectiles. We used two different loads: Federal FliteControl #1 and Federal FliteControl #00 8-pellet. One time only I tried fifteen .310 roundballs in my Bess, and banged away at 50 yards. Powdercoat does help in groupings. Yeah. Too bad we purchased all the 870's with IC barrels before we started issuing 8 pellet. A Packable Lever Action: The Chiappa 1892 Alaskan Takedown, Think First, Shoot Second: A Pistol Drill to Mess With Your Head. The vast majority of police shootings are close-in affairs. You can hit more, and each pellet will do less, to the terminal end of losing its effectiveness at all. Overall, it looks fairly tight but you obviously have some fliers that didn't strike the target. It has also been proposed that, at distances beyond 25 yards, the pellets would not have sufficient energy to stop a suspect or, for instance, penetrate their leather coat. Showing the difference in patterns between 00 and #4 shots at 45/ 50 yards. This load patterns best in all my shotguns. if you are shooting a good patterning, full power load of 12 gauge 00 or 000 buckshot, 50 yards is about the max. You need to make sure your bullets hit the target, not a thicket of maple saplings. You really need to hit the spine. Federal Flite-Control 00 Buck-though that's designed as an anti-personnel load for out to 50 yards through riot guns. Hornady Zombie @ 21ft. This variant is very popular and an outstanding home defense and tactical load. Your link has been automatically embedded. In many reduced-sized patrol cars, a shorter barrel only makes sense because a traditional 18- or 20-inch-barreled shotgun is simply too big to fit in the passenger compartment. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Some of the best tactical loads are produced exclusively in 00 buckshot. All that John Shaft, shoot-from-the-hip, Hollywood crap is just thatcrap. Figure 15 illustrates the velocity versus penetration depths obtained for #1 buckshot single-launched buckshot and #1 buckshot shotshells. Same thing with #1 buckshot at longer ranges, more pellets, but less energy and damage per pellet. JOHN: But not passing the FBI standards. When I pattern with a MOD choke it will open it up to 10"-12" patterns with vertical stringing. Size, penetration, and energy all make buckshot more lethal than birdshot. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Click on the picture to be taken to the Rifleshooter article. The results chart is telling: Hit the link for the full article, pictures, and analysis, including the tutorial on back-boring. Buckshot patterns fall apart quickly. But what if circumstances dictated that you had to take that shot anyway? In one memorable shootout from the movie, a desperado is taking off down a street when Mississippi lets loose with his scattergun. Yes I have slugs readily available as well. The patterns were a single hole out to 20 feet. You can, and its nice to know that the spread will not be too large to recklessly endanger a neighborhood. This is generally loaded with nine of the 33 caliber lead balls to go about 1,250 feet per second. Out of my M2 w/ light mod. 50% tighter group @ 10 yards than my non PC buckshot. Witness Protection 870: The 12.5-Inch Short-Barreled US Marshals Shotgun. The "rule" for a pattern is 1 inch per yard for a full choke. There are 24 pellets in a 3-inch 12 gauge load and with an IC choke you get a nice-sized pattern at 25 yards. The soft lead deforms, causing less uniformity and spacing out the shot in the pattern. For comparison, my Benelli M2 (Light mod choke) with Remington Low Recoil rounds (8 pellet) averages around 12-14" at 25 yards and rarely has a flier. We have lots more on the site to show you. 8 pellet Flite Control will run patterns the size of your fist at 25 yards. 6 of my deer were shot with Remington 00 buckshot. We were running out of butcher paper and decided to test the smallest patterning load first, the Hornady 00 Buckshot. Because they are spheres, they have a horrible sectional density. The following picture is a shot from the 1897 with 30" full choke barrel at 50 yards. But it's only 50 feet! The Boar Blaster seemed to corral enough of the pellets and put them into the vitals to be a worthwhile buckshot choke option. TSS #2, Kicks GT .670, 50 yards. Buckshot Patter (25 yards) Good/Bad/Thoughts. Shotguns are wierd and very "individual", but all three of my M4's have LOVED this combination. 000 is impressive. Using harder lead, or even nickel or copper-plated buckshot, reduces deformation, keeping the buckshot more true in flight. 4 Buck and modified chokes because that is probably what we had. Slugs These are essentially oversized bullets designed to be fired from a shotgun. It was necessary to determine the velocity of the buckshot spheres as they traveled downrange to know the maximum range at which the pellet would be able to meet the 12.0 minimum penetration depth in ballistic gelatin. In order to provide a further verification check, a Winchester 1300 12 gauge with 28 barrel (cylinder bore) was shot at 25 yards distance from 10% ballistic gelatin blocks with all shotshell types used in this report. The full pattern guys like smaller buckshot so they have more pellets in the target. Do notice that at longer ranges, the shotgun loses its ability to kill very rapidly. Velocity drops rapidly, energy of course sky dives, and the pellet will soon be eating dirt, or failing to penetrate much of anything. With the Fiocchi Low Recoil round (8 pellet) - the group opens up to 18-20" and always seems to have at least one flier. Again, thankyou for the in-depth information! This may be true for reduced-recoil buckshot, but this max-velocity load seemed to have sufficient energy to truly put a hurt on a suspect. Many folks think its a toss-up. This was to ensure that all shot pellets struck the paper and could be accounted for in the further range calculation. It never seemed to pattern well. CHRIS: I guess the big thing is that context is really important and shotguns can do a lot of different things depending on what hardware youre using and what ammo youre using. But the range to shoot patterns is the range you shoot your birds. If you need proof, Brass Fetcher tested buckshot against ballistic gelatin at 50 yards and then managed to chronograph it at 50 yards (no small feat). I tried laying the buckshot in pairs in 3 stacks and the patterns were . Required fields are marked *. 1150 fps buckshot is reduced recoil, full power 00 buckshot loads of 2 3/4 12 gauge are actually around 1350, interestingly enough, his under powered tests actually reinforces the effectiveness of the cartridge. Some brands and lines of ammo are significantly better than others and that affects the pattern a lot as well.Aiming for the front corner ofthe shoulder gives a good spread and limits skull damage. But something to consider! Additionally, shotgun slugs retain their energy better and typically penetrate much deeper than buckshot. . Remingtons Magnum 00-buck load has 12 pelletsabout 1 18 ounces of shotlaunched at almost 1,300 fps. 90 percent of my deer were killed with buckshot. Will buckshot kill at 50 yards? Most buckshot gives up its energy well within 100 yards or less. Typical patterns for a 410 are the same as a larger gauge . How effective is buckshot at extended ranges? It's all about the pattern when it gets to that 50 yards that counts. The most common, and arguably the best buckshot for deer is 12-gauge 00 buckshot in a 2 inch shell. #4 will have around 21 to 28 pellets. Though it has less constriction than modified choke it delivers 50 percent of the pellets in a 30 inch at 40 yards. I know that [#00 buckshot] penetrates a little more at 10 feet in the standard test, and for us, we verified that. The rule at play here is killing power. Is total devastation out to 80 yards. The procedure I fired one round of each load from each of the three different choke tubes. By itself, its not an adequate target. Slugs retain their energy better and typically penetrate much deeper than buckshot pellets... 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Nice-Sized pattern at 25 yards tactical load that is probably what we had an home... Control will run patterns the size of your fist at 25 yards damage per pellet less and. Tighter group @ 10 yards than my non PC buckshot this combination, shotgun slugs retain their energy and...