buckshot question

I think I am leaning that way towards testing 2 boxes of Federal blue box 2 3/4 OO buck (12 pellets) and 3 inch OO buck (15 pellets) and two boxes Winchester super x 2 3/4 (16 pellets) 1 buck and 3 inch (24 pellets) 1 buck

There ya go. Try the choke you have. If not happy try a true extended choke like from Trulock. Full or extrafull.

#1 buck gives you more pellets with just a little pellet weight loss. No brainer to me.

I grew up hunting on a dog hunting lease. To summarize what I learned as a youth about buckshot, and deer hunting, is to pattern your shotgun, with the load your going to hunt with! Years of trial and error, hit and misses, I've learned to see what your gun is actually doing at a given distance.

I found that my 20 gauge with a 28" modified barrel, using #3 buckshot, patterned great, and I did well with it, and so did my son. However, I thought my upgrade to a 12 gauge, with a 30" full choke, using 00 buckshot would be the ticket, but after "not the best luck" with it, I decided to check the pattern, at 40 yards, and it was actually terrible!

About that time, I upgraded to a rifle, so I didn't experiment further. If I were to try that 12 gauge shotgun again, I'd try the 28" modified barrel(I have 2 barrels), using 1 buck, to see how it patterns, in comparison, to the 00 buck, and 30" full.

Bottom line, you can speculate, but until you actually try and pattern it, you won't know.

You may find a combo in that bunch that does what you want. If you don't, please try win 3" 000. I bet it throws a tight pattern. I have friends that swear by the rem 000, but I've only tried winchester.

jmoser said:

Try the Federal 00 buck with their 'flite control' wad. It gives some amazing patterns with standard chokes. A rear sight helps but test pattern with your gun as is and see if you get pellets on target.

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I second this. I advise you pattern a couple of different boxes and see how they do, and then pattern the Federal 3" Vital Shok 00 with flite control was. I think the results will speak for themselves. I would really like for you to take pics of the different rounds and post them just to see how the Federals with flite control wads compare. I don't think you will be sorry.

Hi everyone, first post here but have hunted with buckshot on and off for 33 years. To the OP, those flight control buckshot really do hold some of the most dense patterns around as stated above. I've found they like cylinder or improved cylinder the best in my 2 twelve gauges.

Was a little confused does the blue box federal have the flight control wad noticed the Federal tactical load in #1 buck and OO buck had it. Both of those were reduced recoil ya'll had any experience with either of those?

As far as I know all the flight control buck have a small picture of a wad and say flight control on the box. The boxes I have are gold colored and they come in 2 3/4 and 3 inch 00. The short shells come in low or high brass.

Thanks guys for all your advise haven't been on here in a while but here were my results today got three boxes at academy and this was from 20-25 yards thereabouts.

Remington green box 0 buck 5 out of 12 pellets

Winchester 00 buck

Sorry post didn't go through

Remington green box 0 buck 5 out of 12 pellets

Winchester 00 buck 5 out of 9 pellets

Remington grteen box 000 buck 8 out 8 pellets

All boxes were 2 3/4 inch shells

My old 870 wingmaster with improved cylinder throws a great pattern with 2 3/4 number 1 buck shot. Killed several deer with it running dogs.

What size target were you using for the pattern descriptions?

In other words, 8 out of 8 000B in what size pattern?

common man said:

Sorry post didn't go through

Remington green box 0 buck 5 out of 12 pellets

Winchester 00 buck 5 out of 9 pellets

Remington grteen box 000 buck 8 out 8 pellets

All boxes were 2 3/4 inch shells

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was a standard paper plate

Most paper plates run approximately 9 inches in diameter.

My own standard for initial testing of gun/choke/buckshot load combinations is 100% in 10 inches at 25 yards.

Only buckshot loads that meet that standard are tested further at 40 yards.

common man said:

was a standard paper plate

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3" federal 00 buck with flute control is what I shoot stops 200 lb hogs in their tracks it hits hard and patterns great in both my full choke 12 gauge

ishootlittlebucks said:

...You need good 40 yard, knock a deer down patterns. Most people have no idea how or why we use buckshot. A lot of folks don't take the time to really wring out a shotgun to see what it's capable of. Some just buy what the can get at wally world and throw it in a gun they've had laying around. When it doesn't kill the deer standing sideways at 30 yards, they publicly state everywhere that buckshot sucks and should be banned. It can cost a lot of time and money to find a good combo, but if you're gonna hunt deer with one it's necessary.

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Amen!

Tony p said:

3" federal 00 buck with flute control is what I shoot stops 200 lb hogs in their tracks it hits hard and patterns great in both my full choke 12 gauge

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When hunting for hogs - especially those in the 200+ range - I prefer using much larger buckshot. As my moniker suggests, I load my 12 bore with 22 gauge pellets* when hunting hogs.
This size buckshot is loaded commercially by Dixie Slugs. Type "Dixie Slugs" or "Dixie TriBall" into your search engine.

*Three .60" hard cast buckshot pellets, 315 grains each.

Reviving an old thread here but I just got through patterning my gun.
Wondering if my best pattern is decent. Shooting a 3 x 3 piece of cardboard at 40 steps.
3 inch 00 Rem green shells put 12 out of 15 pellets in it.
3 inch #1 win super X put 20 out of 24 in.
I'm choosing the Rem 00. Good Choice or no?
This is a stoeger m2000 with full choke.

firewalker78, you are well ahead of the vast majority of buckshot hunters by taking the time to find out what your Gun/Load/Choke combination can do - before heading to the woods!

Let's see 40 steps, (assuming 30 inch stride), is some 33 yards. Target 36" x 36" with 80% (12 pellets) on target.
What we don't know is the distribution of pellets. If the center of the pattern is sparse, (an indication of over choke for the particular load), then backing off to a modified choke may actually tighten the pattern

From your full choke I would think the spiral pellet stack of a 3", 15 pellet, Federal Premium 00B load. Essentially - stacking the pellets in a slightly offset pattern allowed the large pellets to shift and flow rather than compress against each other when passing through choke constriction.


The 3", 12 pellet, Federal Premium with Flite-Control 00B round essentially builds the "choke" into the wad for tighter patterns from more open chokes. Either of these loads would most likely provide greater on target effect with a center dense pattern.

Of course there are specialty chokes, like new the TruLock Boar Blaster, that may work as well.

Regardless, for deer hunting, at 40 yards, I want to see an average of 5 to 6 00B pellets, (minimum), in the core 10" and consider any pellets outside of 15" as lost to pattern effectiveness.

I hope these thoughts help.

This video shows patterns from a standard full and a "Boar Blaster" with 3" Remington 15 pellet 00B.



This second video shows patterns from an 870 with the "Boar Blaster" using 3" Remington 15 pellet 00B and Federal FliteControl 3" 12 pellet 00B.