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Remington Buckshot Poor Quality

J

JayFramer

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Guys I’ve been buying and trying different types of buckshot for my home defense shotgun and recently bought a box of Remington Law Enforcement reduced recoil 8 pellet buck and the QC in the shells I received was horrible:

43-A46-FAA-4-C38-4-EB0-B04-D-29-A17-D253-F74.jpg


The case heads hat spotty corrosion on them which isn’t too big a deal, could well have been improper storage by the seller. What IS a big deal are those crimps! On half the shells in the box, the crimps are extremely poorly done and many leak buffering material all over. This can get trapped between the magazine tube and the follower, resulting in a malfunction.

Also there is “flashing” around the mouths on some shells where it looks like the crimping caused excess plastic to be pushed outward. As if this weren’t enough, many shells are missing their red primer sealant or if it IS there, it’s smeared all over the case head and not in the primer pocket!

I’ve contacted the seller for a refund and probably should email Remington about this. I immediately boxed all the shells back up, no way I’m keeping them in my home Defense shotgun. I also learned this exact load has had recalls in the past (my lot number is not affected) for improper powder charges.

So this stuff is supposed to be for Law Enforcement duty use?? I sure hope I just got a bad box or something. The good news is I have some Federal Tactical Flite Control 00 here with apparantly perfect quality. Excellent strong crimps, 0 issues.

Just putting this out there, guys. More of a rant than anything but also some data points if you’re thinking about picking up any Remington LE buckshot.

-Jay
 
While I wouldn't want to judge a company based on a small sample size, my last experience with Remington ammo was not good. A few years ago I bought a couple hundred rounds of .38 Special ammo, I think it was their 125gr FMJ "clean" ammo (supposed to be safer for indoor range use). I fired one cylinder-full and the cases wouldn't come out. I had to use pliers to pull the cases out. It turned out they ruptured. Fortunately, it didn't damage my gun. I contacted Remington, sent them the remaining ammo, and they gave me a refund. I'm pretty sure I posted about it here, with pictures.

As I said, I don't want to judge a company based on a small sample size, but I haven't bought Remington ammo since then.
 
Have you tried any S&B? I've shot a lot of it in different loads and it works good. I bought a case of 250 #1 buckshot 2 3/4" and it shoots good in my shotguns. The case cost $100.00 delivered to my house.
I bought them at outdoorlimited.com
 
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I just bought 10 boxes of the Remington reduced recoil 12 guage shells that you are making reference to, to fill a bandoleer for my new V3 Tac 13. I noticed none of the problems you mentioned. Perhaps you just got a bad lot, sorry, as I have shot these and they do well.
 
During all of my years in LE we nearly always carried Remington buckshot and slugs. Gov't agency = low bid. We continually faced the same problem of the leaking "grex" buffer material. It became so bad that I volunteered to go through all our issued shotguns on a regularly scheduled basis to clean out the accumulated "grex" & grime. Note: some LE officers were notoriously lazy at cleaning their issued firearms to the point that problems arose when it came time to unload them or even fire them in training . We were issued Rem 870's with the extended mag tube and we wound up downloading the mags by one shell, because we started to experience the plastic buckshot shells swelling from mag spring pressure and the shells hanging up in the mag tube or not even chambering. I still have a bunch of the traded out buckshot shells that no longer contain any "grex" and the shot just rattles around.
 
Same experience with Remington buffered #4 & 00 issue buck loads. Leaking buffer material was a real issue, especially in duty guns that sat bouncing around in the trunk of the car. They almost always leaked. You had to keep up with the buffer material floating around in the gun, or you could have issues if enough leaked out. Still have a couple cases of the issue #4 buck, from maybe 2000 / 2002 that have that issue, so it's been an issue for a while.

That said, it has always proven reliable when fired, and has patterned good in most guns I have tried.

Larry
 
As someone who loads 12 and 20 gage shells I have to say that IMO you aren't looking at Factory ammunition, it's something someone made in their basement.

First, the crimps look like these shells were done on a MEC 600 JR that didn't have the Head to Base distance short enough. BTW, had the exact same problem on my MEC 600 and had to elongate the holes for mounting the upper carrier shaft to drop the head.

Second, the primers don't match. The two on the left in your picture feature a copper colored primer with a silver colored cup with a red sealant. Do NOT know who made those primers but it wasn't Remington. Remington primers come in two "flavors". One has brass colored primers and brass cups and the other has brass colored primers and silver cups. BTW, Winchester primers are typically Brass centers in a silver cup.

Note, shotgun primers are 3 part assemblies. On the outside is a ring shaped cup with a flare at one end and a large flash hole at the other end. Then a primer that is similar to the design of a standard rifle or handgun primer with the open end cup and an anvil centered in the open end. Press the inner primer cup into the outer mounting cup and you have a shotgun primer that is then pressed into the shell.

PS; Shotgun shell reloaders actually prefer to use Remington Hulls. The reason is quite simple, they are the most CONSISTENT hulls made. For a reloader the depth of the case in relation to the base is critical and Remington has this dimension nailed. Unlike Federal where I've seen variation as much as 3/16 inch.
 
scooter123 said:
As someone who loads 12 and 20 gage shells I have to say that IMO you aren't looking at Factory ammunition, it's something someone made in their basement.

First, the crimps look like these shells were done on a MEC 600 JR that didn't have the Head to Base distance short enough. BTW, had the exact same problem on my MEC 600 and had to elongate the holes for mounting the upper carrier shaft to drop the head.

Second, the primers don't match. The two on the left in your picture feature a copper colored primer with a silver colored cup with a red sealant. Do NOT know who made those primers but it wasn't Remington. Remington primers come in two "flavors". One has brass colored primers and brass cups and the other has brass colored primers and silver cups. BTW, Winchester primers are typically Brass centers in a silver cup.

Note, shotgun primers are 3 part assemblies. On the outside is a ring shaped cup with a flare at one end and a large flash hole at the other end. Then a primer that is similar to the design of a standard rifle or handgun primer with the open end cup and an anvil centered in the open end. Press the inner primer cup into the outer mounting cup and you have a shotgun primer that is then pressed into the shell.

PS; Shotgun shell reloaders actually prefer to use Remington Hulls. The reason is quite simple, they are the most CONSISTENT hulls made. For a reloader the depth of the case in relation to the base is critical and Remington has this dimension nailed. Unlike Federal where I've seen variation as much as 3/16 inch.
Click to expand...

Okay, sure. If your say so.
 
As previous posters said,... contact Remington as I did with a box of rounds with numerous failures to fire. They were extremely helpful and definitely wanted the rounds returned and compensated me with new ones. Just my 2 cents.
 
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