Federal 00 buck flight control and 1oz hydra shock results

[Jessie]

I took my Win. 1400 out and ran some Federal 12 ga. 00 buck( 8 pellets) and some federal 1 oz rifled hydra shok slugs.
This target was at 25 yds.
The large hole in the 10 ring was the first shot with the slug.
The others surrounding that one in the center was the next shot with the 00 buck with flight control wad.
The pattern directly above that was another 00 buck. It was about 6" and aimed high to get a clean pattern.
Take note that this was shot with a cylinder bore 20" slug barrel.
That makes the patterns pretty impressive.
I am sold on this load with the flight control wads.

 

[Vulcan Bob]

That Federal 00 buck with the flight control wad is without a doubt one of the tightest shooting 00 buck loads out there! I was a bit "dumbfounded" with the results the first time I shot em. Ran back out and bought twenty boxes (at $2.49 a box of five at that time) that was a no brainer.

 

[Jessie]

Great price Bob. I only wish. They've almost doubled in price.
I'll be looking for sales, but will be getting more anyways.

 

[Jessie]

This second target was at 50yds. Same gun, 20" slug barrel.
Not near as tight, but putting 6 out of 8 pellets on the target at that range was impressive.
The shot aimed at the head pretty much sailed around both sides. If it was aimed center of mass...different story.
My slug shooting needs a little tuning at that range though.
This WAS informal, in my defense!

 

[JayFramer]

Aren't shotguns cool because the shot spread increases the likelihood of a hit at range?

I don't get this whole TIGHTER TIGHTER TIGHTER desire in buckshot loads.

If you want a slug, use a slug. Or use a rifle.

 

[Jessie]

Well, yes and no. You saw how it spreads at range so a couple of, basically .32 acp hits will probably not stop a threat.
Then there is the collateral damage issue that you better be concerned with.
I just did a little math and the 00 buck being .33 caliber IIRC making a 6" pattern at 25 yds. is already about 18 times larger than a .38/.357 single round.
You don't want it much larger.
A blunderbuss may be ok with boarding pirates, but doesn't work to well in a SD situation.

 

[JayFramer]

This is what I did at the range today:

Remington 00 buck. Worked plenty well I think. No high dollar trick loads for this old cowboy.

 

[Jessie]

This is what I did at the range today:

Remington 00 buck. Worked plenty well methinks. No high dollar trick loads for this old cowboy.

Impressive point, I'll give you that!

 

[Doug M.]

We are responsible for every projectile down range. In addition, the truly vital areas we want to hit in a defensive use of force situation (for non-LE; LE is not limited to self-defense) are relatively small, and a 6" spread at 25 yards is a winner. Remember that some LE agencies have no sense and limit their personnel to shotguns for a variety of dumb reasons, and some members here may live in areas where shotguns are the better choice due to silly gun laws. From everything I have ever seen, the Federal flite-control loads are the choice in buckshot rounds. I already had a bunch of 00, 000, and slugs before those loads came about, so I am staying with them for the moment.

 

[stykshooter]

When those buckshot loads first came on the scene 10 years ago I immediately changed out the buckshot in all of my agency's cruisers. At the next qualification session I demonstrated to all of the officers how effective the flite control wads were by firing a pattern at 18 yards out of one of our 18" cylinder bore guns and then walking down range and covering all of the holes with the palm of my hand. Conventional buckshot was giving about a 20" spread at the same range.

A little further down the training road and I began to realize that it may not be the best choice for the average officer. We did a lot of training with pepper poppers and steel knock down targets and it became very obvious that we were kind of defeating the purpose of having a shotgun. With normal buckshot loads you could pretty much point the weapon in the general direction and get enough hits on steel to knock it down. With the flite control buckshot it became very obvious that it was easy to miss a target with all of the pellets. There is no substantial spread at 15 yards and it was easy to pull the whole load off to the side or low and not have a pellet strike the target.

 

[Jessie]

I've always had the best results with a shotgun when I aimed it instead of pointed it.
Especially having sights on the slug barrel.
I'm sure there is the exception.

 

[amd6547]

I like the FliteControl buckshot, and have both 00 and #1 low recoil. In fact, the #1 is loaded in my bedroom Mossberg right now, more for the low recoil aspect.
Another option is the Hornady Critical Defense, which uses the same wad. Their 00 load patterned tighter than Federal in my Beretta 1201FP. Another interesting Hornady load is #4 buck in the VersaTite wad. This is full power and accurate. I know the current tendency is to disparage #4 buck, but I don't agree.
In general, I do prefer standard buckshot for close range HD duty. My LGS sells Winchester #1 Super X, and Estate 25rd boxes of 00, so I shoot a lot of that.

 

[Doug M.]

I've always had the best results with a shotgun when I aimed it instead of pointed it.
Especially having sights on the slug barrel.
I'm sure there is the exception.

*
Aiming is not optional.

 

[Vulcan Bob]

Aren't shotguns cool because the shot spread increases the likelihood of a hit at range?

I don't get this whole TIGHTER TIGHTER TIGHTER desire in buckshot loads.

If you want a slug, use a slug. Or use a rifle.

Yes you do want some shot spread at range, but you do need enough of those 00 buckshot on target to get a good result. I do have a few slugs in the side saddle and my shotguns are zeroed at fifty yards for em. If you are loaded with 00 buck and you have to rapidly engage a target at range I feel comfortable engaging with the 00 buck load being discussed here. Just about any choice of firearm and loads are just a guess of what use it may actually be used for. A good "crystal ball" would be a nice thing to have. The shotgun in certain environments is as good a guess as any.