[cpileri]

I have been thinking that "Bigger and badder" may not be necessary for a HD shotgun. An ounce of buckshot or a slug at 950fps ought to do just fine, right?
Besides, the noise and flash from a full load will blow your ears and eyes into uselessness for way too long.
So, i was wondering about loading low-flash, low-noise SG ammo not just for the new super-long Metro barrels, but for use in regular length bbls for HD or just low-pain practice. Then I see that now Federal has the Metro Loads- desigend sure for the barrel attatchment, but they'll do.

If you could get any, that is.

Winchester has had the Feather Light 12ga 26gram loads for awhile. And some out-of-country manufacturers have subsonic shotgun loads.

Any thoughts on "going backwards" if you will, and useing a lesser load like these for HD?
C-

[Dave McCracken]

Shotguns dump an incredible amount of energy into a target at close range. The kick and excessive blast are part of the price we pay for all that power. And, here too, less may be more...

The lowly 410 in its 2 1/2" skeet loading version equals the old 41 Magnum Police load, which was removed from use by depts because "It was killin' off all the brothers". A light 12 gauge load packs 3-6 times that energy.

Obviously, all that isn't needed for the short ranges and tight time frames common to HD Crises.

Let's take a standard HD load and "Downsize" it. Instead of 9 00 pellets, let's just have 6. Let's cut the powder so that the speed remains at about 1200 FPS. We just reduced FELT and free recoil by about 1/3. Drop the speed to 1K FPS, and we'd still have a highly effective round for HD. It would be quite controllable by folks unused to heavy shotguns with heavy kick. They'd still need training and practice, but this would make that SO much easier.

And since the payload is smaller by volume, a hull could be reduced to say, 2 1/4" so mag springs would be less stressed and maybe even sticking another in the mag is possible.

IMO, the US owned makers are missing a big trick here.

[Andrew Wyatt]

such a round would not function in pumps very well, though.

[Dave McCracken]

Why not? The Aguila mini shells do not, but they're less than 2" when loaded.

And, next time you've got some spare time, measure different empty hulls and see just how much variance there is in "2 3/4" hulls.