[Trebor]

I have a new FN Police 12 gauge 5 shot pump. I'm not a shotgun guy, so I don't know what's out there or where to look.

Can somone provide me some recommendations for "reduced recoil" 12 gauge defense loads? I would especially like a low recoil load that also produces a tight pattern.

Links to vendors would be great as well.

[Wayne G.]

tagged for later

[rantingredneck]

What works in one shotgun won't necessarily work well in another. Each is a law unto itself.

That all being said, I've had good luck with Federal Flite Control loads. I've been using the full power 9 pellet LE buckshot in Federal.

I've also had good results with the Remington Managed Recoil 8 pellet loads.

From my several HD guns the Remington load holds it's pattern to about the size of a sheet of notebook paper at 25 yds. The Federal is about half that.

Best you can do is buy a few different loads and spend an afternoon at the range testing pattern.

[Trebor]

Thanks. I figured I'd have to do some experimenting to see what works best with this specific gun.

Problem is, I don't even know what's out there and what loads to start with. I'm sure some loads have a generally good rep and others are known to be generally poor performers. I just want to narrow down how many I should test.

[rantingredneck]

The Federal Flite control stuff is very good and most people seem to report good results.

[JNewell]

Top brands (in my experience, and in my shotguns) are Federal, Winchester Ranger (LE), and Hornady. For some reason, at least around here, all are in very short supply.

For buck loads, look for the 9x00 loads at about 1200 fps and plated, hardened shot (which deform less and fly truer). The Flitecontrol wad is nice, but the old wad in that same load (LE132, if I remember correctly) was extremely tight anyway.

[rantingredneck]

Ammunitiontogo.com had the federal stuff in stock not long ago.

I ordered a case last month.

[chrissmallwood]

How good are the Ranger 00 Buck reduced recoil loads? I picked up four boxes of them earlier today.

[JNewell]

What's the load #? If it's what I think it is, it's Winchester's Law Enforcement line (http://www.winchester.com/lawenforcement/catalog/shotlist.aspx?use=1&gauge=12)and very good stuff.

Having said that, as someone else pointed out, some shotguns give better results with some brands rather than others, and trial and evaluation is required to ID the best ammo.

[Zach S]

The Flitecontrol wad is nice, but the old wad in that same load (LE132, if I remember correctly) was extremely tight anyway.
I had a pile both LE132 and LE133, and both gave great patterns. An 8" to 10" spread at 25 yards was typical from my 20" CYL 590. Smaller spreads were few an far between, but larger ones (12-14") werent uncommon. Not common, but not uncommon either.

I havent seen any LE133 or LE132 in a while, and the commercial load is available locally, so I havent really been looking.

The commercial load I'm referring to is Federal H132 00, 9 pellet reduced recoil 00B. It seems to pattern as well as the LE132, but I havent patterned it as in mesuring the spread at distance.

[JNewell]

At one point the H and LE series loads were the same. Not sure if this is still true, but my experience has been the same as yours.

Coincidentally, I was out buying 12 ga ammo yesterday. Found a fair bit of LE132 at one store, but another was out and said their distributor was temporarily out. Couldn't fine the Federal reduced recoil slug, so bought the Ranger, which works as well as the Fed load and actually has the advantage of different colored shells for more fool-proof ID. [Edit: was sorting through the ammo cans and all the recent Fed LE RR slugs I've got left are in white, so that's a non-point...]

[ECVMatt]

It has some great info and has some data on controlled recoil ammo...

NOT 56K Friendly

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=109958

Hope it helps,

Matt

[Zach S]

At one point the H and LE series loads were the same. Not sure if this is still true, but my experience has been the same as yours.
The H loads are a few FPS slower than the LE loads. So I the think the H loads are LE rejects boxed for commercial sale. Pure spectulation though.

[chrissmallwood]

I looked at my box of Ranger shells and I cant find the H or LE numbers you were talking about. The only number I can find is RA12005 next to the cartridge info.

[Zach S]

I looked at my box of Ranger shells and I cant find the H or LE numbers you were talking about.
H132 and LE132 are Federal part numbers.

[chrissmallwood]

My bad, I thought they were talking about winchester numbers.

[Trebor]

Other then ammunitiontogo, what other vendors should I check out for the low recoil stuff?