[SnakeLogan]

I'd like to buy some buckshot and these seem to be two of the cheaper brands. Which should I go with?

[BENELLIMONTE]

This doesn't answer you buckshot question, but I have used Sellier & Bellot #6 shot magnum loads for many years in Idaho for Pheasant and Sage grouse hunting. They make a great product for the money.

Hope this info helps,

'MONTE"

[wnycollector]

I have patterned several inexpensive brands (express, rio, wolf nobel sport, S&B and fiocchi) of buckshot in my maverick 88. Other than fiocchi low recoil 00, they all made bigger patterns than I personally liked. The fiocchi is not buffered, but the buck in nickel plated, thus less deformation and tighter patterns. Having said that, I have a few boxes of each...just in I need a buckshot that really opens up quick.

I will say that the nobel sport #4 buck produces a dense medium (6-8" @ 15 yards) in my shotty. It is also avaliable and relatively inexpensive.

[Fred Fuller]

S&B is apt to yield much wider patterns, depending on how your particular barrel handles both brands. It's dangerous to over-generalize, but S&B does all the things that seem to guarantee wider buckshot patterns- dead soft lead pellets, no plating, no buffering, no shot collars, no one piece wad column, and a roll crimp with an over-shot card.

Estate is loaded by Alliant Techsystems (ATK), the same big company that makes Federal, CCI, etc. Used to be Estate was a small independent Texas company, and their buckshot was legendary for affordability and good patterns. First Blount bought them, then Blount sold its outdoor product line to Alliant. Somewhere along the way the wad column in the Estate buckshot got changed and its patterns opened up considerably, but they should still be tighter out of most guns than S&B. One of our members did a test and posted results here, patterning "old" Estate and "new" Estate buckshot side by side out of the same gun, you can probably find it if you look for it.

BUT you never know how either will do out of your barrel till you pattern it. If patterns are important to you, buy a little of each and test it on paper before you buy a bunch.

hth,

lpl