Fred Fuller
Moderator Emeritus
This is by no means an in-depth report on these three loads, more of a dabble really. But it might break the ice for some of you who are looking to broaden the palette in your ammo can. I had to place an order with the good folks at Ammunition To Go (ammunitiontogo.com) and decided to sample some 12 gauge buckshot loads I hadn't tried before.
All shooting was done at 25 yards using a standard IPSC cardboard target for a patterning board. The shotgun was a Remington 870 Express with a take-off Police gun barrel- 18" CYL bore with a bead sight.
First up was Rio Royal Buck Special, a 1345 fps 9-pellet 00 load at a cost of about $.42 per round (SKU# RB 129). This Spanish export ammo comes loaded in a 70mm long clear plastic hull with high brass head (actually it's steel, the magnet says), packed 5 rounds to the white, green and gold cardboard box. The nine pellets of unbuffered unplated lead 00 buckshot are clearly visible resting on their plastic collapsing wad and are held in place by a roll crimped clear plastic disk.
This is one of those loads that should be popular among scattergun afficianados. It couldn't quiiite keep all its pellets on the cardboard, though it managed seven or eight of nine most of the time. Pattern? Not really much of one- a liberal distribution of buckshot on the target was more like it. Given penetration into the berm it hit pretty hard, recoil was surprisingly brisk for a load turning up only 1345 fps. For open patterning inexpensive buckshot, this one steals the lead from S&B as priced by this seller, with the S&B now adding up at about $.49 per round in case lots.
Next up came Fiocchi's 1325 fps high velocity Exacta load (stock #12HV00BK). Despite its Italian name, this one comes from downtown Ozark, MO 65721. It hits the wallet a little harder at about $.52 per round. It's loaded in a clear plastic hull with a 'medium' height brass (OK, steel) head, packed 10 rounds in a black cardboard box with red and white markings. It's a 2 3/4" hull with a star crimp, making it about 3/16" shorter than the usual 70mm European style roll crimped shotgun ammunition. Nine unbuffered pellets of hard lead alloy nickel plated 00 buckshot are visible nestled in their four-petaled shock absorbing plastic wad.
Hard shot makes a difference in patterns, and that was evident with this load. Recoil was milder feeling than the Rio load, though the stated velocity was only 20 fps slower, and penetration was if anything deeper given harder shot. This load consistently kept all nine pellets on the cardboard, though sometimes just barely. Given that the IPSC cardboard is 18" wide, that still puts this load in this barrel outside the bounds of my self-imposed arbitrary requirement for 11" maximum patterns at 25 yards. Could be a touch more choke would help, if further exploration were necessary. Given my satisfaction with Federal's current LE 127-00 offering (at about $.60/round), I see no need for that.
Last in the dugout today was NobelSport's Law Enforcement buckshot, a 27 pellet load of #4 buckshot at 1325 fps (Stock #ANS124BK10). This Italian-loaded ammo comes loaded in a dark blue 70mm plastic hull with a medium-high brass-plated steel head, packed 10 rounds to the royal blue cardboard box with gold and white markings. The 27 #4 buck pellets are contained in a plastic wad and held in place by a hard cardboard or fiber disk. At about $.59 per round, this was the high priced spread of the afternoon.
Patterns with this load were pretty open, with 22- 24 of the 27 pellets usually turning up on paper. Patterns out of this barrel with this load seemed to 'donut' pretty regularly for some reason, leaving more peripheral pellet hits with a COM largely unscathed. Odd stuff happens with shotguns and it is never a good idea to take very much for granted, this is one more bit of evidence of that. Could that fiber disk under the roll crimp be the culprit in the donut patterns? Hard to say. Still, for genuine HD use at close range, if I were inclined to use #4 buck I'd have to give this load a real workout to see if it was suitable for use.
Hope y'all find some use in all this rambling, if you have experience with any of these loads, please feel free to share them here too.
lpl/nc
All shooting was done at 25 yards using a standard IPSC cardboard target for a patterning board. The shotgun was a Remington 870 Express with a take-off Police gun barrel- 18" CYL bore with a bead sight.
First up was Rio Royal Buck Special, a 1345 fps 9-pellet 00 load at a cost of about $.42 per round (SKU# RB 129). This Spanish export ammo comes loaded in a 70mm long clear plastic hull with high brass head (actually it's steel, the magnet says), packed 5 rounds to the white, green and gold cardboard box. The nine pellets of unbuffered unplated lead 00 buckshot are clearly visible resting on their plastic collapsing wad and are held in place by a roll crimped clear plastic disk.
This is one of those loads that should be popular among scattergun afficianados. It couldn't quiiite keep all its pellets on the cardboard, though it managed seven or eight of nine most of the time. Pattern? Not really much of one- a liberal distribution of buckshot on the target was more like it. Given penetration into the berm it hit pretty hard, recoil was surprisingly brisk for a load turning up only 1345 fps. For open patterning inexpensive buckshot, this one steals the lead from S&B as priced by this seller, with the S&B now adding up at about $.49 per round in case lots.
Next up came Fiocchi's 1325 fps high velocity Exacta load (stock #12HV00BK). Despite its Italian name, this one comes from downtown Ozark, MO 65721. It hits the wallet a little harder at about $.52 per round. It's loaded in a clear plastic hull with a 'medium' height brass (OK, steel) head, packed 10 rounds in a black cardboard box with red and white markings. It's a 2 3/4" hull with a star crimp, making it about 3/16" shorter than the usual 70mm European style roll crimped shotgun ammunition. Nine unbuffered pellets of hard lead alloy nickel plated 00 buckshot are visible nestled in their four-petaled shock absorbing plastic wad.
Hard shot makes a difference in patterns, and that was evident with this load. Recoil was milder feeling than the Rio load, though the stated velocity was only 20 fps slower, and penetration was if anything deeper given harder shot. This load consistently kept all nine pellets on the cardboard, though sometimes just barely. Given that the IPSC cardboard is 18" wide, that still puts this load in this barrel outside the bounds of my self-imposed arbitrary requirement for 11" maximum patterns at 25 yards. Could be a touch more choke would help, if further exploration were necessary. Given my satisfaction with Federal's current LE 127-00 offering (at about $.60/round), I see no need for that.
Last in the dugout today was NobelSport's Law Enforcement buckshot, a 27 pellet load of #4 buckshot at 1325 fps (Stock #ANS124BK10). This Italian-loaded ammo comes loaded in a dark blue 70mm plastic hull with a medium-high brass-plated steel head, packed 10 rounds to the royal blue cardboard box with gold and white markings. The 27 #4 buck pellets are contained in a plastic wad and held in place by a hard cardboard or fiber disk. At about $.59 per round, this was the high priced spread of the afternoon.
Patterns with this load were pretty open, with 22- 24 of the 27 pellets usually turning up on paper. Patterns out of this barrel with this load seemed to 'donut' pretty regularly for some reason, leaving more peripheral pellet hits with a COM largely unscathed. Odd stuff happens with shotguns and it is never a good idea to take very much for granted, this is one more bit of evidence of that. Could that fiber disk under the roll crimp be the culprit in the donut patterns? Hard to say. Still, for genuine HD use at close range, if I were inclined to use #4 buck I'd have to give this load a real workout to see if it was suitable for use.
Hope y'all find some use in all this rambling, if you have experience with any of these loads, please feel free to share them here too.
lpl/nc
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