Opinions on 12 ga #1 buck - 20 pellet

It kills Bambi just as good as any other Buckshot I used.

Old Scratch said:

I have had good results with these. I use the Winchester and have found patterning far superior to 12 pellet #00 buck. Your thoughts and experiences?

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Winchester no longer makes a 20 pellet #1B load. There is a 16 pellet 2.75" or a 24 pellet 3" load.

The 20 pellet, 2.75" magnum #1B load was discontinued several years ago.

If they pattern well for you, by all means use them. They are the theoretical ideal buckshot size for 12 ga., but as with so many theories, in practice they don't always work out. I have yet to find a barrel that will pattern #1 buck to suit me, and I've been looking most of my life.

Shame that the short magnum load was discontinued. The USF&WS Wildlife Services (formerly known as Federal Trappers) used that load out of Browning A5's to good effect eliminating nuisance animals (beaver, coyotes and feral swine) for a lot of years. It's a real killer.

They've gone to Benellis and Remingtons now and I would think that the 3" load would be just as good.

Wow, I use Winchester 2 3/4" 1B 16 pellet loads for my HD shotgun. Didn't know they made a 2 3/4" "magnum" with 20 pellets on board. That sounds like a great combo for defensive work indoors.

A couple of things to remember about #1B:

-Magnum #1B loads are loaded to a severely reduced velocity levels, well under 1100 fps.

- Commerically loaded #1B ammunition uses reduced diameter pellets to maintain the traditional number of pellets in the load with the reduced internal space of plastic wads. The usual .286" pellet weigh in at 33 grains - not the nominal .30" diameter and 40 grains shown on buckshot charts.

that is my "go to" HD round ... nice balance of penetration and pattern density