Fred Fuller
Moderator Emeritus
A while back I stopped in at a gun shop in the area that I don't often get to visit. They are a major dealer in Fiocchi ammunition, and while browsing I noticed a stack of squarish blue boxes of a familiar shape and size. I am used to seeing boxes like this in buff brown with the Estate brand name thereon, but these were dark blue and emblazoned in gold and white with the Fiocchi trademark.
So I wandered over and picked up a box. The markings caught my attention immediately- FIOCCHI LE OO BUCKSHOT/ 12 GAUGE 2 3/4" LENGTH REDUCED RECOIL 1150 VELOCITY 9 PELLET 00 BUCK. And the retail price sticker (in the upscale neighborhood of Southern Pines, NC) said $5.99 for the 10-round box. How could I resist?
Upon getting several of the boxes home, I examined the shells more closely. They are loaded in translucent plastic hulls with the internals clearly visible. The pellets are nickle plated and unbuffered in the conventional collapsing pillar type wad. These are medium brass hulls, the heads are steel (as indicated by a trusty refrigerator magnet) plated with brass. The hull is closed with a conventional six point star crimp and the center is unsealed. The primer is not lacquered either.
It took a bit of time to get to the patterning board, but with another trip into the gunshop's neighborhood in the offing I decided I needed to get some patterning done. After all, I didn't want to miss a chance to inquire about case lot prices if these shells turned in performance similar to the late lamented old style Estate low recoil buckshot loads of which I am so fond.
I started with 'my' working gun, a Remington 870 Express which is fitted with walnut furniture once removed from an 870P and sold on eBay. The gun has been phosphate finished and wears a 3-round TacStar magazine extension and clamp. It has a 20" factory rifle sighted smoothbore barrel that started life as a cylinder bore but now has a Modified RemChoke tube installed. Colonial Arms in Selma, AL also extended the forcing cone when they installed the RemChoke tube. At a measured 25 yards this gun will relialbly throw 6" or smaller partterns with old style Estate RR 00 buck loads.
The Fiocchi fodder didn't do quite as well. Patterns ran around 9- 10 inches including the one pellet that always seemed to be a flyer. Patterns impacted near the point of aim as do the Estate loads the gun usually carries in the magazine- the sights are actually zeroed to the Brenneke KO slugs that usually ride in the SideSaddle, and the sighting coincidence is a happy one and not to be taken for granted. Not all shotguns will shoot all buckshot loads and all slugs to the same point of aim, but I believe that if both loads are to be carried that the gun should be zeroed for the slug load.
My target for this session was a cardboard box 11" wide by 21" tall (measure your torso...), all pellets stayed on the box in all shots though the flyer occasionally nicked the right hand edge. Holes were taped with masking tape between shots. The range was a measured 25 yards. Sorry- no camera, no pictures.
I wondered if perhaps a more open choke might do better. So back to the pattern board I went with one of 'our' house guns in tow. This one is another 870 Express with a Speedfeed thick-wall synthetic stock shortened to 12 1/2" overall and fitted with a Decelerator pad to fit my wife. It has a standard field length synthetic forearm, no magazine extension and no other bells/whistles. It is a post-magazine tube dimple, pre-plastic trigger plate Express and it still has its original finish and its magazine tube dimples. It wears a 20" smoothbore rifle sighted barrel with an Improved Cylinder choke from the factory. Its forcing cone has been extended also.
Patterns from this barrel were actually a bit tighter. Overall size was still 8- 9" because of that persistent flyer but the 'core' of the pattern was tighter. Again, the patterns were reasonably close to point of aim as established for Brenneke KO slugs. I don't have a cylinder bore barrel handy right now or I would try it out as well. I don't know what results that test would offer, and as the only guns here set up for serious use have at least ImpCyl chokes, I doubt I will get it done.
All in all, I think these are perfectly useful loads for my usual home defense applications requiring buckshot. I have long been a 'tight pattern' subscriber for defensive shotguns, as I want to get maximum effect on target by keeping all pellets as much as possible where I want them to go. I prefer to push my shotgun's "A zone" out to 25 yards if possible, and then switch to slugs for ranges out to 100 yards or so.
I know that others really want their defensive shotguns to be genuine scatterguns- I have no problems with that approach at all and in fact am prepared to implement it if needed by swapping loads to S&B buckshot. That's the load I routinely recommend for scattergun afficianados, as it can be depended on to throw wide patterns with its unbuffered pellets made of dead soft lead which are uncushioned by any modern advances in shotshell technology. Another advantage with S&B is that if you miss with the pellets at HD ranges, you will likely suffocate 'em with the smoke... 8^).
It is an unfortunate detail that these shells are not sealed fore and aft to render them more weather resistant for field use. I don't think it is a huge disadvantage for HD ammo though. Given that the loads seem to perform quite well in other regards, I think they are perfectly acceptable for indoor and limited outdoor applications. If you can find them locally by all means give them a try. The stock number for this load is 12LE00BK. They are loaded by Fiocchi of America in Ozark, MO.
lpl/nc
So I wandered over and picked up a box. The markings caught my attention immediately- FIOCCHI LE OO BUCKSHOT/ 12 GAUGE 2 3/4" LENGTH REDUCED RECOIL 1150 VELOCITY 9 PELLET 00 BUCK. And the retail price sticker (in the upscale neighborhood of Southern Pines, NC) said $5.99 for the 10-round box. How could I resist?
Upon getting several of the boxes home, I examined the shells more closely. They are loaded in translucent plastic hulls with the internals clearly visible. The pellets are nickle plated and unbuffered in the conventional collapsing pillar type wad. These are medium brass hulls, the heads are steel (as indicated by a trusty refrigerator magnet) plated with brass. The hull is closed with a conventional six point star crimp and the center is unsealed. The primer is not lacquered either.
It took a bit of time to get to the patterning board, but with another trip into the gunshop's neighborhood in the offing I decided I needed to get some patterning done. After all, I didn't want to miss a chance to inquire about case lot prices if these shells turned in performance similar to the late lamented old style Estate low recoil buckshot loads of which I am so fond.
I started with 'my' working gun, a Remington 870 Express which is fitted with walnut furniture once removed from an 870P and sold on eBay. The gun has been phosphate finished and wears a 3-round TacStar magazine extension and clamp. It has a 20" factory rifle sighted smoothbore barrel that started life as a cylinder bore but now has a Modified RemChoke tube installed. Colonial Arms in Selma, AL also extended the forcing cone when they installed the RemChoke tube. At a measured 25 yards this gun will relialbly throw 6" or smaller partterns with old style Estate RR 00 buck loads.
The Fiocchi fodder didn't do quite as well. Patterns ran around 9- 10 inches including the one pellet that always seemed to be a flyer. Patterns impacted near the point of aim as do the Estate loads the gun usually carries in the magazine- the sights are actually zeroed to the Brenneke KO slugs that usually ride in the SideSaddle, and the sighting coincidence is a happy one and not to be taken for granted. Not all shotguns will shoot all buckshot loads and all slugs to the same point of aim, but I believe that if both loads are to be carried that the gun should be zeroed for the slug load.
My target for this session was a cardboard box 11" wide by 21" tall (measure your torso...), all pellets stayed on the box in all shots though the flyer occasionally nicked the right hand edge. Holes were taped with masking tape between shots. The range was a measured 25 yards. Sorry- no camera, no pictures.
I wondered if perhaps a more open choke might do better. So back to the pattern board I went with one of 'our' house guns in tow. This one is another 870 Express with a Speedfeed thick-wall synthetic stock shortened to 12 1/2" overall and fitted with a Decelerator pad to fit my wife. It has a standard field length synthetic forearm, no magazine extension and no other bells/whistles. It is a post-magazine tube dimple, pre-plastic trigger plate Express and it still has its original finish and its magazine tube dimples. It wears a 20" smoothbore rifle sighted barrel with an Improved Cylinder choke from the factory. Its forcing cone has been extended also.
Patterns from this barrel were actually a bit tighter. Overall size was still 8- 9" because of that persistent flyer but the 'core' of the pattern was tighter. Again, the patterns were reasonably close to point of aim as established for Brenneke KO slugs. I don't have a cylinder bore barrel handy right now or I would try it out as well. I don't know what results that test would offer, and as the only guns here set up for serious use have at least ImpCyl chokes, I doubt I will get it done.
All in all, I think these are perfectly useful loads for my usual home defense applications requiring buckshot. I have long been a 'tight pattern' subscriber for defensive shotguns, as I want to get maximum effect on target by keeping all pellets as much as possible where I want them to go. I prefer to push my shotgun's "A zone" out to 25 yards if possible, and then switch to slugs for ranges out to 100 yards or so.
I know that others really want their defensive shotguns to be genuine scatterguns- I have no problems with that approach at all and in fact am prepared to implement it if needed by swapping loads to S&B buckshot. That's the load I routinely recommend for scattergun afficianados, as it can be depended on to throw wide patterns with its unbuffered pellets made of dead soft lead which are uncushioned by any modern advances in shotshell technology. Another advantage with S&B is that if you miss with the pellets at HD ranges, you will likely suffocate 'em with the smoke... 8^).
It is an unfortunate detail that these shells are not sealed fore and aft to render them more weather resistant for field use. I don't think it is a huge disadvantage for HD ammo though. Given that the loads seem to perform quite well in other regards, I think they are perfectly acceptable for indoor and limited outdoor applications. If you can find them locally by all means give them a try. The stock number for this load is 12LE00BK. They are loaded by Fiocchi of America in Ozark, MO.
lpl/nc
