Best over the counter buckshot

[RMc]

Which will deliver the best pattern? Well, all shotguns tend to be a law unto themselves but in general those loads with buffer and a shotcup pattern better than those without. Hard shot or plated shot certainly helps.

Here is a quick list of over the counter 12 gauge buckshot loads put up with buffer and a full length shot cup.

Federal Premium with Flite-Control Wad - 00 buck only.

Federal Premium buckshot - all shot sizes (except 3.5" loads-partial shot cup)

Federal "regular" buckshot - all shot sizes

Winchester Super-X #1 Buckshot 2.75 and 3 inch loads. This is a low cost 'sleeper' load and is among the first to sell out locally. All other WW buckshot, including Supreme loads do not have a shot cup.

Remington Express 9 pellet OO buckshot round.

Remington Low-Recoil 8 pellet 00

The 3.5" 18 pellet Remington round uses the same shot cup as the 9 pellet load and has 8 pellets exposed to bore scrub. All other buckshot loads from Big Green lack a shot cup

Hornady Buckshot - 8 pellet 00

There are a lot of buckshot rounds on the market that have fiber wads and buffer but nothing to protect the pellets from pellet flattening bore scrub. Some of the foreign made buckshot rounds, like Wolf brand loads, don't even have buffer.

In my experience, if you want to get 40 yard performance with conventional buckshot, you need at minimum a 12 pellet load of OO buckshot. If your shotgun/choke/load combination will not place all 12 pellets inside of 10 inches at 25 yards it's time to try other combinations.

 

[Blue .45]

Post deleted.

 

[scout26]

You'll have to try them and find out. What works best in my shotgun, may be the absolute worst performer in your gun, even if they were from same manufacturer and came off the line one after the other.

 

[CWL]

Yup, what Scout26 said. Ammo & gun need to be tested together.

There is no such thing as "Best", it will always depend on many many factors. Buy several boxes of each ammo you are interested in and test them in your shotgun; then let us know what has the tightest pattern in your shotgun. (this still won't have much relevance for our shotguns though.

Please also do a search since this is a commonly posted question.

 

[Nameless_Hobo]

Reduced Recoil loads generally group better.

 

[RMc]

You have to test loads and chokes!

Yes you have to pattern "blue whistlers" to find the top performance load for your shotgun and choke tubes. Most of the bad reputation buckshot has is due to shooting untested loads at too great a distance!

 

[Zach S]

I've had great luck with federal H132 00, a commercial reduced recoil 9 pellet 00 load.

Out of my cyl bore 20" 590, most patterns at 25 yards are within the fingertips of a spread hand. Some patterns are tighter, some are a little more spread out, but for the most part, they're within a spread hand, which is about 9" from the tip of my thumb to my pinky, and about 8 inches from my wrist to my bird.

The LE133 and LE132 patterns better, but I can find H132 locally.

 

[The Deer Hunter]

I tested some Winchester Super-X and some Winchester reduced recoil through my 870. Strangely enough the reduced recoil patterned much better.