Federal Tactical 00 Range Report

[357wheelgunner]

I tried out my new buckshot load today. I got a rediculous deal on some of this Federal Tactical 9 pellet 00 (with flitecontrol wad). It's a full power load, 1325fps. It didn't recoil as much as some hunting buckshot loads, but it wasn't as light as the low recoil stuff. Here's how it did out of my cylinder bore 18.5" 870 Police barrel:

10' pattern:



25' pattern:



50' pattern:



For comparrison, here's a 50' pattern shot with S&B 12 pellet 00:



The Federal load is the tightest patterning load I've ever tested, it's what I'll be loading up with for my HD shotgun. I'm looking forward to getting out and testing this at farther distances, I'm curious how it would do at 40-50 yards.

Here's 2 fast shots at 7 yards, firing as fast as I could get a sight picture. I love this shotgun!

 

[nathan]

Very nice.

 

[Fred Fuller]

At about 25 yards or more, I'm switching to slugs. My own experiments with buckshot way back when (terminating with 3" Federal Premium 000 at 100 yards from a Patternmaster choke tube) indicated that buckshot ran out of oomph before it ran out of pattern. Remember, buckshot is spherical- THE most ballistically inefficient shape for a projectile.

My 25-yard limit with buckshot is self imposed, just to be on the safe side. I've found that our current 00 load, Federal LE 127-00, patterns very well at that range. Even so, penetration still counts for more than patterning IMHO.

FWIW,

lpl

 

[357wheelgunner]

Even so, penetration still counts for more than patterning IMHO.

That's why I switched from Reduced Recoil buckshot. I'm still going to keep some around for my wife, but I will be loading my personal shotgun with full power buckshot.

I have no reservations about using reduced recoil slugs though, I'm sure that they don't suffer from the same penetration issues, and full power slugs are very rough for followup shots.

 

[darkknight]

Those rounds are amazing. I have never seen a shell that patterns consistently. I have fired about a hundred rounds of it a month for the last 6 months and I am a firm believer. U get the occasinal flier but overall the pattern is very consistent and outperforms everything I ever played with before.u have to aim this ammo to score consistent hits because it will not just cover a target. I will always use it for my hd load till I find something better. But that's my .02 ymmv.