How do Value Pack loads perform?

[Gearhead Jim]

Like most areas, our Walmart sells the 100 rd Value Pack 12 ga loads (3dr- 1 1/8 oz- #8)for $14.88 plus tax. We can chose between Winchester, Federal, or Remington.

Certainly, I would not expect these to pattern as well as the equivilant AA shells, but I wonder how much the difference is.

Has anyone done some serious patterning to see how they perform?
Any differences between the 3 brands?
Thanks.

 

[ysr_racer]

I shoot all three brands all the time, at least 500 a month.

The only difference I can see is the shot is VERY slightly softer 4% antimony compared to 6% in the premium shells and the hulls are not as reloadable.

I called federal and asked them. They said the same thing. For clays, if you don't reload, they're GREAT.

 

[kudu]

I've shot a few patterns with the federals vs. the winchesters and the federals shot overall tighter patterns in my gun. The difference wasn't great but the winchesters seemed to have lots of flyers and I noticed that the ones I shot just had the plastic sheet around the shot and not a true wad to cup the shot. Federals reload several times also so I tend to buy them when I don't have time to reload. Wimchesters had a bad habit of releasing their crimp after a few days and spilling shot in my range bags and my shooting pouch, reloads that is.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Great training and fun ammo. If you're in a shootoff at the Grand for HOA, there's better choices with harder shot and more uniform brisance.

HTH....

 

[HSMITH]

The Federal is the best of the lot by quite a bit. They are in fact pretty darn good shotshells. As much as I hate Remington shotshells in general I do admit that the promo Remmys are better than the Winchester promo loads. Step up to premium ammo and the line up changes a little........

 

[Mike Irwin]

I've been averaging 22/23 of 25 pretty consistently using Federal ValuePack No. 8 rounds to shoot wobble trap out of a variety of shotguns.

I'm happy.

 

[Ricky B]

I find that the Federals burn cleaner (and smell better) than the Winchesters. My Remington 1100 needs less cleaning with the Federals.

From the 16-yard line in trap, I don't think you're going to be able to tell much difference between any of these and premium ammo.

--Rick

 

[Lennyjoe]

Federals shoot fine out of my Winchester 1400.

 

[ysr_racer]

Lennyjoe, have you ever shot a Picacho Sporting Clays? I'll be there next Sunday. They're having their monthly shoot.

 

[Bix]

I shoot a lot of these myself (usually Federals), and I find they perform well. However, I occasionally encounter a problem that I wonder if anyone else has experienced:

Every now and then, a spent shell will "get stuck" in the chamber of my 870. I can always free it by either muscling the action, or tapping the butt against the ground, but is it a bit of an annoyance.

I've put a wide variety of ammunition through the firearm and never experienced this kind of stoppage with anything else. My suspicion is that the metal that the value pack shell are made of (aluminum?) is less malleable than the brass used in everything else I shoot. I suspect that the bases are expanding, but not contracting enough after ignition.

Anyone else run into this?

 

[HSMITH]

Bix, the case heads are steel on all of the promo ammo, and unnecessary. The case head on modern ammunition is there for the extractor to grab on and the primer to seat against and that is all. I don't think it is the case head swelling and sticking, I think it is the plastic of the hull being held by the chamber. I would bet that you can take that same hull that stuck and was hard to get out and rechamber it without resistance, I would also bet that it will pop right out the second time without resistance. The chamber on some of the recent 870's looks like it was cut by drunken monkeys armed with dremel tools, and can lead to the hangups like you have had. Take a good look at your chamber and see if it is rough, if it is you can polish it easily. Also keep in mind that the ribbed hulls are more prone to sticking in a rough chamber, that is exactly opposite of why they are ribbed but the ammo makers were counting on gun makers to turn out a decent chamber.

 

[Lennyjoe]

Lennyjoe, have you ever shot a Picacho Sporting Clays

No I havent. Give me an idea where its at and maybe I can drive up and give it a go. Would be fun to shoot some during the off season between dove hunts.

We just have the standard Skeet/Trap range here on base.

 

[Gary G23]

I've also had reliability problems with the promo shells in both pumps and autos.

 

[ysr_racer]

Lennyjoe

No I havent. Give me an idea where its at and maybe...

It's in Picacho AZ, By Picacho Peak. Just north of Tucson on I-10 near I-8. I'll be there this Sunday at 7:30. It should be fun.

brad

 

[Mannlicher]

I don't do much shotgunning these days, but when I do go out for practice, I use the Federal Promo #7 or #8. I have had no problems with them. I keep buying the stuff though, even though I don't shoot much of it. Hmmmmmmmmmm

 

[Lennyjoe]

Dude, I wish I could join but we are on 12 hour shifts for the next 7 days playing war games.

Wont have another day off till next Saturday.

Have fun this weekend.

 

[mikey357]

I agree with HSMITH...the Federal shells seem to do MUCH better for me than either the Winchester OR the Remington, at least in the "Wally-World" "Value Pack"...I even won a lil' money at "Skrap" using the 3-dram 7&1/2's after the last Skeet tournament I participated in...sure felt good about what I had paid for my ammo, versus the guys shooting the new AA's and STS's....FWIW....mikey357

 

[Dave McCracken]

Federal makes good stuff, so do the others. Use what works best in your particular shotgun for your mission.

Here's where patterning is a darn good idea. Run a few with each ammo at the distance you want to break targets at, pick the best(No holes, few thin spots, few major clumps) and get all you can buy of that. Be advised different lots will not have the consistency we've come to expect from the premium target stuff. But, by and large, you'll get good ammo that works in your shotgun.

Also, the differences will be much more obvious past, say, 25 yards. Close shots, even the cheapos do well.

 

[Opie]

I have had problems with Federal and Remington

I have tried the Wal- Mart Remington #7 shot, and #6 shot and it was getting stuck in the chambers of not 1, but all 3 of my remington 870's.

One is an almost new police magnum with maybe 500rds thru it, one was an express with about 1500 thru it, and the 3rd was a WELL USED express probably pushing 10k rounds. The Remington ammo was sticking in the chamber in all 3 guns. I actually traded one of the guns in because I thought it was the gun, this was before I had the same problems in my other 2 870's.

The Federal only did this once on me, but I only use the cheap ammo for practice.

All of my guns are 100% reliable with quality ammo.

 

[Grayrock]

Valupacks are $14.88 locally- works out to $3.73 a box. What they don't want you to know, is that "behind the counter" is the Winchester Super-X stuff for $3.47 a box. I stumbled on the Super-X looking for the Wichester White Box valupak in .45 ACP ($19.97/100rds.)

 

[seeker_two]

Grayrock is right. I fond that you can get the Winchester Super-Speed loads for FAR less than the promo price ($2.80/25).

Like the song says, "You Better Shop Around..."

 

[Gearhead Jim]

I forgot to write down the details, but my local Walmart did not have the cheap Super-X loads in my favorite combo: 3 dr- 1 1/8 oz- #8. What they had was something like a high velocity 1 oz load, or maybe even 7/8 oz. What choices have you found at your store?

 

[Grayrock]

Gearhead- I think what you saw were the Win. Super "SPEED" loads. IMHO, those are crap. They short you on the shot and fill up the space with powder. Seems to blow the patterns for me. Light load, high speed, no accuracy= cheap price. They have the same loads here and by the case are less than $3.00 a box. The Academy flyer this week had AA's for $3.99 a box, though. WOO HOO- bulk purchase here I come!!

 

[Gearhead Jim]

Thanks for the info!

 

[TrapperReady]

An interesting problem cropped up this afternoon while I was shooting SC and 5-stand with a buddy. He normally just hunts, and hadn't shot any clays aside from some hand-thrown stuff many years ago. The ammo he was using was Winchester valu-pack #8s from Wal-Mart.

We shot a round of SC (50 shells), and the went on to a couple rounds of 5-stand (25 per round). At the last couple stations in the second round of 5-stand, he started having extraction problems in his Ithaca O/U. It was taking more force to open and the shells appeared lightly stuck. He tried a few of my reloads (built mostly with Remington STS components) after the problem appeared, and they functioned just fine.

Since we were on a pretty tight schedule, we didn't spend much time troubleshooting the problem, but he was planning on going home and thoroughly cleaning his shotgun. Since he's still got nearly 100 shells left, we'll try some next time out and see if it becomes an issue again.

Any thoughts or comments?