What 12 ga ammo to buy

[lonewolf5347]

I like to ask what 12 ga. Ammo to buy for my Remington 1100 for least amount of recoil shooting Clays.
I just got a used 12 ga. 1100
in decent shape stock has a few scratches blue in near excellent has a small deep scratch end of barrel but the barrel inside diameter in perfect.
The price 400.00
I just got done stripped and cleaning the complete gun.
Trigger housing removed wow what crud.
I think the gun was used a few times and stored without cleaning.
I also was surprised that the bluing was excellent on the tube .
I have one bad scratch seem it went threw the polyurethane that Remington used on the stock. I thing if I light sand and respray with a polyurethane it may just work..
I have the same gun in 20 ga. Made I 1974
I hope recoil is not that bad

 

[mcb]

I would just use regular 1-1/8 oz target loads. Depend on what barrel length it might not cycle with 1 oz or lighter loads. No harm in trying the light loads but if you have a shorter barrel (< 24-inch) 1100 they might not cycle reliably. Most 1100's, independent of barrel length, will operate just fine on 1-1/8 target loads. The semi-auto action will mitigate some of the felt recoil. I would start with the 1-1/8 oz and move down if you find the recoil too much. If you find you really want to run light loads you can open up the gas ports (or have a gunsmith do so) a few thousands of an inch. It will make the gun cylinder better on light loads. It is a bit harder on the gun with hot loads though.

 

[expat_alaska]

I have not shot skeet since 1970 as a teenager, and that was with an 1100 12 gauge w/plastic buttplate and an 870 12 gauge with a ventilated shotgun recoil pad. Back than I was short on cash and long on want to smoke clays.

I bought inexpensive Federal paper hull 1 oz #7-1/2 field loads, and also reloaded them and twice-fired (or more) Win AA hulls with 1-1/8 oz shot in front of 18 gr Hercules Red Dot on my Dad's huge Herter's single-stage press. I worked at a trap/skeet range and the owners would let me pick up all of the empty hull Federal papers, Remington Shur-Shot plastics, and more-than-once-fired AA's, and took them home in empty Blue Rock boxes to my heart's content (it was less trash for them to deal with). They sold new Win AA's to shooter's but we had strict orders to save all once-fired AA's which they then resold them @ 2 cents per.

I never had a bit of a problem with target loads such as these. Back in the day, the factory shells were measured in dram equivalents, and these were 2-3/4 dram, I believe.

These loads are pussycats.

Insofar as the stock scratch, I would not mess around with sanding the factory plastic (been there, done that!). I would just use a very small artist's paint brush and build up the polyurethane (sprayed into a small, shallow, disposable cup) into the scratch, and when cured on the stock use some #0000 steel wool to even it out with the original poly. It is, after all, a used 1100. Other shooters won't notice if you outshoot them!

Jim

 

[kudu]

There are some light and super light loads made by many different manufacturers in 7/8oz and 1oz loads. Try a few different boxes and I would be surprised if there was any problems at all with function on an 1100, they were pretty much designed for for the lighter loads unless you have a magnum receiver.

 

[Armored farmer]

Congratulations on your 1100. It is one of my favorites. Your 1100 should be a soft shooter anyway.
I assume you are relatively new to shooting clay games or you would already have ideas on ammo.
Don't Automatically assume a 7/8 ounce load will recoil less than a heavier load. That's Not necessarily true. Remington made some black hulled 7/8 oz loads that were brutal. They touted them as fast and marketed them as cheap dove/clay pigeon loads. Whew, I got a headache every time I shot them.

Get yourself some good target loads in 1 oz or 1 1/8oz:
Rios
Remington Club.
...you'll pay extra for the reload ability of Remington Premier, or Winchester AA. (But they are premium ammo FYI)
Best wishes... your 1100 should cycle about anything. Mine do:

 

[lonewolf5347]

I have been shooting sporting clays now for about 3 years
Love it.
My go to gun is a early model 1100 20 ga. Made in 1974.
I been breaking on good days 21 out of 25.
Some days not as good.
My right shoulder had rotator cuff surgery 6 years ago.
I shot a few 12 ga. On the clay course but never went threw a full box.
I almost bought a beretta A300 but the gun did not fit well.
Dicks had them on sale down to 699.00 but I did not like the gun. This Remington was not bad for the price if I can't handle the recoil should not be hard for me to sell it.
I have a O/U in 20 also but the fix breech after a box of shells start to feel it a little in the shoulder.
The rem: I ran 100 rounds
No problems.

 

[Armored farmer]

Back in the day, the factory shells were measured in dram equivalents, and these were 2-3/4 dram, I believe.

Yes and I still refer to them that way. Old habits.....

 

[expat_alaska]

Yes and I still refer to them that way. Old habits.....

Glad to see others like me are older than dirt and twice as dusty.

 

[cdb1]

Velocity is what really increases recoil. A 7/8 oz load at 1300 fps will have more recoil than a 1 oz load at 1150. If both loads have the same velocity then the heavier load has more recoil because it takes more powder to achieve the same speed as the lighter load.

 

[mcb]

Velocity is what really increases recoil. A 7/8 oz load at 1300 fps will have more recoil than a 1 oz load at 1150. If both loads have the same velocity then the heavier load has more recoil because it takes more powder to achieve the same speed as the lighter load.

Felt recoil is really really hard to quantify. There are many many factor that effect felt recoil many of which are hard to measure or quantify. Recoil impulse from a purely engineering point of view is very easy to calculate.

Those two example loads will have nearly the same recoil. Your total recoil impulse is simply the change in momentum. The change in Mass times Velocity. So 7/8oz (382.8 gr or .001699 slug) at 1300 fps produces 2.210 slug-ft/s of momentum change and the 1 oz (437.5 gr .001943 slug) at 1150fps is 2.234 slug-ft/s of momentum change. Technically we should also be factoring in the mass and velocity of the propellant gases and wad but those are a relatively small fraction of the total recoil impulse in a shotgun (not true for many rifles).

Now the felt recoil of the 7/8 oz load may still feel more unpleasant because the lighter faster load spends less time in the barrel so the recoil impulse although a slight bit lower than the heavier load will happen faster. Most shooter perceive this as a sharper recoil and find it more unpleasant that a slower impulse of the same total value. This assumes both loads are fired in the same gun. Gun weight plays an import role also, along with a long list of other factors.

 

[SASS#23149]

almost all sg ammo has the fps listed on the box,these days. 1145 fps is all you need, and these should;t beat you up ,especially in an auto loader.
For trap, I use 1 oz no. 8's, not sure what they use on skeet,that's a bit different Clays game.

 

[entropy]

Glad to see others like me are older than dirt and twice as dusty.

Hey! I'm the same age as he is, and I don't feel old..... I'll also agree with him on the shells. "AA"'s were my favorite to reload (though a lot of blue Rem. 'Peters' ran through my MEC back in the day.....)
For hunting, I prefer Federals, despite what that duck whispered in my ear.....

 

[Ks5shooter]

Buy Remington STS or Winchester AA made for target shooting,and you can sell the once fired hulls for 4 - 5 cents a piece if you don't reload.This way you get premium ammo at budget ammo price

 

[sbwaters]

If you reload, WInchester AA hulls reloaded to 1 oz work fine in my 1100. -- And they are red so they are easy to find in the grass.

Otherwise, any cheap 1oz load is fine for clay.

 

[George P]

A basic 1oz load running 1200 fps will do the job if you do yours.

 

[joed]

If you're shooting clay with a 12 ga use 1-1/8 oz target loads. That's all I've ever seen used.

 

[lonewolf5347]

I now have 200 Rounds down the bore 12 ga. 1100 my ammo Winchester double AA 1/8 at 1145 fps
Recoil about the same as my 20 ga. 1100.

 

[PapaG]

After having l2-l5 fused I dug out my 1100 and did quite well with reloads with red dot and an ounce of eights. Actually only dropped a couple on my average.

 

[Virginian]

If, repeat if, your chamber is nice and clean and slick, and you don't reload, try the cheap Federal and Winchester shells at WalMart. My 1100s eat them all and even though they rip the shells partway from the bases on about 1/3 of the Winchesters they still cycle flawlessly. At those prices I can't justify reloading. Most 12 gauge 1100s will run on 1 ounce loads, if not you can always move up to others.

 

[Bigmike79]

Cheap Walmart special federal and Winchester feed in my auto-loader just fine, and the recoil is next to nothing.

 

[maint1517]

Cheap Walmart special federal and Winchester feed in my auto-loader just fine, and the recoil is next to nothing.

X2
Ive never had an issue with the winchester or federal 100 rounds.

 

[LUCKYDAWG13]

X2
ve never had an issue with the winchester or federal 100 rounds.

I have had issues with the Winchester bulk at wallmart in will not run in my Mossberg 500 will not extract but the federal work just fine

 

[1KPerDay]

I have had and seen several problems with Winchester universal wal Mart stuff. Federals run well for me.

 

[eastbank]

I have shot several flats of of federal 1-oz-#8,s out of several rem 1100,s and rem 1187 rems with out any FTF-FTE,s. that I bought at walmarts for 47.40 a flat, at that price I don,t load. I save my loading supplies for when shells go up, I run several mec-9000,s when loading and use red dot-claybuster wads-#8 shot with rem sts-gold nitro,s. eastbank.