Buckshot at Distance

[bsekf]

I had to qualify with a 12 ga, 97 Win with brass shells. 9 pellets in a 00 buck load. At 100 yards where was almost always at least one pellet in a man sized target, often 2 or 3 and they would have hurt. Home defense, 12 ga, trap load for the first shot then a #2 3 in mag and then #4 buck 3 in mag. Ever hear a pump shotgun go into battery in a dark, quite house? Makes your bowels loose!

 

[Cecil S.]

As someone said before me, "Killing deer at 100 yds. with buckshot must mean a saint was shooting at a deer with a mighty sinful past." YMMV

LMAO!

 

[Cecil S.]

Reloading the high brass can deal you some misery. Depending on the loader, it may not size the brass enough to give smooth operation in an auto or pump. You correct that with a MEC collet sizer and size the high brass stuff separately.

MEC Size Master is coming soon. Thanks did my homework.

 

[Cecil S.]

This. my recollection also.. #1 buck is the all around best load I could find.

Hello CaptJim , What choke were you using?

 

[Cecil S.]

There is a company in the Florida panhandle that makes long range shotgun ammo. One of the California guys posted about them some time back and I looked them up. They make some different long range loads. One I liked was 3 pieces of shot that sounded like they were 12 gage diameter. I wish I could remember the name of the place. Maybe some good ideas about different loads. It was the ELR dude I think. You could always use the leader wire method of long range buckshot?

I live in the Panhandle. I will have a look around. Thanks

 

[M-61]

#4 is better for in home self defense……

You might want to try that # 4 on some Sheetrock.
Room to room could be two 1/2” or two 3/4”.
Penetration is surprising. Then you want to figure in the distance of the room. A decent size bedroom with 71/2 shot results in a nice group that I’ll say is devastating to the person who chose to enter uninvited. Then again the sound of a pump being cycled I think may be recognized by nearly anyone.
Remember also the ‘flash’ of the firing will severely limit a second shot by you.
Hopefully not even the first is needed however in this day and age you never know.
Good to have access to a back hoe.

 

[Cecil S.]

You might want to try that # 4 on some Sheetrock.
Room to room could be two 1/2” or two 3/4”.
Penetration is surprising. Then you want to figure in the distance of the room. A decent size bedroom with 71/2 shot results in a nice group that I’ll say is devastating to the person who chose to enter uninvited. Then again the sound of a pump being cycled I think may be recognized by nearly anyone.
Remember also the ‘flash’ of the firing will severely limit a second shot by you.
Hopefully not even the first is needed however in this day and age you never know.
Good to have access to a back hoe.

Thank you M-61, agreed "this day and age" this drives my research. Dang it......now I need a Backhoe........LOL

 

[762willdo]

You might want to try that # 4 on some Sheetrock.
Room to room could be two 1/2” or two 3/4”.
Penetration is surprising. Then you want to figure in the distance of the room. A decent size bedroom with 71/2 shot results in a nice group that I’ll say is devastating to the person who chose to enter uninvited. Then again the sound of a pump being cycled I think may be recognized by nearly anyone.
Remember also the ‘flash’ of the firing will severely limit a second shot by you.
Hopefully not even the first is needed however in this day and age you never know.
Good to have access to a back ho

a Heavy coat will stop bird shot………unless your right on top of him……

 

[Cecil S.]

Years ago I spent quite a bit patterning every type of buckshot (00 and #1) I could get out of every choke type (screw ins'). I found that if I wanted anything that resembled a pattern - #1 buck beat 00 every time. The approx. .030" smaller pellet of #1 put more pellets in the zone and #1 gets more total weight of pellets in the shell. Best of my memory this was at 30 yards. YMMV

Hello wasskeet , care to share the powders and wads you where using. Did you slice your wad pedels?

 

[Cecil S.]

a Heavy coat will stop bird shot………unless your right on top of him……

Hello 762willdo , yes it will buckshot is my only interest.

 

[dryhumor]

The key is finding the choke to shoot the shot you want to shoot. Nowadays there are a good variety of chokes, and they can get pricey. I once bought a shotgun for the aftermarket chokes that came with it….

 

[dryhumor]

Thanks Good stuff. 75yds is reaching out there for a shotgun.

I used to shoot deer on dog drives at 40-50 yards. This with 12 gauge 2 3/4 and 3”. Even after getting my 10 gauge, 40-50 yards seemed to be a good sweet spot for accuracy.

 

[wasskeet]

Hello wasskeet , care to share the powders and wads you where using. Did you slice your wad pedels?

They were all factory loads, all 2 3/4" shells. No mods at all, shot out of factory Rem choke barrel with various chokes. Best of my memory, IC gave me best pattern. Nothing like testing in your gun/chokes/etc - what works in one may not in another.

 

[M-61]

unless your right on top of him……

Unfortunately, that’s usually the case inside a home.
How heavy a coat?

 

[linebaugh]

There is a shot out there called super shot or some odd ball name with suoer in it. It's the heaviest of all the steel shot and harder than all get out. I think its made of depleted uranium mixed with twice boiled owl shit. Close to as heavy as lead and hard as steel.
Anyway the stuff is wicked. I spent a good part of a summer playing with buckshot, large steel and lead shot and this super shot stuff. The best and nastiest long range loads we made up were with that super shot and 3/4 ounce loads running them like 14 or 1500fps. It penetrated incredibly well and the patterns held together very well. I think we used #4 and #2 for best results.
We also bought and made some tri-ball loads. These were 3 large hard cast balls. Dixie slugs I think was the company that made the factory version. I could never reproduce as good of results as the factory loads but they were impressive.
On buckshot what we found was that the stack in the column made a lot of difference in keeping patterns together. I think it was #1 buck or 0 buck that we had the best results with. We roll crimped everything in all the testing we did except some of that super steel stuff.
In the end I bet we shot up 500 bucks in components or more and came back to the same basic conclusion. 50-60 yards was about the max you were going to get with what we thought would be clean kills on coyotes. Some of the factory triball stuff might get you to 75 because one slug was so big and nasty.

I never kept notes and still have a few hundred rounds of assorted buckshot loads in a huge ammo can. All that work and I was never really impressed... except for that super shot. That stuff was super spendy and you buy it by the pound or 5 pound bag. Probably over a buck a round easily just in the shot and that was 10 years ago.

 

[Doom]

Each pellet from a shotgun is nothing more than a small musket ball shot without spin. Musket accuracy was a hit or miss proposition beyond 50yds as the ball would ultimately take a random trajectory. I personally would not depend on buckshot of any size beyond 50 yards. However the following link provides some testing and analysis that may be of interest.

Maximum Effective Range of Buckshot

 

[257ack]

My best buckshot load is with 2 2/4 Fio. (low brass hulls) and mg42 wads. I use either longshot or HS-6 powder. I put a 28ga. felt in the bottom of the MG42 wad and stack 10-31 cal. buckshot in by 2's. I use buffer and a 6 point crimp. I also get good loads using Rem sts or win AA trap hulls using the waa red wad. You need to remember to use straight wall wall wads in euro hulls and taper wads in tapered hulls. Its not how much shot is in the hull but how much is on the target. The loading books often list tapered wads for straight wall hulls but you wont get good patterns because of poor gas seal and POWDER MIGRATION. Euro (straight wall hulls have more capicity and are better for buckshot reloading. Good luck and have fun

 

[257ack]

PS. Im using a Kicks full choke not the extra full

 

[Cecil S.]

There is a shot out there called super shot or some odd ball name with suoer in it. It's the heaviest of all the steel shot and harder than all get out. I think its made of depleted uranium mixed with twice boiled owl shit. Close to as heavy as lead and hard as steel.
Anyway the stuff is wicked. I spent a good part of a summer playing with buckshot, large steel and lead shot and this super shot stuff. The best and nastiest long range loads we made up were with that super shot and 3/4 ounce loads running them like 14 or 1500fps. It penetrated incredibly well and the patterns held together very well. I think we used #4 and #2 for best results.
We also bought and made some tri-ball loads. These were 3 large hard cast balls. Dixie slugs I think was the company that made the factory version. I could never reproduce as good of results as the factory loads but they were impressive.
On buckshot what we found was that the stack in the column made a lot of difference in keeping patterns together. I think it was #1 buck or 0 buck that we had the best results with. We roll crimped everything in all the testing we did except some of that super steel stuff.
In the end I bet we shot up 500 bucks in components or more and came back to the same basic conclusion. 50-60 yards was about the max you were going to get with what we thought would be clean kills on coyotes. Some of the factory triball stuff might get you to 75 because one slug was so big and nasty.

I never kept notes and still have a few hundred rounds of assorted buckshot loads in a huge ammo can. All that work and I was never really impressed... except for that super shot. That stuff was super spendy and you buy it by the pound or 5 pound bag. Probably over a buck a round easily just in the shot and that was 10 years ago.

Good stuff here

 

[Cecil S.]

My best buckshot load is with 2 2/4 Fio. (low brass hulls) and mg42 wads. I use either longshot or HS-6 powder. I put a 28ga. felt in the bottom of the MG42 wad and stack 10-31 cal. buckshot in by 2's. I use buffer and a 6 point crimp. I also get good loads using Rem sts or win AA trap hulls using the waa red wad. You need to remember to use straight wall wall wads in euro hulls and taper wads in tapered hulls. Its not how much shot is in the hull but how much is on the target. The loading books often list tapered wads for straight wall hulls but you wont get good patterns because of poor gas seal and POWDER MIGRATION. Euro (straight wall hulls have more capicity and are better for buckshot reloading. Good luck and have fun

thanks 257 ack , some of the hulls you mention are hard to come by lately. so I am going with BPI 3" high brass.