000 Buckshot and barrel length.

SoBored

SoBored

CGN frequent flyer
EE Expired
Rating - 100%
23   0   0
Location
Grey County, Ontario
Recently I bought a Lee Load All II and I have a Lee .36" double ball mold I bought for single and double ball loads in my 357 rifle. It wasn't too long before I whipped up some 12ga, 2 & 3/4" 000 buckshot shells. I only loaded up 5 ball loads which came in @ 350 grains of lead or just under 7/8 oz. I loaded them up with some Unique as that was the only powder I had available to me at the time that was on the Lee Load chart.

My plan was to fire a shot each at a homemade IPSC style target. 1 shot @ 10 yards, 1 shot @ 20 yards and 1 shot @ 30 yards from one of three shotguns. The shotguns included my Norinco HP9 with 14" barrel, (cylinder bore?), my Remington 870 wingmaster with 18.5" Remington barrel, (unmarked choke), and my Lakefield 400 with 26" IC barrel and see just what happened. Once I started with the HP9 I changed my plans to 10 yards, 20 yards and 25 yards. :redface:

Here's my enthusiastic helper, we had the range all to ourselves which was fine with me:
Gboth.jpg


And the shotguns:
3shotties.jpg


Then I whipped up a gif showing shot patterns from all 9 targets, (remember, this was a GunNutz free weekend :()
000-Buck.gif


What did I learn? Well, not much, other than I wouldn't want to trust this stuff out much past 25 yards. I have heard that the barrel length isn't as important as choke and I think I had fairly similar results with all barrels. In one case a better group @ 25 yards than @ 20 yards with the same gun and barrel. I guess the main thing to take from this is to pattern your gun and see what the heck you have going on.

At least I had a great morning with my daughter. :)
SD2G3.jpg
 
The only pic I can see is the shotguns. FWIW I tried some expensive Winchester 000B out of my 14" HP-9, at about 10 yds the pattern was massive, half the load would have missed a human target. Useless crap, I like low recoil buck now, aside from Hornady. That stuff is what buckshot should be. 1600 FPS and super tight patterns so you dont have to be at arms length to get all your pellets on target.
 
supernova said:
The only pic I can see is the shotguns. FWIW I tried some expensive Winchester 000B out of my 14" HP-9, at about 10 yds the pattern was massive, half the load would have missed a human target. Useless crap, I like low recoil buck now, aside from Hornady. That stuff is what buckshot should be. 1600 FPS and super tight patterns so you dont have to be at arms length to get all your pellets on target.
Click to expand...

The best buck I've found for my cylinder bore guns is the Federal 00 that came 175 rounds in an ammo can.

Even out of my 14" it would print nice round patterns no larger than 12" at 25 yards. All the other brands I tried were horribly inconsistent.
 
Stevo said:
The best buck I've found for my cylinder bore guns is the Federal 00 that came 175 rounds in an ammo can.

Even out of my 14" it would print nice round patterns no larger than 12" at 25 yards. All the other brands I tried were horribly inconsistent.
Click to expand...

Same results for me... the Federal 00 patterns best of all buckshot I've tried (other than reduced recoil, of course).
 
Factory 8 pellet 000 has always patterned at least as well as non-premium full power 00 for me, and also after doing a lot of media testing, I've found that 000 pellets have noticably more penetration and "steam" downrange.

I just wish 000 was easier to find in bulk.
 
So are the pictures working for everyone else?

I've read about guys using 00 buck for coyote out to about 100 yards and I can't see that being very effective from my tests. Perhaps a flight control like Brutus said or maybe these would print better with a full choke. I do have some factory 00Buck I should test and see what happens.

I do like that I can now make my own, but out past 25 yards these will likely be mostly off target.

I should have mentioned those targets are 20" wide and 30" tall.
 
all the pics are now visible for me. I tried some of the old Hornady light magnum 00B before they switched to their new wad design and that stuff patterned amazingly well, fist size pattern at 15 yds compared to 12-14" with Federal 15 pellet 00B. The 1600 FPS and tight patterns would really extend the useful range, maybe with the right choke you could take game cleanly at 100 yds but I'd want to test it thoroughly before trying.
 
Thanks, I won't try it myself, I was looking for an up close like less than 50 yard shell. I'm thinking of trying to call some in the bush where a shot over 30 yards would be rare or impossible.
 
Neat gif pic thing... I don't know how to do such a fancy thing.

I hope to get out to the range this sunday (I am off work, but weather permitting) and pattern the Winchester PDX1 Defender 12 gauge shells in my M4 (18.5") and considering comparing with my Benelli SuperNova 28" gun. However, the difference in chokes may not make the comparison worth while. The M4 has the Modified crio choke only.

I want to see how my real world result would compare with the pretty youtube video below:


The 4 inch spread of the 3 '00' buckshot at 15 feet with the 1 one ounce slug on center would be ideal for the home.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom