Federal Buckshot and Piss Poor Performance

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Has anyone else had issues with Federal Buckshot? Power-Shok, nothing with the excellent Flitecontrol wads. Across several guns and several loads (000 and #4 seem worst) 1/4-1/3 of the payload stays in the cup far past where it should. I first noticed it when I saw the shotcup sticking barely 1" into a large block of wood. Something seemed off so I tore it out only to find 3 000 pellets also right there with it. How did they not have enough energy to release and carry on once they struck the wood? You would think at the least it wouldn't just be sitting there with the wad..?

Fast forward a bit, I was doing some patterning and was wondering why so many pellets seemed to be missing from shots. Since my target is comically large the only explanation is that they are again staying with the cup while the remaining portion of the payload does as you would expect. I can't say it's the gun, tried M4, 1301T and 12.5" Grizzly. No chokes tighter than IC, I have some guns set up for hunting and other tighter chokes but I figured that would only make things worse, who knows? Ranges were all under 20m, I didn't pay enough attention to see if the small changes in range mattered.

I have a hard time figuring this out. Unfortunately for me I bought TONS of Federal because I got a great deal when a business shut down. Looks like I should have tried to get my usual stuff, Remington and Winchester may not be amazing but they don't just fail to perform like the Federal. Anyone else hate the stuff?
 
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The hunting guns I mentioned are for birds, with birdshot. I prefer a rifle for the birds I shoot so they see next to no use. Buckshot is for 2 legged animals, also why I chose those three specific guns today. The only time deer and other critters let me get close enough to use something like buckshot is when I don't have any gun at all. I have called in some coyotes but shotguns are way too limiting for that to be a regular thing.
 
Each gun will perform differently with each load. Buckshot as a whole is generally trash. Flite control is in a league of its own, especially out of a vang comp barrel. Try different chokes and run some tests.
 
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I plan to, for sure. As I already used 3 pretty distinct guns it's not looking good though.

M4- Mod barrel, no backbore(right?)
1301T- Extended IC choke, backbored
12.5 Grizzly- Short cyl barrel, no backbore
 
It's not the size I am worried about, the pellets that release track as I would expect more or less. Much of the payload is failing to separate from the shotcup. It's not even a net benefit terminally judging by the 000 pellets I said stopped almost immediately in soft wood.
 
If you mean the stuff in the blue box, it shot horribly on targets in 2 guns.

As for the stopped wad mash, the whole thing experienced the opposing force from the wood across the big surface area of the wad, when the equation balanced it stopped all in one spot. There's no reason the individual pellets would continue, unless you decelerated the wad more than the shot inside it.
 
My thought is the trip through the barrel crushes some of the pellets to the point they are effectively made one with the shotcup. The cup then acts as a drag chute of sorts slowing the mass considerably. This is happening with different buck sizes with different guns. The ammunition is effectively new for how properly stored ammunition ages. I will investigate this more for sure.
 
I could set up a chrony, I'm not sure the velocity is much off from what I would expect though. Either an overly aggressive impulse, or just poor overall design may be to blame. I am curious to see what sort of repeatability there is here. The latter is why I am trying to get more feedback from others.

I don't appear to be the first to have this problem but info is sparse on the internet. I'm not sure your average shooter would realize. I don't know many guys who actually pattern their guns.
 
I didn't see any ranges mentioned in the OP but buckshot is intended as a closeup round and I believe it's always designed to be shot through a cylinder choke, which will limit distortion of the pellets and eliminate resulting flyers. For conversion to shooting at greater distances, the OP might try drilling in a hole at the crimp end of the shell and pouring in some melted wax- I'm recommending this as an experiment, it's one of these expedient things I was trained to consider but have never tried.

Something else I'm mindful of is that when I was shooting at ranges that used backboards, cheap-crap birdshot rounds at handgun distances of 10 metres would blow a 2" jagged hole in the particle board and were very destructive whereas the finest buckshot rounds would just make little holes. Particle board is not flesh and blood of course but the matter needs study, and I mean of the scientific kind.
 
through testing I have done and looked into, i am solidly in the 8 pellet camp of buckshot. I am convinced there is little value in 9 pellet loads in the 2 3/4" shells. Erratic patterns out of short barrels, usually one pellet outside of the group by a noticeable margin. 8 pellet works better, federal flitecontrol is best IMO. Hornady's version on the flitecontrol wad is second best. And while I am at it, the low recoil version also.

Boltgun
 
Haven’t seen the issues you’ve mentioned myself. In testing with my 1301 the federal flite control stuff was best. I was impressed with how the score branded 00 did in terms of pattern, my go to for a budget alternative.
 
As I mentioned in the second sentence of the OP I am not talking about Flitecontrol. All the ammunition is from the "Power-Shock" line. I will take some pictures next time to better illustrate the problem.
 
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