Longest range buckshot?

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jedimaster

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Hey folks, just wondering what the longest range factory load shotgun shells are?
I have read that you can obtain reliable patterns knock down power with 0000 3 1/2 12 gauge shells at 150 yards.
But I don't think anyone sells that do they?
CLosest I can find is 00 3 1/2 high velocity winchester's
Can't even find 000 3 1/2" ers
 
150 yds, that's a rather lofty claim - smells strongly of BS! I have done a fair bit of patterning work with buckshot and a lot of what is available will only hold a decent pattern out to 20 to 25 yds. The best I have seen is Hornady's offerings that were demonstrated at a shotgun instructors course I attended last year. Remington, Winchester and Federal offerings could only hold pellets on deer size target out to 20 yds or so with a 20" improved cylinder barrel, the Hornady offering was giving about a 2" pattern at this distance, it has to be seen to believe. The reason the Hornaday rounds pattern so much tighter than the others is that they use a very heavily constructed shot cup.
 
jedimaster said:
Hey folks, just wondering what the longest range factory load shotgun shells are?
I have read that you can obtain reliable patterns knock down power with 0000 3 1/2 12 gauge shells at 150 yards.
But I don't think anyone sells that do they?
CLosest I can find is 00 3 1/2 high velocity winchester's
Can't even find 000 3 1/2" ers
Click to expand...

Holy Crap! That's nuts!!!!

You get that from here?
http://www.angelfire.com/mech/0000_super_buckshot/

Edit:
I suggest you get some 3" 000 or 000 and pattern it at 50 yards.
You'll be surprised how few good hits you get.
 
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25 yards with buckshot on deer is as far as I would go. Not enough penetration.. please get some slugs! They will give you 100 yards capability, just try a few brands to see what shoots.

If you can't hit a 10'' plate consitently, its too far...
 
ckid is right on the money for this one, buckshot to 30yds. max., slugs to 50 yds. max., unless you are some kind of pervert who loves to wound animals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
m12man said:
slugs to 50 yds. max., unless you are some kind of pervert who loves to wound animals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Sorry, not a pervert here, shot lot's of deer with slugs and never lost one.

Slugs are good for well past 50 yards on deer, if you can hit the target. Some SG's set up for slugs are very accurate. Even my plain old 870 express smoothbore will keep then all in 6" at 100 yards. Interestingly enough, foster type lead slugs penetrate deeper out there than at point blank. Close range, at their max. velocity, the soft slugs 'mushroom' too much.

Buckshot you definately have to experiment. I haven't found any of the standard offerings to work well enough in any of my guns that I'd use them with confidense much past 20 yards.
 
I got lucky with one gun that would pattern one load of OO buck into a 12" circle at 40 yards. Every other gun and load that I have tried would barely do that at 25 yards
 
dinsdale said:
A well set up slug gun with the right slugs is more than adequate at 100 yards.
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I can put slugs onto a 4" plate at 100 yards all day long with a 20" M590 with ghost ring sites, I am sure that would be accurate enough for hunting at that range.

My M590 is my duck/goose gun where shots are limited to about 30-40 yards.

Also shoot sporting clays with the 590, get lots of strange looks at the range, but hit just as many clays as the "boys with their toys".
 
If this is intended for deer hunting, there are two issues. Penetration is very poor past 30 yards and pellet spread allows very few hits on a deer size target past 40 yards. Do some tests and I'm sure you will be convinced. We do not use any buckshot for deer in our group. If you can hit it with buckshot, you can hit it with a slug and it will go down.
 
Was gonna pick up a box of the winchesters and see how well it patterns. The bush I hunt your lucky if you can even see more than 50 yards. :)
Its looking like I will be using a muzzleloader for the entire hunt anyway, more of a theoretical discusion versus a practical one. Just wanted to see how other people have done with buckshot.
 
m12man said:
..., buckshot to 30yds. max., slugs to 50 yds. max., unless you are some kind of pervert who loves to wound animals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...


HUH?? I agree with the buckshot comment, but the slugs? I shoot 4"-5 shot groups with my Mav88 and a rifled barrel, my old Browning A5 Light 12 would group Brenneke slugs around 7" at 100 yards supported. YMMV.

-Jason
 
unless you gan garontie pellets 8 inch circle with 12 inches of penitration on a proven balistic medium such as ordance gell then your just gonna wound an animal at any distance get a few boxes of slugs and practise

what model of horandy slugs
 
what model of horandy slugs[/QUOTE]

Hornady OO buck - not slugs. The patterns were unbelievalby tight. At 15 yards they were punching clean holes just like a slug. It wasn't until the 20 yard mark that you could actually tell that it was buckshot and then only barely. Unfortunately I have been unable to locate a stocking dealer.

One of the guys on the course had a ported pattern master choke tube on his 870 and it made an amazing difference in the patterns of Win, Rem and Fed - it cut pattern diameters in half.

One other thing that was demonstrated was the superiority of 8 pellet buck versus 9 pellet buck. The extra pellet seemed pointless because it was a radical flyer 95% of the time.

All of this being said I would still not hunt with the stuff, individual pellet energies are too low to give reliable penetration - stick with slugs.
 
25 yards with a standard buck load is far enough. I have read some stuff on the Hornady buck loads. They are geared for law enforcement to reduce citizen casualties when shooting at bad guys. They are VERY good, just impossible to get in Canada. If you can find some Hevi Shot "Dead Coyote" loads and a pattern master choke you CAN kill deer at 50 yards quite reliably. Finding them is the problem. I have watched coyotes shot at 75 yards with them and just fold.

cheers Darryl
 
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