Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Buckshot tests

I've been looking for a home protection shotgun lately but before doing so I wanted to get a better idea of just what one could expect from buckshot, so this morning I went out and patterned some.

I used a Remington Model 1100 with a 28" barrel and skeet choke. It's the only shotgun I own and the most open choke tube I have. So results are not completely applicable to a short 18-20 inch cylinder bore but I think I can safely assume that patterns would be even wider with one of those.

Five brands of 2 3/4" shells were tested at three different ranges, 7, 15 and 25 yards. All 00 loads contain nine pellets and the one #4 buck load holds 27. Listed velocities are just what's on the box end flaps, I wasn't about to put my Oehler skyscreens out in front of these loads.

Royal Buck 00 - Made in Spain, 1345 fps
Federal 00 "Maximum: - 1325 fps
Federal 00 "Low Recoil" - 1140 fps
Olin 00 Military Grade - no velocity listed, this comes in a plain brown box.
Remington #4 buck - 1325 fps

You guys can reach your own conclusions but I took away four things from this morning.
1. It's definitely worthwhile to pattern your shotgun. My 1100 wore a fixed modified choke barrel for 47 years, I just bought a new one with screw in choke tubes and this is the first time I fired it. This new barrel shoots a bit to the right for me.

2. Buckshot looks like it is very effective at very close range but the effectiveness diminishes rapidly the farther out you go. I sure wouldn't want to take on a shotgun armed man even at 25 yards but hit percentage falls off fast after 15 yards or so. Still, any of these loads would put a hurt on someone out to at least 75 feet. Now whether they'd take him down, especially with thick clothing on, I'll leave for speculation or those that have actually witnessed the effects.

3. The Federal Low Recoil is definitely lower recoil but not that much, at least not enough to really matter. With 2 3/4" shells the recoil on all of these wasn't that bad, at least not in my gas operated 1100. I suspect a light 18" Remington 870 might come back at you harder, but in a stressful situation I doubt if you'd notice it.

4. While this could generate discussion about how far out one should shoot a deer with buckshot, at the ranges you'd encounter inside a house (10 to maybe 50 feet) damn near any shotgun firing a decent load of #4 buck or bigger is going to put a lot of holes in someone very quickly!


All of the paper targets pictured are 15"W x 11" high so you can get an idea of the spreads.

7 yards

Just fired three groups at three aiming points since I figured at 7 yards, anything works. All of these would ruin someone's day. Even the wad would hurt. Here it looks like the #4 would be the winner, 27 .24 caliber pellets in a small group vs. 9 .33 caliber pellets of 00. But again, at 21 feet, any of these loads would, in technical terms "F--- you up!"




15 yards. Even at this range the pattern is starting to spread.

The Royal Buck pattern is 10" x 5", centered on a chest that would perforate everything pretty well. The Olin Military is a bit tighter.




Federal Maximum and Federal Low Recoil. These were kind of disappointing, the Maximum only got 6 or 7 hits out of 9 pellets, I'm not sure if one of those holes is a double. Same with the Low Recoil, only 8 out of 9. One of those hits could have been from the Maximum, but you can see these loads group right of my aiming point. They'd work but effectiveness is diminishing.





Remington #4 buck - aiming point was the center of the paper. If a man's sternum was centered he'd be perforated from the neck to the diaphragm. Can't comment on penetration but coverage is still good, multiple wounds in both lungs and the heart.





25 yard groups. Just fired one group per paper with these.

Royal Buck



Olin Military Grade




Federal Maximum

[img]http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/IMG_09981.JPG[/img]

Federal Low Recoil

[img]http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/IMG_09973.JPG[/img]

Remington #4 - this would sting but I'm not sure how much stopping power you'd be getting.

[img]http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/IMG_09962.JPG[/img]