Newb here, what ammo do you guys prefer to use? I’ve got a Remington 870 with the 3” barrel. Birdshot, buckshot, slugs, nails, etc. What do you prefer to buy and use? I need to stockpile
What 12 gauge ammo?
- Thread starter radrick96
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What do you plan to use it for: defense, hunting, clay's, ect?
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- #3
What do you personally buy and use?
Ive used it for all the above. It’s never given me a reason to buy any other even though i want some others. Just a poor boys experience
Sabot is a good round to have on hand.
While I do like my 00 buck for home defense 1 1/8oz No.9 loads are wonderful multi purpose tools. Great for clays and harvesting winged critters and fluff rats for eats while equally adept at tearing coke can sized holes in unwanted visitors at close range. Sabots will be handy for harvesting deer and hogs.
+1 I like #9 for squirrel, rabbit, quail, etc. I know many a turkey shooter who like #6, but I like and use #4 for turkey. I think #6 patterns better, But I can get a much closer shot in Oklahoma's thick brush.
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- #7
I used to love in broken arrow;outside tulsa
Dragon's Breath!
Seen the video!
I used to swear by No.1 buck, but I just like .30 projectiles.
Think there's some merit to #4 shot, as well.
AA
Grouse and upland birds: #7 1/2, 3 dr.eq trap/field loads.
Ducks and rabbits: #4 steel and #6 lead, high velocity.
Geese: #5 lead or #4 steel, high velocity.
Deer: Sabots slugs, preferably 3", through a rifle choke tube. Through a choked barrel, regular 3" Foster type slugs.
I personally have no use for any size buckshot or shot larger than #2 on anything. I've seen SSG and even #4 buck fail on high flying Geese and 000 buck fail even worse on Deer inside 50 yards. In my experience those loads, including BB lead on Geese, wound more animals than they kill.
I was standing right beside my brother in law one day deer hunting. He was carrying his Ithaca Mag 10 loaded with 3 1/2" 000 Buck. The deer was at most, 60 yards away and he only got one shot off before it ran. We chased that deer 7 concessions, 7 miles, before we got close enough to kill it with a slug. It had two pellets in it, one in the front left shoulder and one behind the ribs.
For defensive loads against 2 legged critters, my top pick would be any #7 1/2 or #8 lead trap/skeet load. You have to remember, at ranges measured in feet, that load of lead is going to be a solid mass the size of a fist no matter the choke.
If there was a possible scenario where the ranges might start short and end long, a "tactical" load order might have its benefits. A #7 1/2 first, a #4 second, followed by buckshot and backed up by a slug or two would handle pretty much anything from 10 feet to 100 yards.
Personally, when I carried my 11-87 tent camping in bear country it was loaded with 3" sabots. My little 20g side by side has a box of 3" #2 beside it which I've also had on my tent floor beside me when camping in bear country.
At any realistic ranges I think I might have a problem with anything, I'm confident that load of 2 shot will do the job.
Ducks and rabbits: #4 steel and #6 lead, high velocity.
Geese: #5 lead or #4 steel, high velocity.
Deer: Sabots slugs, preferably 3", through a rifle choke tube. Through a choked barrel, regular 3" Foster type slugs.
I personally have no use for any size buckshot or shot larger than #2 on anything. I've seen SSG and even #4 buck fail on high flying Geese and 000 buck fail even worse on Deer inside 50 yards. In my experience those loads, including BB lead on Geese, wound more animals than they kill.
I was standing right beside my brother in law one day deer hunting. He was carrying his Ithaca Mag 10 loaded with 3 1/2" 000 Buck. The deer was at most, 60 yards away and he only got one shot off before it ran. We chased that deer 7 concessions, 7 miles, before we got close enough to kill it with a slug. It had two pellets in it, one in the front left shoulder and one behind the ribs.
For defensive loads against 2 legged critters, my top pick would be any #7 1/2 or #8 lead trap/skeet load. You have to remember, at ranges measured in feet, that load of lead is going to be a solid mass the size of a fist no matter the choke.
If there was a possible scenario where the ranges might start short and end long, a "tactical" load order might have its benefits. A #7 1/2 first, a #4 second, followed by buckshot and backed up by a slug or two would handle pretty much anything from 10 feet to 100 yards.
Personally, when I carried my 11-87 tent camping in bear country it was loaded with 3" sabots. My little 20g side by side has a box of 3" #2 beside it which I've also had on my tent floor beside me when camping in bear country.
At any realistic ranges I think I might have a problem with anything, I'm confident that load of 2 shot will do the job.
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- #11
If you expect to hit anything with them, yes. I did try them through a modified barrel and they were wildly inaccurate.
The sabot is a hard plastic or polymer. That plastic takes the rifling and imparts a stabilizing spin, the same as a bullet through a rifled barrel. Without that spin they're completely unstable in flight. Even Foster type slugs have a form of rifling that imparts the same action, just not as well.
The "rifling" is on the slug itself which gets constricted as it passes through a shotguns choke and imparts a spin to the slug.
The old Belgian Browning Auto 5 I carried for a long time has a full choke barrel and shoots 3" Foster type slugs pretty well, but not as well as my 11-87 with a rifled tube.
Shooting 3" Federal Premium sabots through my 11-87 at 100m at the club, I can consistently keep all three inside a standard Bullseye target, however big they are, 14"s square or something, about the same size as the vitals on a deer, off hand with only a bead sight.
My Auto 5 might do the same at 75 yards.
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- #14
So i have to switch barrels depending if i want to shoot buck or slug? Now i know why slugs are inaccurate. But can i shoot buck with a rifles barrel? Forgive this young farm boy!
This might help those who missed the rush.
Cut Shells:
Cut Shells:
Define accurate?
The last deer I shot was running, quartering away from me, across a plowed corn field. I shouldered my 11-87, gave 6 feet in front of that doe's nose and sent it. I watched it hit the dirt 6 feet behind her even with her tail. I gave her another 6 foot lead and at the shot she turned directly away from me at a walk, took 3 steps and fell over. I can still see that deers last breaths in the air.
That 3" Remington Copper Solid sabot hit her mid way up the neck almost exactly in the middle of the neck. It did not exit. All petals were broken off the tip, the slug hit her spine and careened around it and lodged on the off side without breaking her neck.
When the guys walking that pushed that deer out to me finally made it out of the bush they asked who did the shooting? I said me. They said, wheres the deer? I pointed with the barrel and said right there. One guy paced it at 147 yards.
How much accuracy do you need?
I've done that too! lol
I tested that one day Goose hunting. Since we can hunt several game species at the same time here I wanted to know if I could switch between sabots and shot when out hunting. We were hunting over decoys on land so I could pick my shots and see the results.
I was shooting Winchester AA #4 steel, 1 1/4oz loads though the rifled tube. I think we shot 19 Geese that day and I personally shot 7 or 9. I can remember watching those #4 pellets tearing feathers out of the backs of some Geese. I didnt see any difference between shooting them with the rifled tube or my usual modified tube. All shooting was done at 30 yards or less and the Geese sure couldnt tell which tube I had in.
After that, I patterned them on paper. Using that same load in my 11-87 there was no difference in patterns between the rifled tube and the modified tube until I got to 40 yards. At 40 yards the patterns became more spotty. There were clusters of shot in two or three places on the paper instead of a more even spread.
How that would work with heavier shot I cant say. I would expect the same effect I had, only more pronounced. At ranges to 30 yards though I dont think it would matter to whatever was catching the pellets.
Sure you can shoot buck shot out of a rifled shotgun barrel. Just recall that the rifling that stabilizes a slug, rotates buck as well actually making it less effective at distance. It generally opens the spread way to quickly.
One's best ammo choice is going to depend on the specific situation, which in the field may be variable. Choices become trade offs.
I find #4 lead shot great in 1.25 once loads for long shots at squirrels. Squirrel hide is pretty tough. I have found with my gun, they give me long range, which has been handy.
I have used 9s in the past, and they were great for some situations - close rang shots at small birds.
I think #4’s are a real staple for many game. Maybe not the perfect choice, but usually serviceable. Slugs for bigger game and some lighter loads like #8‘s for small birds or clay pigeon would round out my suggestion. Turkeys or coyote hunting may take some special loads as would duck/goose hunting.
The painful reality is that you should pattern your gun with each load before you buy a bunch. Your modified choke might not like #4’s as much as 6’s..... Magnum loads or not...
This is one reason I cling to my old 870 wingmaster. Getting to know a new shotgun takes substantial effort. Fun effort, but a lot of it. Once you know your gun, it’s like gold.
Have fun @radrick96 !
The painful reality is that you should pattern your gun with each load before you buy a bunch. Your modified choke might not like #4’s as much as 6’s..... Magnum loads or not...
This is one reason I cling to my old 870 wingmaster. Getting to know a new shotgun takes substantial effort. Fun effort, but a lot of it. Once you know your gun, it’s like gold.
Have fun @radrick96 !
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- #20
I love my wing master. I shoot whatever ammunition I’m given but figured I’d invest in a couple ammo boxes worth of different types of cartridges
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