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Quality of Ammo

D

Derbarbarian

.22LR
Hey guy's for off shooting in the woods I just use the cheap stuff 5 bucks for 25 rounds of bird shot but for home defense I have a couple different brands here and I'm just wondering how this stuff is quality and reliability wise, I've fired about 25 rounds without a problem but still just a bit curious. The first is this it comes in a blue box and says "Law Enforcement Buckshot" i have the 2 3/4" shells of 9 pellet buckshot the second ammo I have is Royal Buck I have about 300 rounds of the two mixed I'm planning on buying a 250 round case for storage for a "just in case" scenario and I'm just wondering if those would work just as well as Hornady or Federal or TAP. Anyways was just curious any input would be much appreciated thanks in advance.
 
Well, when I was looking for ammo I bought Federal LE 133 00 which is Law Enforcement (2 3/4) 00 buck with flite control wads (1145 FPS) but it is 8 pellets. These will hold a tighter pattern than any without the flite control wads. I have a 930 SPX and barely fit 7 in the mag. There are some posts on this site about them. The Royal Buck I have is low recoil (1200 FPS) 00 buck (2 3/4) 9 pellets. This has been written about here as well and people like it.The pattern is not as good as the LE 133 00 but it is a good value. They are a little longer than most and I could only get 6 in my mag. If you are looking for slugs the Centurion slugs (AC 12 RS) are a good value as well. These slugs are 1400 FPS and this is what I will use to break my SPX in with. I bought all these from SGAmmo delivered to my door in 3 days. I have been away from guns for a long time but the experts here will chime in as well. If you have any more question these guys/girls are very helpful. Good luck.
 
.Royal Buck, not as tight of a pattern but will do the job in the house. For out to and beyond 15 yards it will spread quite a bit……15 yards is pushing this ammo if you have a stock barrel or cylinder choke. The other three you mentioned will have a tighter pattern with the Federal Flight Control being extremely tight and seems to open up some starting at 15 yards
 
I agree with Oli, the Federal FliteControl low recoil (I've used the LE132 9 pellet) is the tightest paterning load I have ever seen! The Hornady TAP uses the same wad under liscense and is a close second.

At HD (home defense) ranges, I dont expect you will have any issues, but dont let that stop you from doing some shooting and test patterns for yourself! ;)

I have been able to put the Federal FC on paper at 50 yards, however, I dont know of anyone with realistic HD ranges pushing that.

So test your ammo at your ranges and know what youre working with.

Oh, and from my experiences, when Oli says the pattern begins to open up at around 15 yards, that means every pellet in a 1" hole prior to that! at 25 yards I was getting a 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" pattern!!!
 
Rossignol said:
at 25 yards I was getting a 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" pattern!!!
Click to expand...

when I think about it they should market it for hunting too...would make awesome brush ammo I bet
 
Well the Royal Buck is the normal stuff, not the no-Recoil and it's primarily for home protection/zombies so doubtful I would be shooting at much besides the above, I may go deep into the Cascades one day when I'm better (battling a 4 year disease) so I again 15-20 yards is still pretty good if a cougar or Wolverine is coming at ya, I would probably mix it up with Buck-Slug-Buck-Slug etc Right now I believe i have about 20 boxes of Remington Sabot Slugs for the back woods I'm not sure if it would make a huge difference to use the sabot slug or just a standard rifled slug other than the velocity difference in the sabot slug.
 
Sabots will shoot, they won’t be as good as a rifled slug out of your smoothbore. They will tumble after a bit......don’t shoot till you see the whites of their eyes. At twenty yards the Royal is pretty wild I could only get three or four pellets on paper (12"x12") before I had barrel work done.
 
Thanks for the ammo, I'll buy more rifled slugs from now on when I get em, and I'll avoid the Royal Buck.. So a few more names and questions How is the Sellier & Bellot Buck? it's a bit more in my price range of a case, some of the Federal and Remington is $250+ per case while the Sellier & Bellot, Fiocchi High Velocity and Winchester are a bit cheaper in the $150 range same goes for that Law Enforcement: Buckshot that's about $130 per 250.. So of the 4 I'm looking at Sellier & Bellot, Law Enforcement Buck, Winchester and Fiocchi High Velocity, what would be the best of the litter to get, they're all within about $30-$40 of each other, I would like something that keeps a fairly tight spread, but also something that's reliable and will work in the heat of the moment if needed.. I know there are a million answers to these questions and I'm sorry for that but I'm just looking for ammo that's good, reliable and accurate for what I can afford my limit right now is about $175 per 250..
 
I wouldn’t avoid royal buck, just know its limits. The price is right.

For rifled slugs I have a hard time faulting these and for the price they can’t be beat hands down
http://www.sgammo.com/product/centurion ... h-1400-fps

As far as the Buck...Its best to get 5 rounds of each you are interested in and pattern them at 5, 10,15,20,25 yards.

This is as tight of a pattern you will get without modifying the barrel or choke...LE132 is the 9 pellet but they are out, this is LE133 8 pellet both with the flight control wad
http://www.sgammo.com/product/federal/5 ... kshot-ammo
 
I'm definitely on the Federal LE bandwagon for home defense. I had the opportunity to take my new 590A1 out yesterday. I loaded it up with Federal LE132 and let loose on a torso target with marked vitals at about 15 yards. I put four rounds in the brain and then proceeded to work my way down the spine with the next five rounds. The farthest miss was by about 1". Everything else was right down the spine to the heart. The rounds produced about 1.5" holes in the paper target all the way down.

Hard to beat the Federal LE stuff.
 
I'm honestly not real familiar with some of the other loads mentioned here except for what I've read in this forum.

When youre talking about HD ranges, theres no reason to write off one brand over another. But just as is the case with Mud, I got to the Federal, and havent looked back as far as my load of choice. I still buy other stuff to test out and shoot with, but primarily becuase I'm not gonna run out my stock of Federal FC (LE132)! :D If I need a load to stop a threat, I'm loading Federal FC!!!

However, the point here is that other loads can produce satisfactory results at HD ranges. They may not hold up a decent pattern beyond that though. Know the limitations of ANY ammo you keep on hand and youll be in good shape! ;)
 
While I respect opinions...especially from the members of this forum ;) ...I'm a firm believer in testing multiple loads myself in every caliber I carry or intend to use in a self defense situation. This tends to turn into more trigger time as well as lessons learned and a form of entertainment. You can go to every major manufacturer website of say...12 gauge ammo...and read their opinion on how wonderful their magic shell is, but until you feed it through your platform and experience the recoil and see first hand the spread pattern at any given distance or see how it reacts against any target or barrier ( over penetration )...all opinions will be subjective.

So, grab a few opinions, and a few boxes of different loads...and head out to the range. Enjoy the experience and you'll know first hand the effects of any given load. Just my 2 cents...
 
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