Lets Talk About Buckshot

I’ve got 3 gauges, one is a 1978 era 30” full choke blued one & that’s my baby ….

Other 2 are home defense kind of guns, a Beretta 1301 & a ithaca 37 CHP gun

I’ve ran all kinds of buckshot thru them and keep coming back to Flite Control 8 rd 00, wanted to get # 1 buckshot but could never find it & Bonefrog always seems to have flite control OO

Federal seems to have dropped their 8 pellet load, so that leaves only Hornady making 8 peellet 00buck I believe, however I've never seen it, only the #4 varmint load.

12GA Federal Tactical 00BuckShot 8 Pellet with FliteControl Wad 2 3/4 (LE133 00)

$66 for 50 rds at bonefrog

It may still be in stock some places, but federal no longer makes it and no longer list it on their website. Of course with being in alaska, it's not sosimple to just mail order and stock up either.

No idea what it takes to ship ammo to Alaska🤷‍♂️ 

We are planning a drive across Canada & up to Alaska & thinking about getting a lever action 44mag to be Canada legal

Just asked a LE distributor guy I know and was told the 8 rd 12 gauge is on the law enforcement side & not on federal website and it’s back in full production 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

I’ve got 3 gauges, one is a 1978 era 30” full choke blued one & that’s my baby ….

Other 2 are home defense kind of guns, a Beretta 1301 & a ithaca 37 CHP gun

I’ve ran all kinds of buckshot thru them and keep coming back to Flite Control 8 rd 00, wanted to get # 1 buckshot but could never find it & Bonefrog always seems to have flite control OO

Federal seems to have dropped their 8 pellet load, so that leaves only Hornady making 8 peellet 00buck I believe, however I've never seen it, only the #4 varmint load.

12GA Federal Tactical 00BuckShot 8 Pellet with FliteControl Wad 2 3/4 (LE133 00)

$66 for 50 rds at bonefrog

It may still be in stock some places, but federal no longer makes it and no longer list it on their website. Of course with being in alaska, it's not sosimple to just mail order and stock up either.

No idea what it takes to ship ammo to Alaska🤷‍♂️ 

We are planning a drive across Canada & up to Alaska & thinking about getting a lever action 44mag to be Canada legal

Just asked a LE distributor guy I know and was told the 8 rd 12 gauge is on the law enforcement side & not on federal website and it’s back in full production 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Interesting. My guy said it was out of production, but maybe that is old news.

I do love a good 44 mag carbine. My current favorite is a Smith and Wesson 1854.

Stretched it out to 25 yards and the federal is really starting to shine now. This is probably all I will do today since the wind is starting to pick up and I also have other things I need to get done today rather than just shoot guns. I'd like to try the flight control out at 50 yards, as well as try all loads from a full choked gun, and also from a overbored gun.

I also realized I needed to be marking the pelelt hits from individual rounds better to get a better idea of what was going on. These were fired at 25 yeards off hand just holding center of the paper. Blue tracer is 1st round and black is second.

Federal Flight Control


Fiocchi Exactra


Sellier & Bellot

Federal seems to have dropped their 8 pellet load, so that leaves only Hornady making 8 peellet 00buck I believe, however I've never seen it, only the #4 varmint load.

12GA Federal Tactical 00BuckShot 8 Pellet with FliteControl Wad 2 3/4 (LE133 00)

$66 for 50 rds at bonefrog

It may still be in stock some places, but federal no longer makes it and no longer list it on their website. Of course with being in alaska, it's not sosimple to just mail order and stock up either.

No idea what it takes to ship ammo to Alaska🤷‍♂️ 

We are planning a drive across Canada & up to Alaska & thinking about getting a lever action 44mag to be Canada legal

Just asked a LE distributor guy I know and was told the 8 rd 12 gauge is on the law enforcement side & not on federal website and it’s back in full production 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Interesting. My guy said it was out of production, but maybe that is old news.

I do love a good 44 mag carbine. My current favorite is a Smith and Wesson 1854.

The S&W stainless 44 is top of my wish list 

wanted to take the ferry to Alaska but it seems to fill up 6-8 months in advance and you can’t just roll up and hop on

I've never been much of a shotgun guy. Ive had a few over the years, and currently have 4 of them. I've often promoted them for home defense, But I've always used a pistol and a lever action myself (Current one is a 44 mag carbine)

Now I do have a Mosserg 590A1 as well as a Turknelli both kept loaded with 1oz low recoil slugs, but recently decided maybe I'd be better off with buckshot. I haven't messed with buckshot much in any of my current shotguns, so I decided to pattern some loads from the 590 and realized that my buckshot stash was pretty much depleted.

Now two things I do know about shotguns. This first one is something I've noticed across the board, but its especially noticeable with the 3.5" magnums, more velocity means more spread. And the second is something I never relly played with much, but I was told when I used to shoot 3 gun that 8 pellet buck will usually pattern better than 9 pellet. Now I know that some companies produced 8 pellet 00buck but I've never seen it here in Alaska. My load of choice was 2.75" 8 pellet 000buck as I felt like it hit harder and patterned better than 9 pellet 00buck. 8 pellets of 000 also weights more than 9 pellets of 00. I don't know what the percentage difference in mass per pellet is, but the 000 is about 20 grains heavier per pellet.

Now the problem - I can't find 000buck anywhere right now. I ended up buying a case each of cheap S&B 9 pellet 00, and Federal Flight Control Tactical 9 pellet both in 2.75" shells. Neither of these is a hot rod load, with the federal moving at an advertised 1145fps.

Im curious to see if the flight control wad will be enough to mitigate the 9th pellet flier. The cheap stuff doesnt look to have a shot cup, and is also not plated with anything. While it does not say so on the box, I do believe that the flight control is copper plated.

Will be interesting to see how much difference I get in pattern with these 2 loads

Yes. I’d like to know. My son is setting up a Mossberg 500 with a short ‘turkey’ barrel for home def. I’d like to know what you find out about 00 Buck. We’ll have to shoot some, but I’d like to know what you find as a starting point.