Shotgun Ammo 4 HD

[geekeye]

some great info in this thread already. after watching a bunch of videos demonstrating penetration of different loads i ended up settling on #2 bird and #4 buck for HD. i was able to get some RIO brand a few months into the shortage for a pretty good price. haven't shot a lot of it, but it seems decent.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Geek: go out and pattern your gun with both rounds at 5,10,15 and 25 yards so you will have an idea of what your shot dispersal is going to be at those yardages.

A Cylinder Bore Defensive Gun will typically open up about 1" for every yard beyond the muzzle. So 15 yards should be 15", and at 25 yards it should be 25" which is getting kind of thin.

If your gun has a choked barrel or interchangeable choke tubes then by simply running a full choke tube will keep your shot pattern much tighter and increase your effective range. Usually #2 birdshot would be for Geese and those shots can be at 50 yards or more, and the velocity will be much higher than smaller shot sizes and along with that comes more recoil.

Anything with a velocity around 1250-1300 fps will be what is considered "Low Recoil." Anything in the 1600 fps range could be considered "Butt Kicker Loads," and the recoil will be noticeably,,,, more !!!

For HD use "Low Recoil Ammo" is all you will ever need, and there has been a push thru marketing to make more of those loads available from all suppliers as the heavier stuff is just not needed. There are very few Grown Men that will live thru a Center Mass hit by Low Recoil 00 Buckshot from closer than 25 yards. With a 1 oz slug you can easily extend that to 100 yards.

But the key here is knowing what your gun will do with the loads you have settled on. You have to shoot it to find out what they do.

Randy