shells to use v.870

[hossb7]

I did a search, sorry if this is a repost but i couldn't find anything.

I'm going to be buying a Remington 870 soon and wanted to preemptively purchase some shells. I'm looking mostly at home defense, i wont be shooting trap/skeet much (yet) so I'm looking for something in 00. 2 3/4" or 3" shells will be fine.

i was thinking about buying a case of wolf (250 00 shells for $99) but thought it would be better to buy smaller boxes to see how they feed/cycle.

thoughts? thanks in advance.

[tonb]

You'd really have to try pretty hard to have a problem racking a pump action 870 IMO. Generally speaking it isn't the cycling you need to worry about but the shot spread. Your typical 870HD is an 18 or 20" cylinder bore and I doub't you'd be shooting further than 20 yards indoors so in reality you don't even need to worry about spread much. People will all chime in with under and overpenetration comments and different recommended loads, but 2 3/4" 00 buck is a very popular HD load.

It's what I use.

[edsel6502]

IMO. You don't want to skimp on ammo for defense purposes. The issue won't be if your 870 will cycle it. Its an 870, it would cycle a trout. But you want the consistency in how your ammo behaves.

Basically you'll need to decide

1. At what distance you will be using your 870
2. What your patterns are from 7 yards and 1 yard there after

Once you find ammo that is consistent and you like stick with it.

[hossb7]

You'd really have to try pretty hard to have a problem racking a pump action 870 IMO. Generally speaking it isn't the cycling you need to worry about but the shot spread. Your typical 870HD is an 18 or 20" cylinder bore and I doub't you'd be shooting further than 20 yards indoors so in reality you don't even need to worry about spread much. People will all chime in with under and overpenetration comments and different recommended loads, but 2 3/4" 00 buck is a very popular HD load.

It's what I use.

i think i'll go to wallyworld tomorrow and get a few boxes of 5 shells from different companies so i can see how it patterns.

unrelated: are there any differences between brands such as hornady TAP, federal vital-shok, etc?

[hossb7]

IMO. You don't want to skimp on ammo for defense purposes. The issue won't be if your 870 will cycle it. Its an 870, it would cycle a trout. But you want the consistency in how your ammo behaves.

Basically you'll need to decide

1. At what distance you will be using your 870
2. What your patterns are from 7 yards and 1 yard there after

Once you find ammo that is consistent and you like stick with it.

cool thanks

[tonb]

There is a new one out that shoots very well, Federal 00 buck with the flight control wad. If you can find that give it a try I've been wanting to get my hands on some of it for a while.

Its an 870, it would cycle a trout.

LOL!!

[E. Fudd]

Fwiw, Wolf shotgun ammo (and .22 LR) is very decent stuff. Made in Germany. Not to be confused with the Russian enamel steel case rifle/pistol ammo. The slugs are quite accurate and the 00 goes bang and seems of similar high quality and the price is right...

For best 00 pattern, check out the Federal Tactical Reduce recoil 00 buck. They use a better wad and have buffering material inside the shell that helps keep the pattern tight.

Most other brands of 00 buck use no buffer material and my limited patterning tests showed less consistency and larger patterning groups with one or more of the pellets getting dinged out-of-round going down the bore, banging against each other the and sides of the bore, and ending up as flyers outside the main group, whereas the Federal Reduced Recoil stuff has way fewer flyers.

Took a tac shotgun class where the instructor asked for random samples of our shotgun ammo and dissected them with a box cutter to show us the differences with each brand of shells.

My Vang Comp shoots the tightest pattern w/ Federal Tac Reduced Recoil. In fact, for 3-gun matches, sometimes the Vang patterns is almost too tight (for faster, 'sloppier' closer steel stages) and I increase my pattern size simply by using cheaper brands of 00 buck.

[Tunis]

...it would cycle a trout.

HaHaHaHaHa!

My 870 HD has a regular diet of Remington 2 3/4" 00 Buck Shot & Slugs and an occasional Federal Bird Shot without a hiccup!

[proraptor]

Walmart has winchester 00 buck 15 round value pack for $7.56 and they also have 5 winchest 1 oz slugs for $2.62! I love walmart

[hossb7]

Fwiw, Wolf shotgun ammo (and .22 LR) is very decent stuff. Made in Germany. Not to be confused with the Russian enamel steel case rifle/pistol ammo. The slugs are quite accurate and the 00 goes bang and seems of similar high quality and the price is right...

For best 00 pattern, check out the Federal Tactical Reduce recoil 00 buck. They use a better wad and have buffering material inside the shell that helps keep the pattern tight.

Most other brands of 00 buck use no buffer material and my limited patterning tests showed less consistency and larger patterning groups with one or more of the pellets getting dinged out-of-round going down the bore, banging against each other the and sides of the bore, and ending up as flyers outside the main group, whereas the Federal Reduced Recoil stuff has way fewer flyers.

Took a tac shotgun class where the instructor asked for random samples of our shotgun ammo and dissected them with a box cutter to show us the differences with each brand of shells.

My Vang Comp shoots the tightest pattern w/ Federal Tac Reduced Recoil. In fact, for 3-gun matches, sometimes the Vang patterns is almost too tight (for faster, 'sloppier' closer steel stages) and I increase my pattern size simply by using cheaper brands of 00 buck.

thanks for the info

[rorschach]

Walmart has winchester 00 buck 15 round value pack for $7.56 and they also have 5 winchest 1 oz slugs for $2.62! I love walmart

Well, I guess I know where I'm going tomorrow morning!!

[gunsnrovers]

Best bet is to do what you said in an earlier post. Head out and pick up 5~10 rounds of a few different ammo types, pick up a handful of targets, and measure shot spread out at different distances. 5, 10, 15, 20 yards.

It will tell you what loads your shotgun likes best and it will also tell you where your shotgun shoots.

My two primary HD shotguns preferred the Hornady TAP 8 pellet 00 loads, but there are other good brands out there.

[hossb7]

Best bet is to do what you said in an earlier post. Head out and pick up 5~10 rounds of a few different ammo types, pick up a handful of targets, and measure shot spread out at different distances. 5, 10, 15, 20 yards.

It will tell you what loads your shotgun likes best and it will also tell you where your shotgun shoots.

My two primary HD shotguns preferred the Hornady TAP 8 pellet 00 loads, but there are other good brands out there.