Which 00 manufacture

[bernieb90]

Yeah I gave up on that Winchester "Military Grade" as well. I guess in the military they want to hit as many people as possible with one shot. I honestly would have no issues using Wolf either since my house is not too big. However, being aware of the limitations of a particular load is always a good thing.

I am just trying to put to rest the myth that the 1" per yard spread that you hear about is always true because it is not. Some people also think that buckshot will fly as a solid mass at 20 ft which is most certainly won't unless you are using Federal Tactical with Flite-Control wad or Hornady TAP.

Another good thing to take away from pattern testing is how easy it is to miss with a shotgun. 8" left or right results in a peripheral hit that may not stop the subject even with a very open pattern. I have seen people miss targets completely with shotguns from 20ft, and then look very shocked.

[Echidin]

Remington 00 and Federal Reduced Recoil work well for me. The only Winchester 00 buckshot I've tried has been the reduced recoil loads, which struggled to cycle the action. I suspect the full power loads would have no trouble doing so.

[Cali-Shooter]

If you had your choice which would you choose and why. Federal, Winchester, or Remington? Or could all three of these be considered equal in quality?

I would say yes. They will all go bang with a pull of the trigger, and provided you get decent defensive ammo from them (they all offer 00 buckshot and slugs), they will do the job for HD. They also tend to be priced similarly, so its a matter of which you can get on sale or which is available when you want it.

[003]

A suggestion for those that use both slugs and buckshot, or some other load in their HD shotgun. Use those made by two different manufactures i.e., Winchester buckshot (red in color) and Remington slugs (green in color), or vice versa, and stay with them. The reason being they are two distinctly different colors and in and emergency it is easy to recognize which is which.

Knowing which round one is loading in an emergency is just as or more important than knowing the shot spread.

I strongly suggest that one settle on a specific load and then stay with it to avoid confusion in an emergency.

[HonkingAntelope]

Great info on flitecontrol shells, although using the BT-5R target makes the spread look worse than it really is for regular loads. In general, 1 inch spread per yard of travel is the norm for open cylinder shotguns, and 20" group at 20 yards will still ruin anyone's day. For HD, it's pretty unlikely you'll shoot even that far.