Light recoil 12ga loads?

[ultrastar]

What are some light recoil but effective 12ga loads? These would be for a Mossberg 500, 18.5" bbl. I shoot 00 buck at work but I want something lighter for off duty range/home protection.

[Danindetroit]

Winchester makes some LR AA Loads. They have 26? grams of shot. There are a lot of LR buck shot loads out, I think every body makes some. The one that comes to mind is a federal tactical, #4 buck 27 pellets lead not plated, not sure of the speed. I think they even make LR slugs, If you have the oppurtunity, and situation to shoot them for HD. The size of the shot has absolutely nothing to do with recoil, it is the weight of the pellet, wad, and powder, velocity, and weight of gun. 1 1/4oz of buck kicks as hard as 1 1/4 oz of 8's all other factors being equal.

[mete]

Check remington, winchester and federal for reduced loads .According to tests and actual use the reduced OO buck are very effective for HD.

[vitesse9]

Federal makes a 2 3/4 inch "tactical" 00 buck load. I think they load them up with 8 pellets instead of 9. My HD load is the Remington "low recoil" 9 pellet load simply because I haven't taken the trouble to look for the tactical stuff. However, I also have a box of Winchester "low recoil" Super X stuff laying around somewhere. I like to shoot this stuff at the range because I can get a decent deal on it in 25 round boxes right at the counter.

One other thing, I've noticed the PMC makes a low recoil "tactical" OO buck load. The nice thing is, it's really cheap. I think I saw it on cheaper than dirt for just over $2.00 a box (5 rnds). While I wouldn't necessarily load up my HD SG with cheap ammo (e.g. Wolf, S&B) when its protecting my home, PMC is pretty good ammo in general. Perhaps this stuff would be good for practice and HD-- shoot with what you carry and all that. Look it up at cheaperthandirt.com. They also have a PMC slug load.

[GunsnRovers]

For HD loads, I'm looking at the four following rounds:

Winchester Ranger low 9 pellet 00 buck
Federal Tactical low recoil 9 pellet 00 buck
Speer LEO low recoil 8 pellet 00 buck
Hornady TAP low recoil 8 pellet 00 buck (Make sure you try the blue rounds. The red ones are loaded hotter for semi-autos)

I have, but have samples of, but have not yet shot the Speer or Hornady. That will happen next week. The Winchester had higher felt recoil and slightly larger patterns then the Federal so that's out for me, but may prove different to you in your shotgun.

Federal has an excellent published track record. I have heard very good things about the Hornady and Speer and at $3 a box (which seems to be about average for the high end loads) was cheap enough to warrant an experiment.

As the experienced folks here post regularly with regard to shotguns (and I certainly don't qualify as experienced), don't worry about the make, model, barrel length, or choke size. Try it out and pattern it. YMMV considerably.

BA/UU/R

[mete]

The Hornady TAP rounds have plastic shot cups that have NO slits therefore the patterns are very tight !! I should add that in typical home defense situations the ranges are short and spread will be small -- it's a myth that you don't have to aim !!

[Tom2]

I bought some shells made by Estate cartridge Inc. as they listed reduced recoil on the box. Paid 6.95 for 10. Load has 9 00 pellets, 12 ga. 2 3/4" They call it the "S.W.A.T. Buckshot Load". Will report back whenever I try them thru my Rem..

[cpileri]

I shot a few quail over the weekend with Federal Metro Subsonic 12ga which is a 1&1/8 oz load of 7.5 shot at about 900fps. It was designed for use with those Metro barrel extensions and out of that extra 36 inches i am sure its quiet as a deaf church mouse.

But i used them in a Remington 1100 and to my suprise they cycled the action (all of 6 times, but without fail). They were also really quiet: more like a 'pahooom' than a BANG, and rather muffled sounding. Kick in that fairly heavy gun was negligible. I know people exaggerate that their new downloaded, muzzle braked, whatever kicks 'less than a 22'. But this really did feel only slightly more than a 22 to me.

For HD, one would have to load up an equivalent load of buckshot or whatever your fancy, but it sure would be the ulitmate for fast follow-ups!

I wonder what the penetration in gelatin would be with buckshot or a brenneke slug at 900fps??
That's the speed of a regular loaded slug at 150 yards distance, so maybe some info on penetration exists already.
Cuz that's the real test: do these light loads (TAP, tactical, reduced, etc) actually perform on targets???
Anyone know?

C-

[9mmMike]

I shoot 00, 000 & slugs of the "tactical" variety from Federal. These are sometimes called LE132 00, LE132 000 & LE127 RS respectively.
I get mine from Eric The AmmoMan who is a terrific guy with whom to deal.
These are very soft shooters and work well in my 20" smooth-bore, Vang Comp'd barrel'd 870.

Mike

[ultrastar]

Thanks for all the input, I'm in the research phase now cause I'm out of the country and can't get to the range. I wasn't sure such a creature exisited but now I have a lot to look forward to. Thanks again for the info.