Federal top gun hulls. Claybuster CB6118-12 wads with the petals cut off flush. Winchester 209 primer. 36 grains of Long Shot. Nine .33 caliber swaged super buckshot pellets. 3.3 cc's of ballistic products original buffer. 1/8 inch thick over shot card cut from a roll of cork gasket material from the auto parts store. crimps are great but just to be sure no buffer leaks out. Full choke that came with the Mossberg 500. 1492 average FPS. Shot a life size deer paper target showing vitals. 3 shots at 50 yards and 3 at 25. Had at least 3 in the vitals every shot at 50 not counting hits in the spine.

Might not work in your gun. No idea of the pressure generated. 1 1/8 ounce of shot though in the hodgdon online data shows 1550 or more as max loads with long shot. 1490 is plenty. I am not going any more.

Yes i did a bad thing. Loaded without data. Been easing to the 1490 mark. The hulls and wad loads I did find 36 grains was not the max load for any of them with Longshot. Ballistic products says the buffer increases pressure about 500 pounds per square inch. It does tighten up the pattern a bit. The data I found does not list buffer. Not online or in my Lyman book. So I did a bad thing. Probably be best if you don't try it.

Good Deal for you though!

Until someone shoots a variety of buckshot load’s through their gun, they may not realize just how much a difference it can make.

I been working on this awhile. May try six pellets and this for a wad. What I am doing seems pretty good though. You ever tried a buck kicker choke? Is it a real improvement or marketing?

Seen several videos on this. Have not tried it. I am confident out to 50 yards these I tested today will reliably kill deer. Maybe this will be my next experiment. buckshot is not legal here but i like doing this stuff.

When I hunted deer with dogs, my best buckshot load and barrel was 12 gauge 3” Remington 000 buck through an 1100 30” mag barrel.

Was good for turkey with #6 loads.

We hunt deer here with buckshot. I use an 870 Remington with a modified choke. Even though it is a 3 inch I get best pattern from Winchester 2 3/4 inch 12 pellet 00. Will put 6 buckshot in a pizza box at 70 yards. About 20 years ago I kicked 3 coyotes out of the brush on a deer drive. As they went across a field heading straight away from me I got all 3, the last one at quite a distance. Best buckshot gun I ever saw was my fathers Model 12 Winchester, full choke 30 inch barrel. He killed a lot of bucks at distances you would not believe.

Federal makes good shot loads
Years ago I carried a 12 gauge and a .223 hunting fox
I found 00 is more dependable than #4 buck

I went on ammoseek. Federal buckshot in 2 3/4 starts at almost .80 cents a round and 1325 fps. Winchester starts at .70 cents a round with the same velocity listed. The cheapest ones listed are from suppliers I never heard of. Get to companies I am not afraid to give CC info to and its a lot higher. Plenty of ammo brands I never heard of also. I have several hundred federal top gun and gold medal hulls I picked up for free. These reloads are much cheaper even including all the different stuff I tried to get to this load. Its amazing how much better the cork overshot card is compared to paper. Lot of folks really like federal flite control. Have not tried that. Thinking about a buck kicker choke. Have not found anyone who has one. About 80 bucks with tax and shipping. I am not convinced its not just marketing hype.

Went down the loading buckshot road a couple years back. What I found was regular #00 buckshot that is 0.330 in diameter and when made of lead, each pellet weight 1/8 oz. So when stacked in three's, the payload stacks are 3/8 oz, 6/8 (3/4) oz, 9/8 (1 1/8 oz) and 12/8 (1 1/2) oz. Except in modern plastic wads, there isn't enough room to stack them in 3's. They won't fit.......so have to do what Danny did and cut the petals off. Basically use the wad as a gas check and let the shot ride nekked down the barrel.

#00 buck will stack in 2's........but the largest of the commonly found modern wads you can still buy are only designed for 1 1/8 oz payloads. Will only hold 6 pellets when stacked in 2's.

Option B is to use the old Win AA red wad in a tapered hull and allow top row to stack proud of the shot cup. A variation on this theme, if you have them or can still find them is to use the old Remington power piston wads.........either the RP-12 or SP-12. Below......load on left uses a stack of 2 x 5 = 10 = 1 1/4 oz payload over a charge of Longshot in the deeper RP wad. Revved up to around 1,400 fps. Round on the right was 2 x 4 = 8 = 1 oz payload over 20.5 grains Green Dot for a velocity of around 1300 fps. Not sure about whacking deer or coyotes at distance, but both should help repel zombies should the need arise. You don't want to be standing in front of them when it goes off.



Option C, if you can't find these deeper old style wads is to switch to the 0.315" diameter version of #0 buckshot (from BPI). Those will now stack in 3's and 3 layers of those will fit into just about any wad for 1 1/8 oz payload and will weigh just shy of 1 oz. Revved up to over 1300 fps, shoots about the same as your average trap load. You don't want to be standing in front of that either.

If one can accept the notion that 1 oz is 1 oz.....be it buckshot or bird shot.......then there is all kinds of published load data to load these.

Lastly in the guy's video on loading BB's into Federal paper hulls, the crimp folds on those Federal paper hulls have a memory to them......and will give near perfect crimps if you use the right crimp starter, which is a smooth cone.

I was looking at the way he cut the wads to imitate flite control wads, federal wont sell their patented wads as a reloading component.

I doubt the wads he was using have a flat bottom and will allow #00 buckshot to stack right. Most have a tapered cone bottom.

The Power Piston wads are stiff and function almost the same way.

Where is coondagger? He is into shot shell reloading party serious.

After watching this I am not spending 2 bucks a round for flight control premium

As someone said a few years back , "T-man has some smart guys on here." Thanks Danny and Hayday ...great info!

One thing I forgot to mention. After all the components were in the shell I placed it back under the wad installation stage. I pressed the whole thing down a bit till I felt a change in resistance. Then crimped. If I did not do that the crimp was bulged slightly in the center.

This should last me awhile

One more note. I got around to giving my shotgun a good cleaning today. Without any kind of shot cup the buckshot did leave lead streaks in the barrel and choke. I scrubbed it out a bit with remington brand bore cleaner and a brass brush. Took at most 10 minutes. Then finished up with clp and patches. I can not see anything but clean barrel and choke.

Nice!