I would like to start off this review with a big thanks to Steven at BulkAmmo.com and Vitaly of Rem870.com for the opportunity to do this review. Vitaly put me in contact with Steven who provided most of the buckshot used in this review.

Shotgun Buckshot Test

There are five types of buckshot that were evaluated for this review. Four of them were provided by Steven of BulkAmmo.com and one was from my personal stash. All 12 ga ammo shells tested were 2 ¾” 9-pellet 00 buckshot, the details of each are as follows:

Shotgun Buckshot Ammo Test (Federal, Rio, Remington, Personal Defense)

Brand	Muzzle Velocity*	Model
Federal Premium Buckshot Federal Ammunition – Buckshot**	1325 fps	XM127 00AC
Royal Buck Low Recoil Rio Ammunition – Royal Buck Low Recoil	1200 fps	RBLR129
Royal Buck Rio Ammunition – Royal Buck	1345 fps	RB129
Remington Buckshot Remington – Buckshot	1325 fps	12B00
Federal Personal Defense Federal Premium Ammunition – Personal Defense	1145 fps	PD132 00

*muzzle velocity as listed on packaging, no chronograph data was collected
**this was from my personal supply, all other ammunition was provided by BulkAmmo.com

Overview

Opening these boxes of buckshot immediately put a smile on my face. Having recently only been shooting cheap, bulk pack, birdshot it was refreshing to see the tall, shiny brass these manufacturers use for their buckshot hulls. Despite how pretty they looked, I knew there would be two factors that would be weighed more heavily than all others: extreme spread at various distances and felt recoil.

Extreme Spread

I tested the five loads at 3 different distances, 7 paces, 14 paces, and 25 paces. My target was a large piece of cardboard, covered with waxed paper when necessary to extend the usefulness of the target. The shotgun used was a Remington 870 with 20” improved cylinder barrel. The following table shows the results of firing one round of each type at each range and measuring the extreme spread:

Load	7 Paces	14 Paces	25 Paces
Federal Premium Buckshot Federal Ammunition – Buckshot**	4 inches	6.75 inches	14.8 inches
Royal Buck Low Recoil Rio Ammunition – Royal Buck Low Recoil	4 inches	9.5 inches	10.6 inches
Royal Buck Rio Ammunition – Royal Buck	4.8 inches	10.8 inches	16.25 inches
Remington Buckshot Remington – Buckshot	3.3 inches	9.3 inches	14.2 inches
Federal Personal Defense Federal Premium Ammunition – Personal Defense	1.5 inches	3.1 inches	5.75 inches

As you can see the Federal Personal Defense with the FliteControl wad dominated the extreme spread test with 25-pace results that were better than any other type’s 14-pace result. Also of interest is the tighter pattern produced by the Rio Low Recoil when compared to the full-velocity Rio Royal Buck load.

Felt Recoil

While obviously very subjective, I feel confident making a few comments on felt recoil as I was one shooter, shooting the same gun over the course of about 1 hour, the only change was the loading and the distance I was shooting at. Once I got home and started working on this article I found that the perceived recoil of each load directly corresponded to the velocity listed on the ammo boxes. Which considering they were all 9-pellet 00 buck loads makes sense. The Royal Buck had the most perceived recoil and was maybe 5% harder than the Federal Buckshot (which I used as my baseline). The recoil produced by the Remington shell was indistinguishable from that of the Federal baseline load. The Rio Low Recoil had considerably less recoil than any of the three full-velocity loads. The Personal Defense, moving 55 fps slower than the Rio Low Recoil, had the lowest perceived recoil.

I can see from BulkAmmo.com’s offerings that another buckshot roundup will be in order, but until then I think I’m going to stock up on Federal Premium Personal Defense buckshot to keep loaded for home defense and probably a bunch of Rio Low Recoil buckshot for matches or practice. Keep in mind my Remington 870 is a pump action shotgun and doesn’t have a problem cycling these low recoil shells. Always test your chosen ammunition for cycling and patterning before relying on it for competition or personal defense.

Federal Personal Defense

Thanks to the http://www.bulkammo.com/ for ammunition for the test.

Useful links:
Low Recoil Ammo by Rio Royal – 00 Buck
2ga Ammo by Rio Royal – 00 Buck
12ga Ammo by Remington – 00 Buck
12ga Ammo by Federal Law Enforcement with FliteControl Wad- 00 Buck

First of all, let me share with you one good photo which shows series of individual 1/1,000,000 second exposures showing shotgun firing shot & sabot separation:

Shotgun Shot Sequence (Author: Andrew Davidhazy)

Different types of ammunition are effective in different situations and on different ranges, and the best video on this topic was made by Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and called Rounds of Authority: Shotgun Ammunition. You can see it online and I highly recommend it. If you want to know how to use your shotgun in tactical, home-defense or combat situation this information will be extremely interesting for you. In just 18 minutes you will know how to identify different types of shotgun ammunition and what they can do.

Contents:

Conventional, Speciality and Exotic ammunition
Firing characteristics of each type (bird shot, buckshot and rifled slugs) on different distances
Conventional rounds test and penetration effect on Vehicle Door
Birdshot, buckshot and rifled slugs penetration effect on Wood Frame Door
Tests of shotgun ammunition on ballistic gelatin
Conventional rounds penetration effect on soft body armor
Tests of shotgun ammunition on steel plate
Birdshot, buckshot and rifled slugs penetration effect on bullet-resistant glass
Tests of shotgun ammunition on car glass
Tests of shotgun ammunition on laminated car glass

Speciality Ammunition
Flares Rounds
CS Gas Rounds
Smoke Rounds
Dustbusters Rounds
What happens with a wood frame door, car glass and ballistic gelatine when hit by a dustbusters rounds

Exotic Shotgun Rounds
Dragon’s Breath
Dragon Slug
Armor Piercing
Flechette
Buck & Ball
Strung Buck
Flechette and Soft Body Armor

By the way, they make all tests with our favorite Remington 870 shotgun