Shotgun Patterning: Part 9, Some New Ammo + Testing Chokes

Recently, I became aware of a new contender in shotgun ammo specifically tailored for defensive purposes (H/T Ashton Ray of 360 Performance Shooting). Fiocchi USA has introduced a new 12 gauge loading under their Defense Dynamics branding. In reading about it, there were things I liked, and one thing I didn’t necessarily like. The good […]

AAR: 360 Performance Shooting (Ashton Ray & Tim Chandler) “Shotgun 360”, New Castle, PA 8/01-02/20

The Scattergun.  The Shotty.  The Boomstick.  The Shotgat.  The Street Howitzer.  The Gauge.  I suppose it makes sense that a firearm that is so ubiquitous and carries so many nicknames would be, as Tom Givens says, “the least understood…..weapon system.” After my first one-day shotgun class I was confident I would never take another.  I […]

Shotgun Loading Fallacies

John and I have spent a lot of time this year studying the shotgun.  We have both written articles on patterning different loads out of our shotguns (see John’s articles here, here, here, and here), taken shotgun coursework (see here and here), read books and articles by well-regarded authors about the shotgun and, in general, […]

A Critical Look at Hornady’s Critical Defense and BLACK Buckshot

In a recent blog post, I wrote that I wasn’t really sure the difference between Hornady® Critical Defense® buckshot and Hornady® BLACK buckshot. Specifically, I was curious if the BLACK ammo used the Versatite™ wad, since both loads seemed to offer similar performance. Dr. Sherman House from the Civilian Defender blog suggested in the comments […]

Shotgun Patterning Part 4: Robert’s Experience

My blog partner John has mentioned more than once in his articles on shotgun patterning (see here, here, and here) how I too have been working on an article addressing this same need. John and I largely ignored the shotgun—in terms of training classes and articles—during our first couple of years writing for the blog.  […]

Shotgun Patterning, Part 3: Federal FLITECONTROL and More…

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series detailing my patterning tests with my Remington 870P SBS, I shared results that I obtained with ammunition from Hornady, Remington, Federal, Rio, and Herter’s. During my last range session, I tested an old Federal Low Recoil loading that probably predates the FLITECONTROL wad, both 8 pellet […]

Shotgun Patterning, Part 2: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly!

As promised, I’m sharing some more pattern testing results with my Remington 870P SBS. This time around, I shot Hornady BLACK buckshot, Remington buckshot, and the cheapest buckshot I could find, Rio Royal Buck buckshot. Suffice it to say, I chose the title of this post for good reason, and you definitely get what you […]