I’m resurfacing briefly to go all geeky on the subject of buckshot. Bear with me.
Mention buckshot to the average shooter and he’ll probably assume you mean #00 buck. The gold-standard buckshot load you’ll find in every *mart in America is the 12-ga. 2 3/4″ 9-pellet load; it’s offered by just about every company that pours powder and lead into shotshells. While t’s indisputably effective and I’d never want to be on the receiving end, a little math shows that we can do better.
#00 buckshot is nominally 0.330″ in diameter, with a nominal pellet weight of 53.8 grains. Put 9 of ‘em into a 12-ga hull and you’re launching 484 grains of lead with a total frontal area of .77″. Formidable, to be sure. It’s also not the best use of the internal volume of the shotshell.
Those 9 pellets stack up in 3 staggered layers of 3 pellets each. If you instead switch to #1 buckshot, at 0.300″ diameter and 40.5 grains each, you can make much more efficient use of the shell’s internal space. Instead of a 3×3 arrangement of pellets, you can have a nice shot column of 4 staggered layers of 4 pellets each, like so:
#1 buck shot column on the left, #00 on the right.
So what’s the big deal? With #1 buck we get 16 pellets instead of 9. Yes, they’re smaller and lighter, but the increase in pellet count FAR outweighs the decrease in pellet size. Total payload is now 648 grains with a total frontal area of 1.13 inches. That’s a 34% increase in weight and 47% increase in frontal area! Look at the two payloads side-by-side and the difference is dramatic.
Of course, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. The smaller #1 pellets are fully 25% lighter than #00 pellets, and will give up some penetration. And if you’re launching more lead at the same velocity, you’re necessarily also accepting more recoil in return. Then there’s the matter of availability; you can find #00 just about anywhere, but #1 buck is going to be a mail-order proposition for most of us.
If you can get your hands on some #1 buck, try it in your favorite scattergun. Patterns from my Benelli are the same size as #00 patterns, but with a more even distribution of pellets.
Aaaand I’m back to semi-hiatus mode. Go shoot your shotguns.
Nice point, and you’re right about how most of us would not even think to question the decision to use #00 instead of #1.
Welcome back!
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See you later!
Interesting post. I didn’t know that typical #1 buckshot loads had more total lead, but it makes sense looking at it now.
The weight difference is significant, though. A lot of people think 00 buckshot doesn’t penetrate well enough. I’d only pick a smaller shot size if I was living in an apartment or condo with thin walls that might not stop an errant pellet.
Sorry to hear about your recent problems.
Anyway, on #1 buckshot, I know that everybody from Dr. Fackler to Ayoob and Marshall recommends it with great enthusiasm, for just the reasons you put forth here.
But. (and you knew there was a BUT coming, didn’t you?) But, it’s never been that popular with American hunters. So little #1 is bought, and made, that it’s almost like .22 Rimfire Long, which is basically only manufactured to be sold to angry people who say “lookie hyar, boy, I been shootin for fiddy years, an dis gun (clearly stamped .22 LR) takes .22 Long boolits, not Ell Arr boolits!” #1 Buck is like that. Very few people buy it intentionally, some get it unintentionally, some think it’s the only kind that will fit this old shotgun they inherited from Grandpa, etc.
#1 Buck does not, as a general rule, pattern very well in most 12 gauge shotguns. There are exceptions. It sounds like you got very lucky. But in most guns, most of the time, #00 and #000 pattern a lot tighter, and even #4 patterns better than #1 more than half the time in most 12 gauge shotguns.
Now, I think this could be addressed. I think that if Federal were to take some nice hard alloy (Linotype would be perfect) #1 buckshot, and load 16 or 20 pellets of it into their Flitecontrol wad, the resulting #1 buckshot ammo would be black magic or damn near (hardened, copperplated Linotype #4 buck would also be pretty nice, I think–the Marines tested experimental hardened #4 buck ammo in Vietnam forty-five years ago, with apparent good results, Google for XM257). The question is, though–especially with 21st Century law enforcement agencies selling off their shotguns and replacing them with tricked-out M4 carbines–who’d buy it? What big law enforcement agency contracts would Federal get for this that they don’t have now? Answer that question and maybe we’ll see it come to light.