I remember back in the 1960's when Federal ammunition was considered low end. especially the red box of 22 long rifle. Now it is a 5 star company for sure. Matt my experience so far is that if I had to pick 1 choke in my Remington 870 Field Master (Express) I would take the Modified. #5 steel patterns well to 40 yards. 00 Buckshot same thing and this is in my reloads. IC 18 1/2 in slug barrel (smooth) with sights is good to 30 or 32 like in close cover and this is just generalization. I am sure enjoying testing ammunition and next time I go out I will compare my reloads to comparable factory loads. Thankyou again for your neutrality and humble attitude when testing.

@matttyreeoutdoors

7 күн бұрын

Glad you enjoy! Federal is still pretty hit and miss. Some of their stuff is really good, but others not so much. It's pretty much a case of testing it with your setups and seeing if they like it or not

These are getting harder and harder to find. Great video.

@matttyreeoutdoors

8 ай бұрын

Thanks! I haven't seen them in any big box stores recently, but I have been able to find them in a few small town shops though

@m.m4982

2 ай бұрын

​@@matttyreeoutdoors found em at bass pro. They ain't cheap though 13.99 for x5

@user-hb7to4jq5s

2 ай бұрын

have you tried the hornady critical defense 12g, the versa wad is similar to flight control and the buckshot is coming out at 1600 fps

🤔 That improved cylinder shot group looks pretty good, while also allowing the use of slugs when needed at longer ranges without having to swap out the choke itself. Thank you for sharing.

@matttyreeoutdoors

5 ай бұрын

You can still shoot rifled slugs with a mod or full choke if that's the setup you have. Depending on the gun and slug, they may be very slightly less accurate out at 100 yards, but it can absolutely still be done and be good enough to do the job

@WR_CTorch

5 ай бұрын

@@matttyreeoutdoors Oh cool! I’ve never shot a slug out of a shotgun before. For some reason, I had it in the back of my head that you needed a IC choke. Glad to hear I was wrong about that. I have a coyote problem right now, and they have snatched 3 of my last 5 lambs. So I was wanting to smack them with the 00 buck up close and hit them with a slug if I caught them under a 100 yards.

@matttyreeoutdoors

5 ай бұрын

@WR_CTorch Yes, you can absolutely do it. Most boxes of rifled slugs will say that the slugs can be fired through any choke, but an improved cylinder choke is best. I have found that a number of slugs actually do better with a little more constriction, it just depends on your specific setup. I would test your setup first before taking it out just to make sure you have a decently accurate slug combination, but it's absolutely safe to shoot lead rifled slugs through a full choke

@user-sp9hy8tq4j

2 ай бұрын

@@matttyreeoutdoorscyl choke is better for slugs than an imp choke

@matttyreeoutdoors

2 ай бұрын

@user-sp9hy8tq4j I've shot a lot of slugs and that isn't necessarily true. Sometimes a specific slug may perform best with a cylinder choke, but that isn't always the case. With the majority of the slugs I've tested, IC or Mod has tended to be the best combo. Plus most manufacturers recommend an improved cylinder

The pattern of the modified was good but as far as a kill zone shot the full choke wings hands down in my opinion

@matttyreeoutdoors

8 ай бұрын

Both were pretty good patterns, there's no question about that

Interrsting how so many people say to NEVER use a full choke with flight control becuase it will cause the mechanism of the flight control to not work. Well, this video shows all those internet know it alls were wrong. Thanks for the video sir.

@matttyreeoutdoors

7 ай бұрын

I was always suspicious about all the mixed information out there, so I wanted to test it and see. I definitely think there's an ideal amount of squeeze vs wiggle room between the pellets and the wad, and clearly it looks like a little bit tighter is better for this load

1187 premier is an overbore model, so the barrel is inhibiting the wad from functioning as designed. You're basically turning the load into a standard wad shell because the wad isn't flowing down the barrel smoothly, thats probably why you're getting better results with chokes. The FliteControl wad was specifically designed for straight cylinder bore barrels.

@matttyreeoutdoors

2 күн бұрын

Well, that's not exactly true. First off, yes, Remington did make some 11-87 Premiers that were overbored slightly, but those were the "trap" and "target" models. Mine is not one of those. It has a factory 28" light contour field barrel that I have personally gauge pinned out to be a .727 bore diameter, so mine is not overbored or backbored in any way at all. Secondly, yes, the flite control wads were designed with tactical and defensive applications in mind that have little or no choke at all, and the shells do perform much better than a standard buckshot load would in those applications. However, based on this test, choking them down a little bit definitely does not hurt the pattern one bit

The over bore on that 835 is allowing the wad to tilt or wobble on its way up the bore to the muzzle, just like firing a slug through over an bored shotgun. That makes it act like standard buckshot through your chokes because the wad isnt able to function as designed.

@user-sp9hy8tq4j

2 ай бұрын

Correct! So polishing the chamber would make it worse

40 yards is a great distance for me. Im doing property protection with my shotgun not home defense. So the longer distance information is more important to me.

@matttyreeoutdoors

6 ай бұрын

These shells would absolutely do the job. It looks like either the modified or full choke would work great for you

@BBEEAATTNNGGUU

2 ай бұрын

Same here. It's very hard to find longer range 12 gauge buckshot videos! I was very happy to see this one.

@user-sp9hy8tq4j

2 ай бұрын

What is property protection?

@Trevor118

2 ай бұрын

@@user-sp9hy8tq4j property protection for me is my small cattle farm. I use a shotgun for varmint and predator eradication.

awesome video. I saw someone get the best result with Mod Choke as well with and without flight control

@matttyreeoutdoors

7 ай бұрын

Thanks! There are so many opinions out there and nobody can seem to agree on what works best, so I decided to actually test it for myself and see what works and what doesn't

The Remington 3” 000 pattern very well out of my weatherby too. With a trulock deerstroyer choke.

@matttyreeoutdoors

3 ай бұрын

We just recently tested that shell and saw some pretty good results. Check it out if you're interested!

If you discard single flyers - you get the best pattern by far with full choke. If you were drone defending - that's what you would want. And I was hoping you would pull back to see longer ranges. But this is pretty definitive - so thanks a lot.

@matttyreeoutdoors

Ай бұрын

I definitely would like to do some more in depth testing with them at some point soon, but either way, we definitely saw some good results!

With improved choke could see the 9th pellet near the white dot. 2 almost in the same hole.

I have never seen the fed flight control here in Australia but i mostly use an italian OO buck called RC4, it patterns very consistant for me out of my turkish shotgun. White box winchester buck is everywhere but it has 1/3 flyers which is annoying. Full choke all the way, my barrel is a 20inch barrel

@matttyreeoutdoors

2 ай бұрын

I might have to look into that to see if I can get some of those shells to test out

With a Fab Arms 12 ga the best pattern was with modified followed with IC..

@matttyreeoutdoors

7 ай бұрын

It seems like modified is a pretty safe bet across the board for these flight control loads

Nothing like a ginger in a camo Johndeer hat . From one ginger to the other keep on man .

@matttyreeoutdoors

5 ай бұрын

Haha, thanks!

I think the improved cylinder shot might have had either a flyer or 2 in same hole with I think happened

@matttyreeoutdoors

8 ай бұрын

It definitely didn't have 2 in the same hole, I checked for that. So you're probably right with there being a couple flyers. Either way, not a bad pattern at all

@shaneiveson517

8 ай бұрын

@@matttyreeoutdoors not at all

I've seen a box of 5 going for around $20 at the local show. That's ridiculous even though at a hunting range of 40 yards the way they patterned. I personally would try to find a aftermarket choke specifically for buckshot and just use the plain old economical loads and save money in the long run.

@matttyreeoutdoors

6 ай бұрын

I think I paid about 14 bucks for this box. I definitely get what you're saying though. If you're gonna be hunting at out to 40 yards, a lot of the cheaper loads will get the job done as well

If someone is stuck with a cyl gun w no choke tube threads then FliteControl is the way to go if you think that targets at a range of over 20 yd might be encountered

@matttyreeoutdoors

5 ай бұрын

Yeah, if all you had was a cylinder bore, flight control would probably be your best bet at those slightly longer ranges

Try to find some 8 pellet for testing. 9 in flitecontrol tends to have a flier. I bet youd be pleasantly surprised

@matttyreeoutdoors

8 ай бұрын

I'll take a look around and see what I can find

@user-sp9hy8tq4j

2 ай бұрын

They don’t make 8 pellet 00 2 3/4

@sjambok1

2 ай бұрын

@@user-sp9hy8tq4j ...are you suuure about thay

@TheDiegoKidd

Ай бұрын

Hornady Critical Defense is 8 pellet with a flite control wad

@MB-jg4tr

3 күн бұрын

​@@user-sp9hy8tq4jFederal does indeed make an 8pellet FliteControl 00Buck, and it's 2 pellet per row holds a better pattern than the 3 per row stack 9pellet load. But it's very hard to come across these days. Hornady makes a similar 8pellet 2 stack, a critical defense load with nearly identical wad. It has higher velocity, but isn't as good patterning in my tests.

It's hard to find those buckshot loads with the flight control

@matttyreeoutdoors

8 ай бұрын

I haven't seen them in big box stores for a few years now, but I can find them from time to time in some of my small local stores

@TimothyBath

4 ай бұрын

Order directly from federals website.

3 pellets on target wins it for me

@matttyreeoutdoors

5 ай бұрын

3 pellets is definitely enough to do the job in most scenarios

Full was the best

@matttyreeoutdoors

8 ай бұрын

None of the chokes were terrible options, but personally I think I like the modified choke. The full choke was definitely a good pattern as well though