Federal FLITECONTROL 00 Buckshot, Tactical and Hunting Versions

[John Kleespies]

I've live-fire tested Federal's FLITECONTROL 00 Buckshot in both its lightest Tactical (1145fps, 8 pellet) and heaviest Hunting (1325fps, 9 pellet) iterations, which should provide a usable span of data to hint at the performance(s) of all the FLITECONTROL options in between. Tactical produced the tightest pattern of any buckshot I've tested (slightly over 4 inches at 16 yards) while Hunting posts a very respectable 7.28" at 16 yards. Of particular note, Tactical's lightweight payload and low velocity produce a shockingly light recoil. On the downside, I do see some reliability issues with Federal shotgun shells in general, but that's a bit too complicated for a 30-second review, so I'll leave that to be read on my full review, if so interested. Below is a side-by-side image of "standard" buckshot producing a 16" spread at 16 yards, versus FLITECONTROL Tactical's 4" spread at the same distance:

 

[Ron Dan]

I've live-fire tested Federal's FLITECONTROL 00 Buckshot in both its lightest Tactical (1145fps, 8 pellet) and heaviest Hunting (1325fps, 9 pellet) iterations, which should provide a usable span of data to hint at the performance(s) of all the FLITECONTROL options in between. Tactical produced the tightest pattern of any buckshot I've tested (slightly over 4 inches at 16 yards) while Hunting posts a very respectable 7.28" at 16 yards. Of particular note, Tactical's lightweight payload and low velocity produce a shockingly light recoil. On the downside, I do see some reliability issues with Federal shotgun shells in general, but that's a bit too complicated for a 30-second review, so I'll leave that to be read on my full review, if so interested. Below is a side-by-side image of "standard" buckshot producing a 16" spread at 16 yards, versus FLITECONTROL Tactical's 4" spread at the same distance:
View attachment 4690

What gun setup was used in testing for the two loads?

 

[John Kleespies]

18.5” cylinder bore Remington 870 with a Vang Comp barrel. I tested the FC Hunting load before and after the VC modification, with a 10% change after, so modify my numbers by 10% if you don’t have a VCS mod. (Sorry, covered that in the big review but didn’t mention it in the 30 second. That would have put me at, like, 37 seconds, and I didn’t want to risk disqualification…)