Hornady 00 Buckshot Critical Defense

[jkrispies]

I posted a full review at my website CloverSpear.com but I've live-fired and patterned Hornady's Critical Defense 00 Buckshot against multiple other buckshots (including various iterations of Federal's FLITECONTROL), and this stuff is the perfect home defense load, in my opinion... with the exception of No. 4 buckshot, if over penetration is a concern.

At 1600fps, each of its eight individual .33" and 54-grain pellets packs enough muzzle energy to put it in the pistol-caliber zone, falling between a .38spl+P and 9mm, for reference. Basically, it has the combined muzzle energy that equates to over a half-dozen 9mm shots fired at the same moment, with a few extra holes for good measure. Effective range out of my shotgun is around 25 meters, producing a shoulder-width pattern size, but will go much farther if you're good with spreading wider than the target. Recoil is stout due to the velocity, but with a Vang Comp barrel upgrade, I can shoot it all day.

The only downside is fliers are a bit wild due to the velocity (complete explanation of this phenomenon in my full review, with pattern photos and comparisons to FLITECONTROL), but it's buckshot, so dispersed pellets should be anticipated before pulling the trigger.

Personally, Critical Defese 00 Buck is my clear choice to protect my family.

The attached photo is a representative average spread size of 9-ish inches at 16 yards; typical buckshot would be 16-ish inches at this distance, more or less filling that 18" target.

 

[Ron Dan]

I posted a full review at my website CloverSpear.com but I've live-fired and patterned Hornady's Critical Defense 00 Buckshot against multiple other buckshots (including various iterations of Federal's FLITECONTROL), and this stuff is the perfect home defense load, in my opinion... with the exception of No. 4 buckshot, if over penetration is a concern.

At 1600fps, each of its eight individual .33" and 54-grain pellets packs enough muzzle energy to put it in the pistol-caliber zone, falling between a .38spl+P and 9mm, for reference. Basically, it has the combined muzzle energy that equates to over a half-dozen 9mm shots fired at the same moment, with a few extra holes for good measure. Effective range out of my shotgun is around 25 meters, producing a shoulder-width pattern size, but will go much farther if you're good with spreading wider than the target. Recoil is stout due to the velocity, but with a Vang Comp barrel upgrade, I can shoot it all day.

The only downside is fliers are a bit wild due to the velocity (complete explanation of this phenomenon in my full review, with pattern photos and comparisons to FLITECONTROL), but it's buckshot, so dispersed pellets should be anticipated before pulling the trigger.

Personally, Critical Defese 00 Buck is my clear choice to protect my family.

The attached photo is a representative average spread size of 9-ish inches at 16 yards; typical buckshot would be 16-ish inches at this distance, more or less filling that 18" target.View attachment 4304

Have you ever tried the old Hornady TAP buckshot? That stuff patterns great.

 

[jkrispies]

Have you ever tried the old Hornady TAP buckshot? That stuff patterns great.

Wow-- I'm glad you replied! TAP isn't listed on Hornady's regular website, so I didn't know about it. Googled it and discovered they have a separate "law enforcement" website. What's interesting is that Hornady doesn't have much information on the TAP page, and what's there is poorly conveyed. It looks like there's two iterations: "Light Magnum" at 1600fps and "Reduced Recoil" at 1442fps.

Does TAP use the Versatite wad??? Google AI says yes, but it's not listed on the Hornady page, which would be a bizarre oversight.

They give data on their Reduced Recoil having a phenomenally tight spread if it's correct. If that data is accurate, then (per my criteria) it would have a 77-yard maximum engagement range, which is farther than what I tested the FLITECONTROL Tactical as delivering. Thinking their Reduced Recoil is their answer to the FLITECONTROL Tactical load but it would still be over 100fps faster than the FLITECONTROL hunting load... which would be quite an accomplishment, and some (probably not me) would argue that it's the perfect shotgun load.

I'd like to know how Hornady collected their spread data. Is it an average of numerous shots, or the single best pattern achieved from many? Are fliers included? My data was collected from 15 separately patterned Critical Defense shots from the same gun, including fliers, averaging 8.96" at 16 yards measured with a laser rangefinder. I also collected all of my patterns from a "naturally shot" offhand position; I've found that if I rest the shotgun, then it shrinks the patterns.

This is precisely the reason why I've been running my data collection of buckshot loads. Way too often, I've found Internet reviewers firing one shot and calling it a valid data sample. Buckshot is waaaaay too sporadic to do that! My testing protocols (with an explanation of how fliers occur) can be found HERE.

I might try to get ahold of some Low Recoil TAP when I'm in Vegas this weekend, but I doubt that I'll have time to go to Freedom Firearms this time around; living in Kalifornia, it's unlikely that I'll be able to get any TAP here, even on special order.

For the three of you who have read this entire post, thank you for bearing through my nerd-out. As a reward, here's a pic of fliers that I've collected, showing the correlation of velocity to flier extremity from POA, also covered on my protocols page and the Hornady review. Left to right, the velocities are 1145fps, 1325fps, and 1600fps, all shot with similar wads and the same gun, same 16yd distance.

 

[Chris M]

Add me to the 4th that's interested in your "study". I ran a couple "generic" buckshot brands through my Benelli SBS this past weekend. I shouldn't have been surprised but the patterning was diverse.

 

[jkrispies]

Add me to the 4th that's interested in your "study". I ran a couple "generic" buckshot brands through my Benelli SBS this past weekend. I shouldn't have been surprised but the patterning was diverse.

Woo-hoo! It's a nerd party!!!

My Critical Defense article is HERE. Next up will be a FLITECONTROL article, just not sure if I'll do separate ones for Tactical and Hunting or combine them. If you're looking for a cheaper 00 that really surprised me with its pattern consistency, the Winchester "Military Grade" is worth trying out. I've also got good data on Federal's Power-Shok No. 4 Buckshot.

Basically what I've found so far is that "premium" buckshot (read: a high-end wad) will pattern pretty tight and consistent no matter what (ie, Vang Comp upgrade or not) but when it decides to cast a flier or two, then the degree of that flier being off-POA will be tied to the velocity. Again, look at the three targets I photoed above, if you go off the size of the main groups, they might as well have all come from the same load... until the flier is factored in.

If you want to stick with the cheaper stuff, then the Vang Comp modification really comes into play. For instance, the Winchester Military Grade tightens 25-ish% between a standard barrel and Vang Comp. When I used the really cheap crap, I achieved a 36% decrease in pattern size. The Vang Comp upgrade also encourages way better shot dispersion within the pattern. Having said all of that, the main advantage to the VCS is by far recoil reduction and muzzle jump reduction. Vang Comp is covered in my article HERE.

Buckshot choice may largely come down to how much velocity/recoil you are willing to suffer. The trade-off is that FLITECONTROL Tactical felt like I was shooting a 9mm, and it provided the best grouping that is mathematically capable of going 60+ yards while delivering all pellets onto a man-sized target... but since it's exiting at a mere 1145fps with round balls that have the ballistic coefficient of a dog toy, what's the real impact energy going to be at 60 yards?

This is why I like Critical Defense: yeah it kicks like Chuck Norris, but it also hits like Chuck Norris, and it is accurate to 25-30 yards... which is far as I'll want to shoot a shotgun anyway. Seriously, if I suspect that I'm heading to a gunfight that will extend to 30+ yards, then I'm grabbing my friggin' AR, easy choice.

 

[Al "Shifty" Schultz]

Have you ever tried the old Hornady TAP buckshot? That stuff patterns great.

We used Hornady Tap Ammo. I was assigned the shotgun on our SWAT team (designated dog catcher) and I wholeheartedly agree with @Ron Dan, Tap Ammo works great!

 

[Ron Dan]

Wow-- I'm glad you replied! TAP isn't listed on Hornady's regular website, so I didn't know about it. Googled it and discovered they have a separate "law enforcement" website. What's interesting is that Hornady doesn't have much information on the TAP page, and what's there is poorly conveyed. It looks like there's two iterations: "Light Magnum" at 1600fps and "Reduced Recoil" at 1442fps.

Does TAP use the Versatite wad??? Google AI says yes, but it's not listed on the Hornady page, which would be a bizarre oversight.

They give data on their Reduced Recoil having a phenomenally tight spread if it's correct. If that data is accurate, then (per my criteria) it would have a 77-yard maximum engagement range, which is farther than what I tested the FLITECONTROL Tactical as delivering. Thinking their Reduced Recoil is their answer to the FLITECONTROL Tactical load but it would still be over 100fps faster than the FLITECONTROL hunting load... which would be quite an accomplishment, and some (probably not me) would argue that it's the perfect shotgun load.

I'd like to know how Hornady collected their spread data. Is it an average of numerous shots, or the single best pattern achieved from many? Are fliers included? My data was collected from 15 separately patterned Critical Defense shots from the same gun, including fliers, averaging 8.96" at 16 yards measured with a laser rangefinder. I also collected all of my patterns from a "naturally shot" offhand position; I've found that if I rest the shotgun, then it shrinks the patterns.

This is precisely the reason why I've been running my data collection of buckshot loads. Way too often, I've found Internet reviewers firing one shot and calling it a valid data sample. Buckshot is waaaaay too sporadic to do that! My testing protocols (with an explanation of how fliers occur) can be found HERE.

I might try to get ahold of some Low Recoil TAP when I'm in Vegas this weekend, but I doubt that I'll have time to go to Freedom Firearms this time around; living in Kalifornia, it's unlikely that I'll be able to get any TAP here, even on special order.

For the three of you who have read this entire post, thank you for bearing through my nerd-out. As a reward, here's a pic of fliers that I've collected, showing the correlation of velocity to flier extremity from POA, also covered on my protocols page and the Hornady review. Left to right, the velocities are 1145fps, 1325fps, and 1600fps, all shot with similar wads and the same gun, same 16yd distance.
View attachment 4312

I am one of 3.

 

[Ron Dan]

We used Hornady Tap Ammo. I was assigned the shotgun on our SWAT team (designated dog catcher) and I wholeheartedly agree with @Ron Dan, Tap Ammo works great!

Heck yeah! Back when scatterguns were really appreciated!

 

[Ron Dan]

Add me to the 4th that's interested in your "study". I ran a couple "generic" buckshot brands through my Benelli SBS this past weekend. I shouldn't have been surprised but the patterning was diverse.

Did you mess with chokes?

 

[Chris M]

Did you mess with chokes?

The SBS I have doesn't have a removable choke. My 18.5in barrelled "full" size M4 does.

 

[jkrispies]

The SBS I have doesn't have a removable choke. My 18.5in barrelled "full" size M4 does.

Go as open a choke (cylinder bore) as you can. A tighter choke than cylinder will squeeze the wad and buckshot doesn’t manipulate like birdshot. It will make everything go wonky.