What’s The Effective Range of Buckshot?

If you asked someone to list the downsides of shotguns, you’d very quickly get to the limited range issue. Shotguns have limited range, especially when firing shot. Slugs can extend the range but still can’t reach the same range as 5.56. Shotguns lack range, but how far can they remain effective? Specifically, how far can they remain effective with buckshot? That’s what I set out to figure out today.

This isn’t all that important for home defense. Most home defense encounters are from 0 to 10 yards. At those ranges, a load of buckshot remains about the size of a fist. Let’s say the zombies have risen or the aliens have invaded, and all you have is a shotgun. How far can we engage those threats?

To define the effective range, we have to determine what effective means. The effective range doesn’t mean how far a single pellet can move while remaining lethal. There are a couple of components to effective range determination, and one is accuracy. How far can we accurately fire the load of buckshot? Second, how much of the load will hit the target? I think at least 50% of the pellets must hit the target to be effective.

How Far Can Buckshot Shoot?

The zombies are closing in slowly. Your shotgun is loaded, but you’re paralyzed by indecision. How far can you throw that hull full of lead? You need to know! Sadly, the answer isn’t clear. It just depends—on the gun, the ammo, and whether your barrel is choked.

The effective range of the shotgun is determined by its pattern. The term “pattern” refers to how wide your buckshot spreads at certain ranges. The closer you are to the target, the tighter the pattern is on average. There used to be this rule of thumb that you get one inch of spread per yard, but that does not apply to the world of shotguns today.

Some guns just pattern tighter than other guns. For example, the Mossberg 590A1 patterns are tighter than most cylinder-bore guns. That’s likely due to its thicker barrel and its multiple attachment points. Every gun patterns a little differently, so you’ll need to know how your gun patterns with your chosen load.

Further, different loads pattern differently. Things like the wad, the buffer material, and even velocity can affect how tight a shotgun load pattern is. Many shotgun shells are like alchemist formulas, with different combinations promising tighter patterns.

Loads like Federal FliteControl are designed to provide an extremely tight pattern. FliteControl uses a special wad that contains the shot until the entire load leaves the barrel. The wad then brakes and releases the buckshot load.

Finally, at the end of a shotgun barrel sits a choke. Chokes determine the level of constriction the load meets as it leaves the barrel. A tighter choke can pattern a buckshot loader tighter at longer ranges.

Let’s Do Science

With all this in mind, let’s go to the range with some buckshot loads to give you an idea of the effective range of buckshot. I can’t possibly test every buckshot load on the market, so I grabbed three that represent a good swath of the market.

I used a nine pellet 00 buckshot load from Monarch. It’s cheap and very basic. I also grabbed a No. 4 load of buckshot from Federal. It’s a hunting line of ammo and provides 27 pellets of buckshot. Lastly, I grabbed my favorite buckshot ever, Federal Flitecontrol. My shotgun of choice was the Remington 870 with a cylinder bore.

Ten Yards and Beyond

This represents one of the most common defensive shotguns on the market. It’s a plain Jane Remington that has been made millions of times over. Before expanding distances, I shot a control load for each round at 10 yards.

At the top is the Federal FliteControl load, which looks like one big hole. Below that is the No.4 load, and the Monarch 00 load is at the bottom. It all looks pretty good. We moved back to 15 yards from there but didn’t see a huge difference.

The FliteControl began to deviate from one big hole to a more traditional pattern. The No. 4 buckshot load spread from one end of the target to the other. The 00 buckshot load grew just a hair as well.

Out to 25 Yards and Beyond

We backed up to 25 yards from 15 yards, and at 25 yards, the No. 4 buckshot was eliminated. We landed less than half the pellets on target. Some pellets completely missed the FBI Q target. I’m not just talking about the Coke bottle but the entire piece of paper. The pellets also covered the entire target, so it wasn’t just a thrown shot.

Our El Cheapo 00 Monarch buckshot covered the target from the neck to the lower abdomen. Every pellet hit the threat, and the dispersion would certainly create a ton of wound channels in a bad guy or zombie.

The Federal FliteControl landed a decent-sized pattern almost dead center in the chest. It’s a great pattern in this range and would be very effective. It’s also responsible. We have to account for every pellet fired, and if it’s patterning this tight at 25 yards, it’s quite safe.

We backed up to 35 yards and tried the Monarch 00 and Federal FliteControl. The 00 Monarch buckshot landed seven out of nine pellets, with one missed pellet going high right and one going low right. Every FliteControl pellet hits the target and spreads horizontally across the target’s chest.

Out to 50 Yards

Military publications would have you believe that a shotgun’s effective range is 50 yards. With military buckshot, that’s pretty generous. Only the Monarch and FliteControl made it to this range.

I tried the Monarch 00 first, and it was pretty bad. It’s ineffective at 50 yards. Three pellets hit the entire target, but not a single one hit the Coke bottle. Two pellets hit the grey portion of the target on the left side, and one hit the grey portion on the right side.

The Federal FliteControl did a bit better. This is a nine-pellet load. My favorite is an eight-pellet load, but I’m not tossing those precious eight-pellet loads down range. I used the more common nine-pellet load. Of those nine-pellet loads, four pellets hit the Coke bottle, and one hit the grey.

Technically, four out of nine isn’t half. With that said, I’d argue that it’s effective out to 50 yards, but it is still an effective load. I wouldn’t take it further than 50 yards and expect results. As expected, Federal FliteControl does the best out of any load at longer ranges.

Where Spread Helps You

The spread of a buckshot load can be beneficial at longer ranges. If your pattern is wider, hitting a moving target is easier. Typically, I hunt coyotes with a rifle, but I have a shotgun with No. 4 Buckshot to hit moving coyotes at closer ranges. That spread is beneficial if it’s dark or the target’s moving.

For the average gun owner, this won’t be a concern unless we get those terrifying running zombies from 28 Days Later or you’re hunting Coyotes. If you want to maximize the range of your buckshot, grab a load of Federal FliteControl and you can drive it out to 50 yards. Beyond that, you might feel a bit underwhelmed.