Shotgun shotshells

[wrath]

I have amassed a sufficient supply of non-shotgun ammunition. It's time to start hoarding some 12 gauge now that it's dropping in price.

I'm pretty new to shotguns and are pretty ignorant to them. I always thought they were stupid. I find it more entertaining running around the woods with something strapped on my leg. My cousin shoots skeet with a pretty sweet Benelli and it was fun and all but not that fun. So, it won't be to shoot clay. Until one day I decided to buy an 870 with two barrels for under $200 after rebate. And then took it outside and ran a couple boxes through chasing milk jugs around the yard. Was almost as much fun as a FMJ .303 British and a junk car.

What is the best all-around shotshell (bang for buck, with emphasis on reloading)? I noticed that a STS hull seems to go through my Lee press pretty nice. Target loads seem to have difficulty breaking a piece of printer paper at 100' and they're only barely cheaper than game loads. 1oz #6 seems to do a pretty decent job.

It's pretty easy to get Remington Game Loads for $5.50/box. 5 years ago it sold for $3.29 so that seems to be relatively reasonable. Is that the best bang for my buck? I'm talking about hoarding a lot, enough to keep the cannibals away in "The Road" for a pretty long time. It's mostly because ammunition seems to be outpacing inflation. I bought a lot of WWB 5 years ago and it's done better than any other investment I've ever made.

[TheRX7Project]

I can't believe you don't like skeet! I didn't care for it much the first time I tried it, but as I've gotten better at it, it's a lot more fun. I have yet to try sporting clays which looks even better.

If you're just looking to chase a jug/bucket/etc. around the yard you can't get much better than the game loads you're using. They're cheap, they're available almost anywhere (I get bricks from WalMart) and they don't beat the crap out of your shoulder.

As far as rounds go, birdshot (or target loads) is NOT going to stop a human or medium-sized animal. All you're going to do is wound them, with an ugly but shallow wound. You really need buckshot, or slugs, to stop someone. If you look at the ballistics gel testing, IMO your best bet is #2 buck- it has similar penetration to #00 and you get an extra pellet. The Feds recommend #4 buck, again more projectiles but not quite as much penetration. That said, I've got some 3" #00 on hand "just in case". Slugs will stop anything coming through your door, even go through some body armor.

All that aside, "the shell you want to reload" is Winchester AA shells. This is not from my experience but from everything I have read online about it. Since you already have a press it won't take long to save money, but from what I've read, shotshells are only good for 2-3 reloads typically.

[Wagonbacker9]

I'd say at 100' with a bird shot load you'd have trouble putting more than a few pellets on a piece of printer paper.

I pick up whatever target loads are cheap and do a fair amount of clay shooting with my 12ga. For putting holes in stuff, nothing really has the same effect as a slug.