Sonny, I understand the problem with buckshot spread. Many moons ago I had an on the job shooting in which the bad guy shot at me with a 3" .12 gauge turkey load of #4's from about 7 yards. It sounds crazy but I never heard his shot and could actually see the shot/wad exit the barrel and wobble like a badmitten shuttlecock high and wide of me seated in my patrol car. His shot went right over the front window/roof junction. I acclerated my car and took advantage of a huge oak tree to stop behind. My "partner" took off up the street and stopped about two blocks away, but, at least he did two things for me. He got on the radio and yelled for help, and, he left the shotgun in the rack in the car. I shot my attacker at 22 yards when he leveled his Mossberg pump at me again after he'd pumped another shell up. I was using a standard Remington 870P with 18" inch cylinder bore barrel with bead sight and shooting barricade position from behind the tree. Our issue load was Winchester 2 3/4" 9 pellet 00 Buck and five of the nine struck the bad guy. Fight over. Not sure where the other four 00 Buck went. These new "tactical buck" loads seem to be performing to a new level. As I said, 10"-12" total spread @ 25 YARDS for the TAP load from an 18" cylinder bore 870! There is some new technology in wads being developed such as the Flight Control and another called the CHOKE wad that is giving the typical open choked police shotgun nearly double the range with buckshot. As for slugs only from the gauge, that doesn't make sense to me. Why saddle the officer with a heavy recoiling, less accurate longgun with limited magazine capacity, limited range, that is harder to get back in to action for reloads? Why take away the ability to use the variety of shotgun loads from Less Lethal beanbag, ceramic breaching, small shot for pest/vermin, buckshot and finally slug loads? The proper utility of a patrol shotgun is hard to match. That was one of the problems with L.A.P.D. during the North Holloywood bank robbery in which the bad guys wore the serious body armor and carried AK's with the 75 round drum magazines. L.A.P.D. only issued 00 Buck rounds for their shotguns. A few slugs placed in the right spot, or in the right way, may have prevented the need for police to loot the local gunstore for AR-15 rifles and ammo that they had never sighted in or shot before. IMHO you gotta tap the total potential of the shotgun to realize it's true versatility and usefulness. If I were to issue a longgun firing single projectiles then a magazine fed carbine/rifle of some mid-caliber centerfire cartridge would be my choice. Personally, I don't know if I understand or like the concept.
crapshoot,
Many choke tubes have some wad stripping feature. Kick's ported chokes accomplishes the same thing with the porting vents. Other companies have similar designs. From what I understand it's a worthwhile venture. BTW, the new Federal Flight Control wad is designed to stay WITH and ENCOMPASS the shot to hold it together and protect it from venturing apart. Federal specifically warns against using a choke tube with any such wad stripping feature or ports. Early word on their new turkey and tactical buckshot loads using this wad seem very promising. As I said, I'll be testing a 8 pellet 000 Buck load next week and am looking forward to seeing how it performs. The Flight Control wad opens from the BACK to slow and seperate, instead of the front as wad's have done for years.
Another side note just FYI. Kick's use to offer the ability to try different diameters with no cost if not satisfied. In other words, say you wanted to try a .670" for your Hevi-Shot T's and it didn't quite suit you. You could send it back for an exchange of another diameter choke for no charge. Do this until satisfied or you hit the sweet spot. I don't know if they'll still do this, however, a few years ago that was the deal. That takes the risk out of venturing into the custom choke arena.
One other note, I've heard tell of Remington bringing out a new Hevi-Shot No. Four Buck load as a companion to the now available 00 Buck. That might be an interesting coyote killer. If it'll outpattern existing loads? I guess time will tell.
