Ballistic performance of buckshot @ 50yrds

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John Ervin at Brass Fetcher Ballistic Testing is a friend, and I have a lot of respect for his research. We talked about this project a while back, figuring out how to get reliable data, and it’s cool to see the results.

The whole vid is worth watching, but if you’re looking for just the results, skip to about 7:00. For his conclusions based on the results (with some excellent advice), skip to about 9:30:




Bottom line: use at least 00 buckshot, if you want it to be effective out to 50 yards. Know your gun, and test it to see what loads perform best at that distance.

Jim
James Downey

http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/ - handgun cartridge research
http://www.stcybiswell.com/ - my latest novel
http://www.legacybookbindery.com/ - my professional site

Re: Ballistic performance of buckshot @ 50yrds

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Fair point. But John's primary focus is on how well different types of ammunition conforms to self-defense standards, and I have very little doubt that whoever commissioned this series of tests wanted to know about that aspect of performance.

It's much the same how most of what we do with BBTI is geared towards understanding the internal ballistics/performance of handgun ammunition. Which may be of use to handgun hunters or target shooters, but is primarily used by people wanting to know what trade-offs they are making for defensive handguns/ammunition.


Jim
James Downey

http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/ - handgun cartridge research
http://www.stcybiswell.com/ - my latest novel
http://www.legacybookbindery.com/ - my professional site

Re: Ballistic performance of buckshot @ 50yrds

4
JimDowney wrote:Fair point. But John's primary focus is on how well different types of ammunition conforms to self-defense standards, and I have very little doubt that whoever commissioned this series of tests wanted to know about that aspect of performance.

It's much the same how most of what we do with BBTI is geared towards understanding the internal ballistics/performance of handgun ammunition. Which may be of use to handgun hunters or target shooters, but is primarily used by people wanting to know what trade-offs they are making for defensive handguns/ammunition.


Jim
Speaking of which when you BBTI guys going to get more rifle data up?
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Re: Ballistic performance of buckshot @ 50yrds

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Speaking of which when you BBTI guys going to get more rifle data up?
Well ...

Rifles are somewhat outside the scope of what we were interested in doing. As indicated in my comment above, mostly what we were curious about was handgun performance, and establishing some decent data about what trade-offs you make for different barrel lengths in different calibers, with an eye towards helping people know what to look for in a defensive handgun.

We debated a long time whether we wanted to test .223/5.56 for this very reason, eventually deciding that there was enough interest in how the AR "pistols" perform to warrant it. There's some argument for the same with AK "pistols", and we've considered that.

But beyond that, where do you draw the line? There's a pretty big range of rifle cartridges, for all kinds of different applications. And what barrel lengths do we test? Then keep in mind that we're not immune from BATFE regulations & federal law, just because we're "testing".

Also keep in mind that the vast majority of the cost of our testing comes out of our own pockets. Same with all the labor involved in conducting the tests, crunching the data, building and maintaining the website, answering questions, et cetera. It's always nice when someone kicks in a couple bucks to help offset some of the costs, but we've sunk about $50k into this so far (actual expenses), and have received maybe 2% of that in donations. So we look at the scope of any given test sequence with a fairly critical eye.

All of which isn't to say that we'll never do more testing of rifle cartridges. But I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for it.

Jim
James Downey

http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/ - handgun cartridge research
http://www.stcybiswell.com/ - my latest novel
http://www.legacybookbindery.com/ - my professional site

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