The shotgun used for this session was a typical home defense style Mossberg 500 with a smooth, clean, 18-inch cylinder bore barrel.
Now, don't go getting all "gun geek" on me if my range results with this load don't match yours. Not all guns are equal, and production runs of ammo can be different.
All target distances for this range session were set via the Meggitt Training System; there was no guessing.
Don't suffer an anxiety attack over the "Law Enforcement Ammunition" label on the box; this ammo is available to the public. The "tactical" part is the lower recoil, mostly from having eight double ought buckshot pellets instead of nine, and the use of Federal's Flight Control Wad for better (tighter) shot grouping. I'm not a "tactical guy." The "practical guy" inside of me found a couple of hundred rounds of this stuff very cheap years ago; since
GTR Sporting Club shooting range in Waukegan allows shotguns, I have an opportunity to burn some of it from the inventory just for fun.
The first shot was an attempt at a head-shot at sixty-feet and the shot grouping fell apart; two pellets missed the head of the silhouette to the left, and two pellets missed to the right, two pellets were totally missing, one pellet hit a shoulder, and one hit the head. The large hole in the head is the shot wad; one (or more) of the missing pellets may have been covered by where the wad hit.
I lowered my aim a bit for the second shot, which was at fifty-feet. While all eight pellets were in the black, the group was loose. The shot wad did not whack the target this time.
The third shot was at forty-feet, which looks to be the outside-distance for an acceptable group using this particular gun with this particular load.
The fourth shot was at thirty-feet and again the closer distance provided a tightening of the group, but peculiarly there were three pellets missing, perhaps covered by the hole made by the wad.
I did not see any point in bringing a target closer than twenty-feet, so I used that distance for a final five-shot-volley as fast as I could rack the slide and squeeze the trigger. Other than to say that Federal LE13300 is very easy on the shoulder and provides easy recovery during rapid fire, this final exercise had little scientific value... but it sure was a whole lot of fun!
