Let’s talk about training ammo for shotguns.
I’m a big guy, and I love to shoot. It doesn’t bother me a bit when a 12-gauge shotgun gives my shoulder a little loving from recoil… at least for a while. Having said that, not everybody feels the same way as I do and, frankly, after three or four boxes of full-recoil shells, I don’t really feel that way very much either.
In addition to the normal recoil of a 12-gauge pump, add in the fact that I’m training with a 16 1/2 inch barreled riot gun that kicks like the proverbial mule (especially if I’m using one that doesn’t have a quality recoil pad on it) and training with a shotty can become a downright unpleasant experience.
With one exception, the ammo I am talking about in this article is real, pull-trigger-go-boom ammunition that can kill, so obviously all firearms safety rules apply.
Training ammo
Well, there are several things we can do to take the pain out of the training (or at least back it down a few notches), starting with ammunition choice.
Let’s get this out of the way up front. We don’t have any affiliations with any ammo manufacturers, companies, distributors or dealers, and any ammo mentioned or linked here is done strictly from experience with it. I’ve not shopped for the best prices, and if anything here interests you I suggest you do your own research to find the best deals.
There’s one thing that self-defense ammo tends to have going for it, no matter what gauge or caliber… it tends to be very high on the felt recoil curve as compared to other ammo of the same size.
Load a magazine full of 00 buckshot into a riot gun and you will know, for sure, exactly what recoil feels like.
Beyond shooting just a bit of that ammo to “get the feel for it”, however, I don’t train with it. I use either a much lighter load or I use snap caps. Let’s take a look at both of these options. I also use a smaller gauge, but that’s because we have a .410 tactical shotgun for home defense as well.
Low-recoil training ammo
There are several brands of training ammo that are specifically designed to be first and foremost low-recoil (although they are not necessarily marketed as “training ammo”)
First let’s look at one that’s designed for sporting clays, Winchester Low Recoil Target Ammunition.
Here’s what the manufacturer’s blurb says:
Winchester Low Recoil Target Ammunition was designed specifically for use in sporting clays, trap and skeet. These shotshells feature improved components and an innovative high-strength tube construction, all of which gives you more reloads and tighter patterns. AA Low Recoil Target ammunition is a lighter load proven to deliver excellent performance from a lower recoiling load. This ammunition is ideal for high-volume shooters or for new shooters.
Winchester set out to develop a line of shotgun shells specifically aimed at recoil-sensitive and high-volume shooters. In doing so, it had to be careful not to diminish performance to the extent that shooters would have to adjust shooting style to compensate for anticipated reductions in ammunition velocity. In the end, the company succeeded. And in addition to significantly less recoil, the added benefit of noticeable noise reduction was achieved.
Blurb aside, I’ve shot it and compared to full-recoil loads, there is a huge difference in the amount of recoil that you feel. I haven’t done a scientific test, but my shoulder knows it’s true.
WinLite
Another contender in the “let’s save my shoulder” contest are the WinLite 2-3/4″ AA Low-Recoil shells.
I’ve only shot about 50 rounds of these, but I have bought a case after shooting the first couple of boxes I bought up.
I’m going to borrow from Cabela’s writer Dan Carlson because he explains it well. You can buy the ammo from them if you like, or elsewhere:
Let’s compare the new WinLite 2-3/4″ AA Low-Recoil shells with standard 12-gauge 2-3/4″ Winchester AA shells. A standard No. 8-shot target shell with a payload of 1 oz. throws the shot from the barrel at around 1,260 feet per second. The WinLite shell load uses about 0.9 oz. of No. 8 shot and has a muzzle velocity of 980 feet per second. So if WinLite shot is slower in getting to the target, where’s the payoff?
You have to remember that, though slower, WinLite is still shooting BBs at a speed that would cover three football fields in one second if it could shoot that far, or one football field in a third of a second. Now consider that the average clay target is significantly less than half that distance from a shooter when broken and you realize that 300 fps less may sound like a lot, but when talking about shotgun range targets, the pattern is still reaching the clays in a sixth of a second or less.
Winchester claims the recoil of WinLite is half that of standard AA loads. I shot several of both kinds of shells side by side from two types of Browning shotgun, a Hunter Elite semiauto and an over/under Cynergy. Sam Grothe, a fellow outdoor writer, did the same. We were pleased with the performance of the WinLite load, and neither of us had to adjust our shooting form to break clay pigeons, but we both estimated a reduction of about 40% in felt recoil during our unscientific test. That’s still a substantial reduction in kick without sacrificing results.
Reducing recoil by reducing gauge/caliber
In my recent articles about cheap guns to shoot to keep preppers trained, I talk about guns that shoot inexpensive and low-recoil ammunition.
One gun that I didn’t mention, even though it’s smaller, cheaper and much less brutal to shoot is a .410 gauge tactical shotgun. Why? Because .410 isn’t a particularly cheap firearm to shoot.
In fact, because of the economics of scale, .410 ammo tends to be significantly more expensive per round than .12 gauge is.
One way around this, and to use this low recoil rounds as training ammo, is to buy .410 ammo in bulk, like this offer for 250 Rounds of .410 Ammo by Fiocchi – 1/2 ounce #7 1/2 shot.
It’s actually a decent round, I’ve bought 250 rounds of the stuff and shot off four boxes. Low recoil, but pretty standard fair for .410. Still not a cheap round, but it’s on par with a lot of .12 gauge price wise. It certainly competes well in price with the shells mentioned above.
Snap Caps
There are all different types of Snap Caps, or inert shells that cannot go bang.
I personally use and recommend A-Zoom caps, like these, for training.
They are particularly useful in working things like reloading drills, and in doing drills like room-clearing and for any type of maintenance training. They make guns safe to dry fire, and work particularly well in pump shotguns.
One further advantage of these shells is that they also make fine small-game rounds.