I had a very interesting range experience with "1900 fps" federal barnes expanders this morning. Before I get into it, I should lay a bit of background.
I have never tried to shoot 200 yards with these slugs personally. Rather my belief that they will not shoot that far came from my brother who shot several of his last winter through my gun. He was with a buddy, shooting at a suspended 12" metal circle/plate target paced off at 200 yards and his buddy said they were hitting the ground low and short of the target. I took their word as my brother is a very experienced shooter, but wanted to see it for myself.
I only had 5 shots. I tried to buy more, but no one around has any yet. My plans were to shoot 2 at 100 to verify my scope was still on, 1 at 150 and 2 at 200. Target was a wooden frame with pink insulation board and a paper grid target with a cross of electrical tape.
First things first. Federal advertises these as a 1900 fps load. From what I've read, this rating is arrived at from a polished smooth bore barrel under perfect lab conditions. They may shoot several hundered and pick the 10 best for their average. Additionally a variance of 50 fps in a lot is acceptable. Factor in this variance, a 24" rifled barrel, I was anxious to see what the chrony had to say with my real world conditions of 85*, normal humidity and a varying 5-10 mph cross breeze.
Chrony average was 1700 fps, with individual shots between 1680 and 1720. I averaged a full 200 fps less than advertised. Disappointing to say the least. I wonder how many people Federal think hunt deer in a lab with a polished 30" smoothbore
Now for the accuracy. I had several things working against me. One was I was crunched for time. I had arranged to meet my brother there who was going to have everything set up and ready. Right before I left, I got a call and had an emergency meeting that would only give me an hour. I drove out, and beat my brother there
Lost several minutes getting set up. He had forgotten a chair/bucket, his bipod (that fits my gun rather nicely ) and all the usual comforts of bench rest shooting. I quickly stepped off and moved the target to 100 yards, only to find out the nails that were supposed to be in the foam to hold the paper target were missing. Back to the truck, came up empty Grabbed a few twigs, and went back downrange and stuck the target to the foam. Back to the bench, huffing and puffing, squatting with my rest a hard gun case with a soft gun case rolled up on it.
Stared through the scope, the target looked way out there. Finally settled in, first shot was touching the 1/2 dollar red center (brother had a spotting scope set up). Next shot, was about 3" away and a bit low, but I felt I pulled it. Told my brother that I was going to buy his 3x9 as my 1.5x4.5 was going to cut it for distance shooting.
I went downrange to move the target to 150, huffed it back in a hurry and my brother is laughing. In my haste I'd failed to check, and my scope was only on 1.5. Crap! Moved it to 4.5, much better, even at 150 yards. Settled in, hit 3" low and about 2" left. I was not playing the windage, shot felt good. Huffed it back out to move the target to 200 yards, huffed it back, set up to shoot.
I decided to play the wind as it had picked up a bit. The first 100 yards was in the wind, last 100 was protected down a lane between corn fields. I remembered the windage I played with yesterday, and aimed dead on horizontally but outside the frame vertically. Settled in and shot. Dust kicked up a good 25 yards past the target, but I missed it completely. Didn't look like the wind had much affect on the shot. Lined up for a second shot, stayed inside the frame, shot felt really good, heard the WAP! and saw the dust fly past the target the same distance away as the first shot.
Walked down to recover the target. Shot hit right on line vertically from my aimpoint, and about 8" low. I'll be danged. These slugs do go 200 yards, no problem.
I quizzed my brother some more, and we decided his buddy must have bad depth perception, as he was aiming center mass on a 12" circle. Shots were probably dropping right under it and the dirt was kicking up behind the target, not in front like he thought.
Some things I learned.
1- Federal is full of crap.
2- These slugs will shoot 200 yards. However, you have to know the tragectory and have a range finder or be very good at distance estimation and have perfect conditions to attempt to do so on live game.
3- I need more magnification. A Bushnell 3x9x50 will soon be sitting atop my gun
4- The CCS loads are looking very very attractive right now. I just hope my gun shoots them accurately like the Federal Barnes.
5- When you're in a hurry, reschedule, although I made it to my meeting only 5 minutes late
I did recover one of the sabots downrange. It had seperated evenly, but I was shocked at it's design. The petals go all the way to the base, not stopping above the gas seal like you see with ML sabots. The base is much thinner than I expected it to be.
I have never tried to shoot 200 yards with these slugs personally. Rather my belief that they will not shoot that far came from my brother who shot several of his last winter through my gun. He was with a buddy, shooting at a suspended 12" metal circle/plate target paced off at 200 yards and his buddy said they were hitting the ground low and short of the target. I took their word as my brother is a very experienced shooter, but wanted to see it for myself.
I only had 5 shots. I tried to buy more, but no one around has any yet. My plans were to shoot 2 at 100 to verify my scope was still on, 1 at 150 and 2 at 200. Target was a wooden frame with pink insulation board and a paper grid target with a cross of electrical tape.
First things first. Federal advertises these as a 1900 fps load. From what I've read, this rating is arrived at from a polished smooth bore barrel under perfect lab conditions. They may shoot several hundered and pick the 10 best for their average. Additionally a variance of 50 fps in a lot is acceptable. Factor in this variance, a 24" rifled barrel, I was anxious to see what the chrony had to say with my real world conditions of 85*, normal humidity and a varying 5-10 mph cross breeze.
Chrony average was 1700 fps, with individual shots between 1680 and 1720. I averaged a full 200 fps less than advertised. Disappointing to say the least. I wonder how many people Federal think hunt deer in a lab with a polished 30" smoothbore
Now for the accuracy. I had several things working against me. One was I was crunched for time. I had arranged to meet my brother there who was going to have everything set up and ready. Right before I left, I got a call and had an emergency meeting that would only give me an hour. I drove out, and beat my brother there
Lost several minutes getting set up. He had forgotten a chair/bucket, his bipod (that fits my gun rather nicely ) and all the usual comforts of bench rest shooting. I quickly stepped off and moved the target to 100 yards, only to find out the nails that were supposed to be in the foam to hold the paper target were missing. Back to the truck, came up empty Grabbed a few twigs, and went back downrange and stuck the target to the foam. Back to the bench, huffing and puffing, squatting with my rest a hard gun case with a soft gun case rolled up on it. Stared through the scope, the target looked way out there. Finally settled in, first shot was touching the 1/2 dollar red center (brother had a spotting scope set up). Next shot, was about 3" away and a bit low, but I felt I pulled it. Told my brother that I was going to buy his 3x9 as my 1.5x4.5 was going to cut it for distance shooting.
I went downrange to move the target to 150, huffed it back in a hurry and my brother is laughing. In my haste I'd failed to check, and my scope was only on 1.5. Crap! Moved it to 4.5, much better, even at 150 yards. Settled in, hit 3" low and about 2" left. I was not playing the windage, shot felt good. Huffed it back out to move the target to 200 yards, huffed it back, set up to shoot.
I decided to play the wind as it had picked up a bit. The first 100 yards was in the wind, last 100 was protected down a lane between corn fields. I remembered the windage I played with yesterday, and aimed dead on horizontally but outside the frame vertically. Settled in and shot. Dust kicked up a good 25 yards past the target, but I missed it completely. Didn't look like the wind had much affect on the shot. Lined up for a second shot, stayed inside the frame, shot felt really good, heard the WAP! and saw the dust fly past the target the same distance away as the first shot.
Walked down to recover the target. Shot hit right on line vertically from my aimpoint, and about 8" low. I'll be danged. These slugs do go 200 yards, no problem.
I quizzed my brother some more, and we decided his buddy must have bad depth perception, as he was aiming center mass on a 12" circle. Shots were probably dropping right under it and the dirt was kicking up behind the target, not in front like he thought.
Some things I learned.
1- Federal is full of crap.
2- These slugs will shoot 200 yards. However, you have to know the tragectory and have a range finder or be very good at distance estimation and have perfect conditions to attempt to do so on live game.
3- I need more magnification. A Bushnell 3x9x50 will soon be sitting atop my gun
4- The CCS loads are looking very very attractive right now. I just hope my gun shoots them accurately like the Federal Barnes.
5- When you're in a hurry, reschedule, although I made it to my meeting only 5 minutes late
I did recover one of the sabots downrange. It had seperated evenly, but I was shocked at it's design. The petals go all the way to the base, not stopping above the gas seal like you see with ML sabots. The base is much thinner than I expected it to be.
