Shotgun ammo for trap?

[DaveTN]

I have never been much of a shotgun fan. I sold them all off a few years ago as I was getting older and didn’t enjoy the punishment anymore. All my experience is mostly with defensive shotguns with rifled slug barrels and rifle sights, using 00 buck or slugs.

I have some friends and family members that are into trap, skeet and sporting clays. I thought I would get a shotgun and give this is a try. So last week I got a Remington 1100 competition synthetic 12GA. It has a 30” barrel and comes with 5 chokes.

I thought I would start with trying trap. So what’s the best ammo to use? I was in Wal-Mart today and they had 100 round packs of Federal Field & Target for $21.74. That seemed pretty cheap. They aren’t even listed on Federals website. Is this stuff any good?

What do you guys recommend?

[superduty]

Thats the same gun my son uses on his high school trap team. 

I've never seen any problems with rhe Federal- it should be fine for your needs. What's a little more important might be shot details, like #7.5 or #8, and 7/8oz shot or maybe 1 1/8 oz shot. Its really what you prefer, but Google 'shotgun shot size' and you'll find charts that show the differences. For example, one of those has something like 150 more 'pellets', although they are smaller that the other option. Your call.

May I suggest using the modified choke for trap?

 

Edited August 28, 2016 by superduty
Detail

[Garufa]

That stuff at WalMart should be fine.  I've used it before for the occasional sporting clays and did as well as anyone else.

Edited August 28, 2016 by Garufa

[peejman]

2 minutes ago, Garufa said:

That stuff at WalMart should be fine.  I've used that and the Federal 100 count boxes for the occasional sporting clays and did as well as anyone else.

Yep. 

[1madss]

Honestly what ever 2 3/4 dram 1 1/8 shells that are the cheapest. I mostly use Remington Gun Clubs or lately I like the Clever T1 shells. Cheap and break targets like AAs in my BT-99.

My daughters 1100 Classic Trap hated WInchester Super Targets (white box). Fail to eject far too many times.

[chances R]

I've settled on the 1oz loads yrs ago.  At 16 yd trap 8 or 7 1/2 is fine.  At that yardage the federal are fine.  Rio has a similar load and cost and same with Gun Club.    Many a target has died to the 1100s

[musicman]

I agree on the idea that anything cheap is fine.  EXCEPT the Winchester bulk stuff.  That is the only shell that consistently gives people problems.  It works fine in one of my shotguns, but sticks and hangs up in 3 others (a 500, an Ithaca 37, and an Excell Auto) whereas literally no other shell gives me trouble.

From Wally those Federal packs are my favorite.  Sometimes Academy runs their Monarch brand or the Rio shells for $5 box, which is $19.96/100.  Also, they include the 10 cent per box ammo tax in the price, whereas wally ADDS it to the price of the ammo.  :/

[Will]

If you are serious get the trap loads the are chilled shot and made for trap/ skeet or have someone load some for you. The game loads work OK most of the time but when they get little out there the chilled shot will not flatten and bounce off without breaking.  An example is we were shooting in a quarry and

had a large pile of sand as a backstop. We had a couple buddies shooting 12&20 with target/dove loads and they were dusting the bird at 30-40

yards but not breaking them. Most of them landed without breaking in the sand pile and we noticed they were taking 2-5 hits without breaking.

[shotgunshooter]

Factory: Rios, Remington Gun Clubs, and Winchester Super Targets.
Reloads: Remington STS, Win AA(old style), and Remington Gun Clubs.
Shoot whatever you can find that's cheap. For trap I shoot: 2 3/4 dr 1 1/8 oz #8 (singles, handicap because of my yardage, and 2nd shot doubles) and 2 3/4 dr 1 oz #8 (1st shot doubles).

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[GKar]

Several folks I shoot with use Wally World Federals with no problem at all.  Not sure how well those hulls might reload, if you are ever inclined to go that route though.  Remmie Gun Club/STS/Premier will reload a bunch of times before giving up the ghost - I've got some Gun Club hulls that I've reloaded 7-8 times at least and they are still good.

I've migrated to shooting 7/8 oz at 1275 fps for singles and first shot doubles, and 1 oz at 1275 for handicap and second shot doubles (both using size 7 1/2 shot).  Saves significant wear and tear on these old shoulders.