Spartan brand buckshot

[Willie Lowman]

I picked up a case of this stuff recently simply because it was less than a dollar a shell.

I put 50 shells through my new Benelli M1014. Went home to clean it and had never in my life see such fowling in the barrel. Thick black crud. I ran wet patches and it barely touched it. Patches came out black with silver flecks on them. I'm guessing lead fowling. After a full hour of regular cleaning methods there was still a bunch of crud in the end of the barrel by the choke. I resorted to extreme measures... I coated the inside of the barrel with solvent then I chucked the brush rod into my drill and ran it at high speed for about 5 minutes. Flakes of crud came out of the muzzle. The drops of solvent that ran out had a silver hue to them. Finally I ran a couple wet patches (that came out black) and the spots were no longer visible in the barrel.

I have never fired such a dirty round through any shotgun. I have never had to use a drill to break up chunks from the inside of in my bore.

On top of being by far the dirtiest shells I have ever fired they patterned like crap.

I would not recommend to anyone Spartan brand buckshot.

 

[Virginian]

Many buckshot loads did that before shotcups, but most people were hunting and rarely fired more than 2 or 3 rounds.

 

[dahermit]

Could it be plastic shot cup fouling?

Several years ago my Browning SxS barrels were fouled badly. Hoppie's #9 had no effect. I switched to Shooter's Choice (I think that is what it was), and the plastic fouling turned to mush, wrinkled up and came out on a dry patch. I stopped using Hoppie's after that.

 

[musicmatty]

Great post and thanks for sharing this info! With a shortage of ammunition over the last two years, I’ve tried a few off brands myself. Needless to say, I’ve had the same results with heavy fouling and no accuracy.

Fortunately, shotgun ammunition is starting to become plentiful once again with name brands… I really prefer Winchester and Federal. It’s my understanding, that there is a resin that is used in the plastic shot cup to help resist heat and melting which causes fouling. I think we can now see that good shot cup ammo is going to cost a little more. Also I should note, I only noticed fowling when shooting several rounds of slugs. Yesterday I shot 30 rounds of slugs… All of which were Winchester and federal. When cleaning the shotgun last night, there was very minimal fouling. I also use the cordless drill with the bore brush and it always Makes the barrel look like glass afterwards.

Here’s a picture from yesterday shooting 5 slugs open sights bench rested at 50 yards using Federal 2-3/4 1oz…1610fps. The shotgun is a Winchester model 120 ranger with a smooth slug barrel (rifle sights) *** this ammo kicks like a mule***