Gun Digest
 

Federal Takes A Defensive Split With Force X2 Buckshot

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Rethinking the design of buckshot, Federal premium cooks up a force multiplier in defensively-angled Force X2 ammunition.

How Force X2 Is Tailored To Home Defense:

When it comes to shotgun ammo, plenty of time has been spent perfecting the payload to knock birds out of the sky.
Not so much has been invested in improving loads for home defense. Buckshot—the most popular and potent defensive shot option—remains virtually unchanged from the days it was used to harvest whitetails. Pity, given there’s a motivated segment of the American populace who’s No. 1 choice for property defense is the tried-and-true smoothbore.

Things are changing. With the release of Federal Premium’s Force X2 copper-plated 00 FX2 Buckshot those who trust their safety to shotguns now have a tailored defensive ammunition option. One that truly multiplies buckshot’s already devastating terminal ballistics.

Split through its hemisphere, Force X2 shot is designed to divide equally in half once it reaches its target, maximizing its effect. Instead of 9 buckshot pellets creating wound channels, there are 18 increasing the potential of hitting a threat-neutralizing vital and improving energy transfer. There’s a safety factor to what the shells bring to the table, too. A high energy dump upon impact and lower-mass projectiles in the target are less likely to over penetrate, thus reducing the risk to bystanders. In most circumstances with a shotgun this would likely be a family member.

“Federal’s splitting buckshot is the first significant change to buckshot ammo in over a century. The expert ammunition engineers at Federal decided it was time for improvements in buckshot that would help in some Personal Defense situations,” said Federal Ammunition Shotshell Product Manager Dan Compton. “This new self-defense shotgun load is designed for tremendous energy transfer for a wider and larger amount of terminal damage.”

Federal loads the Force X2 shells to tamp down the 12-gauge’s recoil, potentially allowing better accuracy, particularly shot to shot. Additionally, the shot patterns tight. Force X2 showed patterns of 4½ inches at 7 yards and 14 inches at 20 yards using an improved cylinder choke in tests done by Federal engineers. Patterns of 4¼ inches at 7 yards and 12 inches at 20 yards were achieved with a modified choke. Tests using 10-percent ballistic gel were also conducted, with penetration depth of the shells varying from 5¼ to 14½ inches, with an average of 9½ inches. The average depth when pellets start segmenting is 4.5 inches after impact.

At present, Federal Premium is offering Force X2 ammunition strictly in 2 ¾-inch 12-gauge shells, loaded to produce 1,145 fps of velocity at the muzzle. The MSRP on a box of 10 shells is $22.95.

For more information on Federal's Force X2 Buckshot, please visit https://www.federalpremium.com/.


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