I own a 3 inch chambered Taurus Judge. I don't use it for anything serious, and it's more of just a fun toy. I took it out and put various buckshot 410 rounds through it last week at the police range. Everything I tried opened up real fast. The paterns at 4 yards with winchester 5 ball 000 buck was over a foot. Shooting it farther than that would cause some of the buck to go off target. Not a great defensive pattern.
Then I tried out the new Federal Personal Defense Pistol 410 ammunition. It is 2.5 inch shells that hold 4 000 buck. They gives you a 280 or so grain payload that the box reports shoots at 1200 FPS. The stuff patterned around 4" at 4 yards. At 7 yards it was about 6 to 8". So I took it back farther and shot it at 15 yards. After shooting several rounds, I noticed that all the buck shot paterned around 12" or so. They all stayed within the human sized target I was shooting. This stuff patterned like it was shot out of a full size shotgun and not out of a 3 inch barreled pistol.
The difference between this stuff and all the other 410 buckshot was amazing. I'm not sure if this makes the Judge a great defensive pistol or not but it does move it in that direction. I'm curious if anyone else has played with this new ammo and seen similar results. I'd also be interested to see some chono results on it. Like I said, the box says 1200 FPS and it also says made for pistols. But that just seems kind of fast out of a 3 inch barrel.
Then I tried out the new Federal Personal Defense Pistol 410 ammunition. It is 2.5 inch shells that hold 4 000 buck. They gives you a 280 or so grain payload that the box reports shoots at 1200 FPS. The stuff patterned around 4" at 4 yards. At 7 yards it was about 6 to 8". So I took it back farther and shot it at 15 yards. After shooting several rounds, I noticed that all the buck shot paterned around 12" or so. They all stayed within the human sized target I was shooting. This stuff patterned like it was shot out of a full size shotgun and not out of a 3 inch barreled pistol.
The difference between this stuff and all the other 410 buckshot was amazing. I'm not sure if this makes the Judge a great defensive pistol or not but it does move it in that direction. I'm curious if anyone else has played with this new ammo and seen similar results. I'd also be interested to see some chono results on it. Like I said, the box says 1200 FPS and it also says made for pistols. But that just seems kind of fast out of a 3 inch barrel.