Description
Fiocchi Premium Target 20ga 9 Shot is the skeet specialist in the Fiocchi Premium Target range. The 2 3/4 inch hull carries 7/8 ounce of hardened lead number 9 at 1200 fps. Number 9 is the smallest shot size in common target use, and in a 20 gauge where the payload is limited to 7/8 ounce, packing in the maximum number of pellets is exactly the right strategy for close targets. Twenty five rounds to the box.
Why Number 9 for Skeet
Skeet is a close game. The furthest target on a standard field is inside twenty five yards, and at that distance pattern density is everything and pellet energy is essentially irrelevant. A 7/8 ounce charge of number 9 holds dramatically more pellets than the same weight in number 8, and that translates directly into fewer chipped targets and fewer inexplicable misses.
The tradeoff is that number 9 falls apart quickly at distance. Past about twenty five yards it starts to chip rather than break, and past thirty it is not doing useful work at all. That is not a flaw, it is the design. This is a 20 gauge skeet load and it should be bought as one.
Everything else is the same Premium Target build. Fiocchi manufactures its own hulls, primers, wads and shot in Italy, and hardened high antimony lead resists deforming through the forcing cone and choke so that more pellets stay round and stay in the pattern. In a small bore with limited payload, that consistency matters more, not less.
Fiocchi Premium Target 20ga 9 Shot Specifications
This is a standard 2 3/4 inch shell suitable for any 20 gauge chambered 2 3/4 inch or longer. Fiocchi hulls reload well and are worth saving, though 20 gauge reloading components are less widely stocked than 12 gauge.
- Line: Fiocchi Premium Target
- Gauge: 20 gauge
- Shell length: 2 3/4 inches
- Payload: 7/8 ounce of hardened lead shot
- Shot size: number 9
- Muzzle velocity: 1200 fps
- Quantity: 25 rounds per box
- UPC: 762344701011
- Manufacturer: Fiocchi, Italy
- Primary use: skeet and very close sporting targets
Honest Notes on Small Shot
This is a skeet shell and nothing else. Number 9 has no business on a sporting course with thirty five yard crossers, and it is entirely the wrong choice for trap. If you shoot anything beyond skeet distances, the number 8 version of this shell is the one to buy and Fiocchi Premium Target 20ga 9 Shot should stay in the cabinet.
Open the choke. Small shot patterns densely, and skeet or cylinder constriction is right for a skeet field. Anyone shooting modified with number 9 at a twenty yard target is making the game considerably harder than it needs to be, and this is one of the most common self inflicted problems in clay shooting.
It is a poor choice for hunting. Number 9 lead does not carry enough energy for game birds at any realistic range, and while it will kill a dove at fifteen yards, that is a narrow enough envelope that a number 8 field load is a better buy for anyone who might do both.
Lead restrictions apply at a growing number of ranges on public land. Private skeet clubs almost always permit lead and reclaim it, but confirm before travelling somewhere new with a case.
For general clay work the same shell in number 8 shot covers a wider range of targets, and the Stars and Stripes 20 gauge target load is the budget alternative. Fiocchi publishes its catalogue on the Fiocchi USA website.
Fiocchi Premium Target 20ga 9 Shot suits skeet shooters running a 20 gauge, sub gauge event competitors and anyone who wants maximum pattern density at close range. MAG5 Firearms is a family owned FFL in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Boxes ship where state and local law allows.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.