Federal Premium Force X2 Shorty: New 1.75-inch buckshot

In the past few years, short shotgun shells have made a major comeback; now, Federal's latest buckshot offering should theoretically make it easy for us to get our hands on 1.75-inch 12 gauge ammo.

While shorter-length shotgun shells have a long history, particularly in Europe, once smokeless powder came in, most North American manufacturers stuck to 2.75-inch shells or longer. However, manufacturers in other countries continued to produce shorter-length shells, with Aguila's mini-shell lineup gaining considerable popularity with tactical shotgun users. If a tube-mag shotgun is set up to run these shorter shells, the shooter can expand ammo capacity from the standard five-eight rounds.

Now, Federal is releasing a new line of 1.75-inch buckshot loads through its Premium line. The new low-recoil Federal Premium Force X2 shells are loaded with six pellets of copper-plated segmenting 00 buckshot at 1245 fps.

The idea is, when these pellets impact, they break up into two smaller projectiles. This may be desirable for users wishing to limit over-penetration, which is certainly a concern for defensive firearm use. No doubt law enforcement will be interested in these rounds, as long as they're compatible with the department's issued shotguns.

And, as we saw earlier this year, the tactical shotgun market is already adapting to users interested in mini-shells. Mossberg's 590S series is now off-the-shelf compatible with 1.75-inch shells, and other manufacturers offer upgraded internals for users who wish to configure their 12 gauge for use with mini-shells.

Federal doesn't mention which wad these shells use, so presumably, it isn't the excellent FLITECONTROL wad, which is too bad. FLITECONTROL-loaded buckshot generally performs very well out of open-choked 12 gauge shotguns, which is probably what most users are running.

The price is also unfortunate, at $31.99 USD on Federal's website (closer to $28.99 in stores, we hear). That's for a box of 10 shells, which won't even fill a tube mag on the 590S series (13+1 capacity for 1.75-inch shells). Here in Canuckistan, we'd pay even more—if the ammo ever comes here. Not only have COVIDnomics and the general supply chain issues wrecked our ammunition market, but shorty ammo is on particularly thin ice these days, with the feds talking up new magazine capacity rules.