Dixie Tri-Ball II vs Winchester Super X #00
It is sad, but true, that many hunter/shooters will not accept facts when they stare them in the face! After having spent my entire adult life working for the gun and ammo companies, I now believe the old saying, “Quality is as the Customer Perceives!” There is still in this Whiz-Bang hunting game, many hunters using buckshot for deer and hogs in short range, heavy cover situations! In the South East, buckshot is still very popular and game is killed each year. Many will be against buckshot, but the problem with buckshot use is not the buckshot, but rather the shooter/hunter failing to use it within the proper range, with 50 yards on the absolute distance! Some time back, Dixie Slugs brought out the 12 ga. 3”Mag. Tri-Ball II. This load consist of three hard cast .600” round balls, in a heavy one piece plastic wad, at 1100’/”. Each ball weighs 320 grs and has a Ballistic Coefficient of 0.084
| Range | Velocity | Energy (1 ball) | Energy (3 balls) |
| 0 | 1100 | 860 | 2580 |
| 10 | 1067 | 833 | 2499 |
| 20 | 1038 | 765 | 2295 |
| 30 | 1012 | 728 | 2184 |
| 40 | 989 | 694 | 2082 |
| 50 | 967 | 665 | 1996 |
| 60 | 947 | 638 | 1914 |
Actual shooting tests show the followings patterns at a measured 40 yards – Improved Cylinder Choke @ inside 10” – Extra Full Choke @ inside 7” – Trulock .660” Choke @ inside 5 ˝”.
After talking with many local sporting goods dealers, we found the most popular buckshot in this coastal area to be the Winchester 12 ga. 3” Mag. Super X. This diameter buckshot, weighs 54 grains, and has a ballistic coefficient of 0.047. Most dealers considered this load to be the most powerful on the market.
| Range | Velocity |
Energy (1 pellet) |
| 0 | 1210 | 176 |
| 10 | 1132 | 153 |
| 20 | 1069 | 137 |
| 30 | 1019 | 124 |
| 40 | 977 | 115 |
| 50 | 942 | 106 |
| 60 | 910 | 99 |
The hunter/shooter should decide what they consider a circle that would be considered a “Kill-Zone”. He should then pattern his buckshot, count the pellets inside of the circle at the range of the shot, multiply the buckshot single pellet energy by that number, and compare it with the combined energy of Tri-Ball at that range. An example of this would the test results we fired recently. The average number of pellets from the Super X load inside a 10” circle was seven (7) pellets at a measured 40 yards. Dixie Slugs consider the 10” circle best for the “Kill-Zone”. At 40 yards, each #00 pellet had 115 ft. lbs. of Kinetic Energy, for a combined seven pellet KE of 805 ft. lbs. This compared with 2082 ft. lbs. of KE for Tri-Ball II. This means the 7 #00’s had only 37% of the KE of Tri-Ball II!
I am aware that many shooter/hunters will not agree on the 10” kill circle, but let me point out that if all 15 buckshot hit at 40 yards the total KE would be 1725 ft lbs against 2083 ft lbs for Tri-Ball II!……and I have never seen a buckshot load pattern that tight!
There are other considerations and the most important is penetration. The .600”-320 gr. ball has 5.9 times the mass of the .33”-54 gr. #00 buckshot! Penetration is based on mass/velocity. This becomes important on game like a large boar hog. Therefore, based on actual facts, there is no comparison between the Super X #00 buckshot load and Dixie Slugs Tri-Ball II!