Shooting The Hawk 982 Shotgun = FUN!

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I was concerned with the shooting performance when shooting a silouette target at 25-yards with my IAC Hawk 982 shotgun. The earlier post in the blog had all shots inside a respectable area, but the grouping was rather large. I felt that the shotgun was capable of better performance.

I think I was a little intimidated by the power in my first shooting session with the Remington 12-gauge rifled slugs. I fired five rounds from the standing position into a silhouette target at 25-yards. All five was in the desired locations, but the grouping was rather large.

I finally made it to the range again to see just how good the shotgun was. I wanted to eliminate as many variables as possible. I shot from a seated position while resting the shotgun on a sandbag. This will let me see just what my shotgun was capable of without many of my flaws. Here are the results:


I highlighted the holes in red. As you can see, my grouping has decreased significantly! The ghost ring/front post sight system gives you a very good sight picture and helps you concentrate on the front sight. My group is ~3-1/4", center-to-center. Not bad at 25-yards. I estimate that the ~.72-caliber 1-oz. slug is traveling around 1,500 fps (feet per second) and striking with 2,187 foot pounds of energy. This is just devastating.

I think the 12-gauge shotgun is the most versatile of all tactical weapons within 50-yards. The ammunition options are almost unlimited. You can shoot everything from regular bird shot to rifled slugs. The best two options are 00-buck for close in shots and rifled slugs out to 100-yards.

One advantage in these times when ammunition is difficult to find is 12-gauge stuff is readily available. The price is pretty good, too! I purchased a 15-round box of Remington 12-gauge lead rifled slugs for under $9.00. The way things are now with the shortage of ammunition you "buy it when you see it" because you don't know when things will return to normal. I usually buy a couple boxes of the rifled slugs when I stop by Wally World. Hard to beat the fun it gives you. See you at the range!