Bought a case of Browning Wicked Wing 12 gauge 3" #2 shot. Wanted to see who's wad and powder they were using, so I cut open a shell. The wad pedals are designed to stay closed, so they are made to keep a tight pattern at long distances. They are using Long Shot powder. The shot is the problem. The shot was an even mixture of #4, #2, and #BB. There were even five #BBB in the shell. There was no buffer at all. Having BB and BBB in the shot load significantly lowers the number of pellets which creates holes in the pattern. To make it worse, some of the shot had a #8 size pellet fused to them. None of the shot were round. Most of them were flat on top and bottom that made them look like a deflated soccer ball somebody had stepped on. The remainder looked like footballs with a few pear shapes in the lot. The shot they use is obviously trash they swept out of a slag bin. It will be impossible to pattern these shells because there is no consistency in the shot size or shape. I have only seen slag shot in one other shell in my life and it was in the cheapest Winchester shells that have the crimp melted closed in the center.
I can't believe Browning allows their name to be associated with.junk shells like these. The Browning name sure doesn't stand on quality like it used to. This shot is literally re-purposed trash from a steel company's slag trough.

Browning/Winchester ammo seems not so great these days all around. Bought a box of Winchester .22 LR that had all sorts of issues, loose bullets, crooked bullets, deformed bullets, etc.

Several companies use brand name, but aren't even owned by the parent company any more. Remington when bankrupt, mainly cause they build crap, but now someone has the firearms division and someone else has the ammunition side. I think Winchester and Browning are similar. Could be wrong, hell I don't know anything

From what I can tell, FN makes Browning and Winchester firearms, Olin makes Winchester and Browning ammunition. It is pretty confusing, but I just remember Winchester and Browning are together in both firearms and ammunition.

I would send your feedback to Browning. Seems pretty well thought out. The manufacturer of the shell is probably just paying for the name rights. Maybe the sample sent to Browning is not the same as being sold?

I don’t buy shotgun shells from companies that also sell socks, hats, wallets, belts, boots, shirts, etc etc etc. If I did I would expect the results you found.

What shells are you shooting then.

Mindyourbusiness

Sorry had to do it.

Kent faststeel or hevi shot for me

I’ve got a box of their fast lead left over from pheasant hunting shoots pretty good. Since I only hunt private was gonna use that this year.

I have been approached by 2 companies recently to offer my name on ammo produced by someone else overseas. They will produce the ammo and stamp it with my company info on it. When I got the second phone call offering this service, I inquired more about it to see what they are doing. There are ammo companies that will make the ammo and label it with whatever name you want to put on it. It was mainly handgun, 223 and shotgun ammo. It would not surprise me if other ammo companies were doing this now and selling it.

You’re joking, right?

I've been using Boss shells for the past few years, no issues.

You know me better than that guy!

I bought a case of 20 ga and a case of 16 ga. Didn’t cut any open, but they dropped pheasants in South Dakota as good as the Kent and Remington I also used.