Elevate Your Shot: The Definitive Guide to Kent Cartridge Elite Pro Target 12 Gauge Ammunition

For serious sport shooters, competitive clay target enthusiasts, and anyone striving for peak performance on the range, the choice of ammunition is paramount. In the demanding arenas of trap, skeet, and sporting clays, consistency, reliability, and superior target breaks are not just desirable—they are essential for success. This comprehensive guide delves into why the Kent Cartridge Elite Pro Target 12 Gauge ammunition stands out as a top-tier choice, offering a competitive edge whether you're aiming for a personal best or a podium finish.

Who is This Ammunition For?

This ammunition is meticulously crafted for:

• Competitive Clay Target Shooters: Individuals participating in Trap, Skeet, Sporting Clays, or Five-Stand disciplines who demand consistent patterns and reliable performance.
• Avid Sport Shooters: Enthusiasts who frequent the range and seek high-quality ammunition that enhances their shooting experience and helps refine their skills.
• Instructors and Coaches: Professionals who recommend dependable, high-performance ammunition to their students for optimal learning and skill development.
• Shooters Seeking Premium Performance: Anyone looking to upgrade from standard loads to an ammunition designed for precision, cleaner burning, and smoother operation.

The Challenge: Inconsistent Performance from Standard Ammunition

Many shooters encounter frustrations with conventional target loads. Common issues include:

• Inconsistent Shot Patterns: Leading to missed targets or "soft breaks" where the target is merely chipped rather than decisively shattered.
• Unreliable Ejection: Causing jams, cycling issues, and interrupting the shooter's rhythm and focus.
• Excessive Recoil: Leading to shooter fatigue, flinching, and making follow-up shots more challenging.
• Dirty Burning Powders: Resulting in excessive residue buildup in firearms, requiring more frequent cleaning and potentially impacting long-term reliability.
• Varying Velocities: Contributing to unpredictable lead requirements and overall inconsistency in performance.

The Kent Cartridge Elite Pro Target 12 Gauge ammunition directly addresses these challenges, offering solutions that empower shooters to achieve their full potential.

Unpacking the Elite Performance: Key Features & Their Benefits

The Kent Elite Pro Target line is not just another shotgun shell; it's a meticulously engineered system designed for optimal performance. Let's break down the core components that make it a preferred choice for discerning shooters.

1. The Power of Diamond Shot: Unmatched Uniformity and Hardness

At the heart of the Elite Pro Target's superior performance is Kent's proprietary Diamond Shot. This isn't just a marketing term; it represents a significant technological advantage in shot manufacturing.

• Exceptional Uniformity: Unlike standard lead shot which can vary in size and shape, Diamond Shot undergoes a specialized polishing process. This results in incredibly consistent pellets, ensuring that each shot column is uniform. Why does this matter? Uniform pellets fly true, reducing flyers and creating a much tighter, more effective pattern downrange. This translates directly into more shattered targets.
• Increased Hardness: Diamond Shot is significantly harder than conventional lead shot. This hardness is crucial for two reasons:
  • Reduced Deformation: When a shotgun shell is fired, the immense pressure within the barrel can deform softer lead pellets, particularly those at the edges of the shot column. Harder Diamond Shot resists this deformation, maintaining its spherical shape, which is vital for consistent flight and tighter patterns.
  • Enhanced Energy Transfer: A harder, more uniform pellet retains its energy more efficiently upon impact. This means cleaner, more decisive breaks on clay targets, reducing the ambiguity of "dusting" a target versus truly breaking it. For competitive shooters, this ensures every hit is counted definitively.

How does Diamond Shot improve your shooting? Imagine sending a perfectly symmetrical cloud of pellets towards a fast-moving target. With Diamond Shot, that cloud is denser, more consistent, and more impactful, maximizing your chances of a clean break.

2. Nickel-Plated Heads: Smooth, Reliable Ejection Every Time

A common frustration for shooters, especially during rapid-fire sequences in skeet or sporting clays, is a stuck or difficult-to-eject spent shell. The nickel-plated heads on Kent Elite Pro Target shells are a small but critical detail that dramatically improves the shooting experience.

• Reduced Friction: Nickel plating provides a smoother surface compared to raw brass or steel, reducing friction between the shell head and the gun's chamber walls.
• Corrosion Resistance: Nickel offers superior resistance to corrosion, ensuring that the shell heads remain slick and free from oxidation, even in varying weather conditions or after prolonged storage.
• Consistent Cycling: This reduced friction and improved corrosion resistance ensure consistently smooth and reliable ejection, shot after shot. This is vital for maintaining a fast, uninterrupted shooting rhythm, especially in multi-target presentations or during the pressure of competition. No more fumbling with stubborn shells; just clean, swift cycling.

3. Custom Blend Powders: Clean Burning and Optimal Velocity

The powder blend within a shotgun shell dictates its muzzle velocity, recoil characteristics, and how cleanly it burns. Kent Cartridge formulates its own custom blend powders for the Elite Pro Target line to achieve a perfect balance.

• Clean Burning: A clean-burning powder leaves minimal residue and fouling inside your shotgun's barrel and action. This means:
  • Less Maintenance: Your firearm stays cleaner for longer, reducing the frequency of deep cleaning sessions.
  • Improved Reliability: Reduced fouling prevents carbon buildup that can interfere with the smooth operation of semi-automatic shotguns.
  • Consistent Performance: A clean barrel maintains consistent ballistic performance over extended shooting sessions.
• Optimal Velocities (1250 fps): The powders are blended to achieve an optimal muzzle velocity of 1250 feet per second (fps). This velocity is carefully selected to provide:
  • Excellent Target Breaks: Sufficient energy to shatter targets decisively without excessive recoil.
  • Consistent Leads: Predictable trajectory allows shooters to maintain consistent lead times, crucial for hitting fast-moving targets across various distances.
  • Manageable Recoil: While still a 12 gauge load, the powder blend helps mitigate felt recoil, making extended shooting sessions more comfortable and reducing fatigue.

4. The Ideal Payload: 1 1/8 oz of 7.5 Shot

The payload—the amount and size of shot—is a critical factor in target ammunition. The Kent Elite Pro Target uses a 1 1/8 ounce payload of 7.5 shot.

• 1 1/8 oz Payload: This is a popular and highly effective payload for most clay target disciplines. It provides a dense pattern with enough pellets to ensure reliable breaks without being overly heavy, which could increase felt recoil unnecessarily. It strikes an excellent balance between pattern density and shootability.
• 7.5 Shot Size: Shot size 7.5 is widely considered the most versatile and effective for general clay target shooting.
  • Trap Shooting: Provides an excellent balance of pattern density and pellet energy for breaking targets flying away from the shooter.
  • Skeet Shooting: Offers a broad enough pattern to consistently hit fast-crossing targets at closer ranges.
  • Sporting Clays: Versatile enough to handle the varied presentations encountered in sporting clays, from close-in "rabbits" to distant "teals."
  • The number of pellets in a 1 1/8 oz load of 7.5 shot provides a high probability of hitting and breaking the target.

5. Shell Length: 2.75" for Broad Compatibility

The 2.75-inch shell length is the most common and widely compatible length for 12 gauge shotguns.

• Universal Fit: This length ensures that the ammunition will cycle reliably in virtually all 12 gauge shotguns, including semi-automatics, pump-actions, and over/unders, without any issues related to chamber length.
• Standard Performance: It provides the standard internal volume needed for optimal powder combustion and shot pattern development for target loads.

Real-World Applications: Excelling in Every Discipline

How does the Kent Cartridge Elite Pro Target 12 Gauge perform in the specific environments where it matters most?

Trap Shooting

In trap, consistency is king. Targets fly away from the shooter, demanding tight, dense patterns. The Diamond Shot's uniformity ensures that your pattern is consistently centered and effective, minimizing fliers that can lead to lost birds. The 1250 fps velocity provides ample energy for definitive breaks, even on the furthest targets. The smooth ejection from nickel-plated heads ensures rapid follow-up shots if needed, though with these shells, the first shot often does the trick.

Skeet Shooting

Skeet involves fast, crossing targets at relatively close ranges. A spread that's too tight can lead to misses, while one that's too open can result in insufficient pellet density for a clean break. The 1 1/8 oz of 7.5 shot in Kent Elite Pro Target shells delivers that perfect balance, creating a robust, even pattern ideal for intercepting these quick targets. The clean-burning powder keeps your semi-auto cycling smoothly round after round, critical for pairs.

Sporting Clays & 5-Stand

The unpredictable nature of sporting clays and 5-Stand demands versatility. Shooters encounter a wide array of target presentations, from high incoming birds to ground-hugging rabbits, and everything in between. The Kent Elite Pro Target's balanced design—combining pattern density, consistent velocity, and manageable recoil—makes it an exceptionally versatile choice. It performs reliably across the spectrum of shots, giving shooters confidence in every presentation. The consistent performance means you can focus on reading the target and executing the shot, rather than worrying about your ammunition.

Achieving Your Best: Tips for Maximizing Performance

Even with premium ammunition, understanding how to maximize its effectiveness is key.

• Pattern Your Shotgun: Before competition, take the time to pattern your specific shotgun with Kent Elite Pro Target loads. This will show you exactly how your gun and choke combination performs with this ammunition, revealing the true density and point of impact of your pattern at various distances (e.g., 20, 30, 40 yards). This insight is invaluable for confirming your point of aim.
• Choke Selection: Experiment with different chokes (e.g., Skeet, Improved Cylinder, Light Modified, Modified) to see which one delivers the most consistent and effective patterns with the 7.5 shot size for the particular discipline you are shooting. Kent Elite Pro Target's consistent shot makes choke selection highly predictable.
• Focus on Fundamentals: While superior ammunition helps, solid fundamentals (stance, gun mount, lead, follow-through) remain crucial. The predictable performance of Kent Elite Pro Target allows you to focus purely on refining these skills without external variables from inconsistent ammunition.
• Practice Consistently: Regular practice with the same high-quality ammunition helps build muscle memory and confidence. The lower perceived recoil and consistent performance of these shells make long practice sessions more enjoyable and productive.

Why Choose Kent Cartridge Elite Pro Target from DEGuns?

When you invest in high-performance ammunition like the Kent Cartridge Elite Pro Target, you want to ensure you're getting genuine product from a reputable source. DEGuns is a trusted online retailer known for its extensive selection, competitive pricing, and commitment to customer service.

• Reliable Availability: DEGuns consistently stocks popular and high-demand ammunition like the Kent Elite Pro Target, ensuring you can acquire the rounds you need for training and competition without delay.
• Expert Support: As a leading supplier, DEGuns understands the needs of shooters and stands behind the quality of the products they sell.
• Convenience: Purchasing online from DEGuns offers the convenience of having your ammunition delivered directly to your doorstep (where legally permissible), saving you time and effort.

The Kent Cartridge Elite Pro Target 12 Gauge represents an investment in your shooting performance. Its combination of advanced features—Diamond Shot, nickel-plated heads, custom powders, and optimized payload—is engineered to provide an unparalleled shooting experience. For those serious about breaking more targets and elevating their game, this ammunition is not just a choice; it's a strategic advantage. Make every shot count with the reliable excellence of Kent Cartridge Elite Pro Target, readily available at DEGuns.

Product Specifications

Feature	Detail
Brand	Kent Cartridge
Series	Pro Target
Model	Elite
Gauge	12 Gauge
Length	2.75 inches
Shot Material	Diamond Shot
Shot Size	7.5
Ounces	1 1/8 oz
Muzzle Velocity	1250 fps
Application	Sport Shooting
Rounds Per Box	25
Boxes Per Case	10
SKU	130434
UPC	656308110158
MPN	E12TH327