I am not LEO and have never had any problems buying LEO marked ammo.....figure if it is good enough for law enforcement, it is good enough for me.

I know that if a firearms manufacturer sells a lower marked for law enforcement, there is know excise tax........wonder if there is something similar for ammo manufacturers?

The history of reduced recoil Buck and slugs is an interesting one. The first I ever saw or used was made by Remington and labeled 'Reduced Recoil'. It was marketed as a cheap alternative for training officers in use of the shotgun (remember, even today few agencies or academies use birdshot for training unless they have steel or skeet ranges available) This Remington load used unplated #00 shot and threw somewhat erratic patterns but was fine for what it was marketed as. Officers still carried and qualified with full power Buck and / or slugs.

Then the boys at Federal figured out how to make it pay off. They (this was in the pre-ATK days) started experimenting and came up with a reduced recoil load using their harder, plated shot that threw tighter patterns than standard stuff and had the sense to call it the 'Tactical' load. (No one wanted to be accused of pussing out and shooting 'reduced recoil' stuff back then, but 'Tactical'...well, THAT was cool! They sold a metric butt load of it almost overnight and it has proven both the genius of the Federal guys and those LE trainers who developed the load as well as the concept itself. The rest, as they say, is history.

Today, of course, such premium reduced recoil loads are almosr standard and slugs have now gone the same route, and once again the guys at Federal have made a breakthrough with their Flite Control wad system. Reduced recoil premium loads have long ago proven themselves on the street, although in many places today the Police rifle / carbine is steadily taking over as the primary support weapon.

There was little demand for these type loads from the sporting side of the ammo asile, however, and that mostly continues to be the case. Hunters do not ask for 'reduced' shot loads...they are far more likely to use 3in  max loads instead! This leaves those of us who want the 'Tactical' loads for HD work in a sort of 'limbo' and no major ammo company has yet begun to cater to that small but growing market...in fact, some still refuse to even publicly acknowledge that there IS a non-LE defensive shotgun ammunition 'market' in spite of the fact that gun companies sell thousands or Mossberg, Remington, Benelli, FN, etc. etc. etc. short barreled shotguns to non-LEOs every year.

In general I think all of the answers here are at least partly correct, but I also do not discount the possibility that no major company has yet stumbled upon the fact that there is a reasonably large market out there for these loads, and that 'For LE Only' marking just may be for the benefit of the packaging drones at the plant so they don't get them mixed in with the sporting ammo!

Has anyone found this stuff on line?