870 and hevishot

rochelle · 04-26-2005, 10:42 AM

What choke and rem hevishot size has given you the best pattern out your 870?

XArmy55 · 04-26-2005, 01:14 PM

This year year I tried the heavy shot for the first time with a H.S. Undertaker choke tube and WOW... Best patterning job I have ever had... I will not be changing anything for a while... I now use Federal's new PREMIUM MAG*SHOK- HEAVYWEIGHT TURKEY loads... That combo works super sweet for me...

Oh yea... I prefer 5 shot...

BSTNFREEK · 04-26-2005, 01:16 PM

I use a thigh wad, by primus, which in my 870 super-mag, with #5 heavyweight federal 3 1/2" has provided consistantly super patterns listed below:

35 yds: 41 kill zone bb's & over 85% in 30" circle

45 yds: 20 kill zone bb's & over 60% in 30" circle

Either of those patterns is more than enough to get the job done

Power · 04-30-2005, 02:30 PM

Been patterning my 870 for the last 5 years (how long I've been turkey hunting). This is a 3" gun with 26" barrel.

I started with the Remington Turkey Choke and had medium results with that. I tried every brand of shot I could find including the Hevishot. I've tried them in 4"s, 5's and 6"s from Remington, Federal, Kent, and Winchester. This year I switched to a Undertaker choke and tried the new Federal Mag Shock w/ Flight Control wads.

Last year my best results was with the 3" Winchester XX Supreme loads shooting 2 oz. #5's. I could get around 6-8 hits in the brain/neck bone on the Primos targets out to 35 yards. I was pretty happy with that but felt I could do better. This year with the new Undertaker choke all my loads perform about the same except I extended my randge 5 yards to 40 yards. The Hevi-shot is a little better but not worth the cost. Still, after it's all said and done I used the same WinXX load to get my turkey on 4-22. Shot was around 20 yards.

I've probably shot around 100 targets with all my different loads and ranges out to 40 yards. For the cost I'm sticking with the Undertaker choke and Winxx 2oz. #5's. Still keeps killing turkeys and patterns fine out ot 40 yards.

One tip is to pattern your gun on a 30" piece of butcher paper. My gun shoots very high and to the right and I mounted adjustable sights on it so I could just aim at the bird without thinking. Still shoots too high and I nearly missed my bird this year. Only hits were in the head but I got him and that's what counts in the end. Just have to pattern your gun with different loads and chokes and find the one that works best. Nice if you have a buddy with the same gun so you can borrow chokes to try but I didn't have that luck so I have 2 chokes now and if I want to try others I have to buy them. Since I've got a 40 yard combo I'll just use that for a while until I get bored and want to try something else (new gun?).