Ahhh...I'm not sold on those results for three reasons:
1) #9 shot is pretty dang small - and I don't care if it's lead or heavier than lead - IMO that size shot from a 20ga at 40 yards on an adult tom is not a guarantee. #9 isn't even legal in many states, who want you to use #7 or larger.
2) ~275 pellets of #9 is approximately the same percentage of the payload of 150 #5. I don't have the actual numbers, but basic math would suggest there should be relatively twice as many #9 pellets as there are #5 pellets in a shell of the same length and weight. Even if it's 'heavier' - there has to be at least 50-75% more TSS #9 than Longbeard #5...
3) My son was shooting the Hevi Triple Beard (5,6,7 lead blend) last year out of his SA-20 and dropped a big tom at 41 yards. We had patterned it and knew it threw 120+ pellets in an 8x11 sheet at 40 yards. The tom dropped, we high-fived - only to walk up over a little rise and find no bird - he ran off and I saw him later in the season. I'm guessing the majority of shot were probably #7 and even though the number of pellets were enough to give him a whallop - there wasn't enough power to actually kill the bird. He was a nice tom, but not a 'turkzilla' freak of nature...
So, I'm not convinced that a 20ga with anything smaller than #6 shot (or hevi #7) past 40 yards will have enough killing power to adequately penetrate and kill an adult gobbler. It's probably just me, but I would want to mix up a gelatin block to actually do a ballistics test at 40 yards to convince myself it would carry enough energy downstream to penetrate and actually break bone...
Sorry Kelly - didn't mean to hijack the thread!
Last edited by Strut&Rut; 04-19-2018 at 11:32 AM.