Brad C.

And here's one more for you about 7's not having the kill power out past 40yds. And this isn't even a turkey. This was yote a guy shot on another forum who goes by AndyH. Here's his story below.

This little girl tried to sneak up on me this morning, luckily I caught her movement from about 15 yards. She realized her mistake and tried to book it out of dodge, unfortunately for her she got a load of 3" hevi 7's in the back of her head. Shot was about 50 yards by the time I could get the red dot on her.



Now I'm just gonna guess here and say that killing a coyote vs a turkey at 50yds is about 5 times harder to do.

Brad C.

Now my question I present to you is why shoot the magblends when all they are doing is giving you larger shot(5's and 6's) you don't need to kill a turkey with at farther distances and are actually robbing you of less hits you could have in a 10" and 20" pattern by just using straight 7's?

snapper1982

BRAVO! Brad C. this is exactly what I was talkin about. imagine if he knew what TSS could do with #9s! 2 sizes smaller shot size!

Brad C.

TSS #9's are probably the king of all shot. I have seen the patterns and I have also seen how they will penetrate sheet metal at 40yds. Lead 4's won't touch it. That TSS #9's is so hard and super dense that it will penetrate a turkey head and neck at 50yds like it was a piece of paper.

Todd1700

Ah, no.

First lead 6's are seriously running out of the ability to penetrate deeply enough to break bone at 40 yards. Can you kill turkeys to 40 yards with lead 6's? Has it been done? You bet. Will it be 100% of the time? Nope.

Second, I have spent the last 30 of my 47 years turkey hunting and patterning many turkey guns that I and my friends owned. In all that time and God knows how much ammo discharged down range through dozens of shotguns, dozens of turkey chokes ranging in price from 15 bucks to over a hundred and using virtually every type of lead turkey ammo readily available in the USA, I have never seen what I would call a good pattern at 40 yards with lead 4's. Not saying it's impossible. Not saying it can't happen. But if my friends and I never achieved it with all the combinations of guns, chokes and shells we tried then it can't be very common. No doubt those big pellets will sure kill one if they land in the right spot. But the odds of getting one to land in the right spot at 40 yards sure as heck isn't going to be 100% for most hunters.

Third, through all that same patterning the best lead 5 patterns I saw were about 90 to 95 pellets inside 10 inches at 40 yards. Adequate? Barely. And keep in mind that those were the best I saw. Most were worse. 90 pellets inside 10 inches at 40 yards leaves very little cushion for misjudging the distance on a bird. But until the denser than lead stuff came out lead 5's are what I used.

The denser than lead stuff is an absolute revolution for turkey hunting. Denser than lead shot will out pattern lead shot of the same size and usually by a wide margin. Not only that but due to it's increased penetration you can drop down to smaller size shot which will really boost your pattern density while still penetrating more than enough to kill turkeys consistently.

The first gobbler I ever killed with DTL shot I was using Winchester Extended range 6's. I called up 2 birds and shot the lead bird at 40 yards. His left side was facing me. When I got him home and cleaned him some of the pellets in the lower part of the pattern had hit him in the upper left breast. They went through his feathers; through the meat of his left breast; through his breast plate; and lodged halfway through the meat of his right breast. And that was from a gun with a 20 inch barrel. That isn't just better penetration than lead 6's that's like the difference between the flame of a Bic lighter and a bonfire.

I currently use Hevi-13 6's. They give me about 200 pellets inside 10 inches at 40 yards. They still put about 120 pellets inside 10 inches at 50 yards. And they kill turkeys stone dead at either distance. Even if you planned to only shoot to 40 yards that gives you a 10 yard cushion for misjudging the range. Probably a little farther than that.

Sure they cost me about 5 bucks a shell but who cares. A turkey is certainly worth 5 bucks to me. And even if you limit out with 5 birds here in Alabama that's 25 bucks for the year. A tank of gas for my truck costs three times as much.

Find me a lead shell that will pattern like this at 40 yards, cost less and strip clean through a turkeys neck and I promise I will switch to them.

snapper1982

yes they are "KING" and just think the lead 4 cant touch it traveling at a higher velocity.

the 7s and 8s are just plain nasty!

Brad C.

The Federal Heavyweight 3.5" #7 loads would be the best load on the market if they would get rid of that flite-control wad and start loading 2.25oz loads instead of the 1 and 7/8oz. That shot is 15g/cc and would be probably the meanest factory production loads on the market by a big time loading company such as Federal.

Todd1700

Quoted for truth.

snapper1982

I never had a problem with the FC wads. they made a substantial improvement in my 870. went from shooting 80s #5s at 40 in the 10 to shooting 130s. everyone I know also improved. but I do think they need to up the pay load and offer it in a non FCW load for the guns and/or guys that just do not like the FCW. and you are right it would no doubt become the best preloaded load available.

kdsberman

This definitely got me thinking. Im currently using Nitro H517's, which are 4x5x7 all Hevi-Shot. I was convinced there wasnt a nastier shell out there.......after reading what Brad C said...i think there might be. Might look into straight 7's next year.