Antler Eater

Although I mostly bowhunt I enjoy hunting turkeys with a smoothbore. I have to admit that I am kind of a “gadget guy”. I use a GPS, a laser rangefinder, numerous decoys, after market chokes, numerous kinds of different camouflage, an umpteen million different kind of calls, and for better or worse, my list could go on and on. Of course no gadget gets my approval until it is thoroughly tested. One of these days I will have to open up a store just to get rid of some of my “junk”.

Here is the strange thing. Although it has been on my “things to try” list, until today I had never fired the Hevi-shot through my rig (a Benelli Super 90). I have read articles, heard testimonies, saw the stats, and in general have been wowed by the impressive performance of this product. In fact one article I’m sure some of you have read, mentions the author terminating a Tom at 70 yards! After reading that I felt somewhat “under gunned” and decided I would have to spend the money and try these “magic munitions”.

I must admit it is hard for me to justify spending $22.00 for 10 shells when the performance that I get with “normal” 3 inch turkey loads have worked just fine. At any rate I spent the day testing Hevi-shot against some Federal Premium shells. Let me say up front that these exercises are far from scientific. Read at your own risk.

First here is the “Tale of the Tape”:

Hevi-shot Premier : Length of shell - Ounces of shot - Shot Size

3”............ 1 5/8 Oz........5 Shot

Federal Premium Magnum Turkey: 3” ............ 2 Oz.............5 Shot

Both products are buffered and the Federal ammo is copper plated.

I should mention that I chose not to test pattern percentages in a thirty inch circle at forty yards like I did in my competitive days. Simply put I couldn’t afford it nor would I have had the time. Besides when it comes to killing turkeys, pellets in a thirty-inch circle don’t amount to much. I want to know how many pellets end up in the head and neck region of a life size (approximately) turkey under field conditions. For this test I used the Thompson Turkey Target set at forty yards (measured). I also shot with the wind to try and eliminate any drift. I do have a front and rear sight on the rib of my gun that aids in accuracy.

HEVI-SHOT

Benelli barrels are bored tight (.723) compared to most State side shotguns so I had some concerns with choke size. I started out on the conservative side with a modified choke. I was surprised by the results when only 10 pellets ended up in the head and neck region. Could I have” pulled” the shot? Perhaps,

I then moved up to the factory full choke. 18 hits. Hmmm… 180 % better but still not what I was expecting.

The Remington Hevi-shot web site recommends a choke of .675 to obtain maximum results. Wouldn’t you know the closest I could get to that figure was .665. With this choke I ended up averaging 31 hits in the head and neck region. Again better, but because of everything I read I expected more.

I then measured off twenty yards and shot the targets. The results were a very tight impressive hole. A four-inch circle would easily encompass the main impact area of the swarm on the bird’s neck.

FEDERAL PREMIUMS

Maybe it should be said that the reason I used Federal ammo was because that is what I had the most of on hand in that shell and shot size. I have no ties to the Federal Cartridge Co. I have used this ammo in the past with great results.

All of the shooting with the Federal Premiun ammo was from the same .665 choke at the same distance with the same style target as I had done with the Hevi-shot. That being said the average pellet count for the Federal ammo was 21.

When shot from the twenty-yard line the results were not as dramatic as the Hevi-shot but still very effective. The pattern expanded to a six-inch circle but with a very even spread.

PENETRATION

For this exercise I used a 1 X 6 X 16.5 piece of scrap pine that I had lying around. I set it out at forty yards and fired away with both brands of ammo. As expected, the Hevi-shot penetrated better but not by a wide margin by any means. Neither brand completely passed through entirely. The board would not have the same density across its entire surface so as with the rest of the “tests” this is far from scientific. Suffice it to say that I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of either load.

CONCLUSIONS

I feel that with my current set up I don’t have the proper choke to maximize the full benefit of Hevi-Shot. My results are far from optimum in comparison to what I have read concerning Hevi-Shot performance. Even so, when you consider that we are dealing with 3/8 ounces less, (approximately 65 pellets, although I don’t know how accurate that figure is due to the fact that Hevi-shot is not as uniform in size as lead) and still averaged about 1/3 more hits at forty-yards than the two ounce lead load, that is quite impressive. Let there be no doubt, Hevi-Shot is an awesome product!

On the other hand, how dead is dead? I can tell you if I had the ideal set up, providing maximum performance; I’m not going to be shooting birds at 70 yards. I don’t need a turkey that bad and killing a bird at those distances takes the most enjoyable part out of the hunt for me. Using either ammo, a bird is going to be in a world of hurt inside forty-yards. Can a guy justify spending more than double the cost of “regular” turkey loads to kill a turkey at the ranges we like to call them into? You will have to decide that for yourself. If money is no object than the answer is a simple one. I know I would use the ammo that performed best. I will say this however…if I mess up a shot at normal ranges, with “regular” turkey loads, it won’t be the fault of my ammunition.

wacker

I tried some remington hev-shot last and had similar results to yours.The pattern wasn't better than the winchesters I normally shoot but the penetration was better.I think the high pellet counts that you hear about are from guys shooting the nitro loads and not the remington.The nitros are only $40.00 for a box of ten.

snowdog2

It took me 14 turkeys to run through the 20 (2 boxes of 10 each) Federal Premium 3 1/2" #5 shot shells I bought many years ago, a couple for patterning, 2 shots at 1 bird one time and one time my son shot three times at a turkey he never got, else it was 1 shot, 1 bird. Then I bought some Hevi-Shot for last fall, and didn't pattern it (my big mistake) and I killed 3 turkeys with 6 shots, 1 took 3 shots, 1 took 2 shots and 1 took only 1 shot. They were all decent range (20-30 yards) shots to begin.

In retrospect, I think I was "over-choked" and probably had "blown ptterns", but I'll definitely be patterning before this spring season.

Mailman29680

Turkey Addict

Very informative information there Antler Eater. Thanks for the post.