[lrhuntr]

I live in Wisconsin and tommorrow is the start of the 2nd period for spring turkey that i have. Yesterday i went and shot a box of the Remington Nitro Turkey 12 gauge 3" 1 7/8 5 shot. They were terrible. Very few pellets at 50 yards let alone at 25. After that i ran to Walmart and bought a box of Remington 3" 1 5/8 6 shot Hevi-Shot and will probulary shoot it today. I was wondering if anybody else has tried this stuff before?

[JohnBT]

I have no experience with the turkey loads, but the 3" #4 and #6 Hevishot duck and goose loads I've used worked much better with IC and MOD chokes than with FULL. This was using an SX-2 Waterfowl and 870 Exp. The same held true using 2.75" shells in an 1100.

John

[fishjar]

lrhuntr:

Out of my Benelli Nova I use a Primos JellyHead choke and #6 3" HS. Patterned my gun at 25yds with excellent results that far exceeded my prior combo.

All I know is that on opening day a 22# 8" bearded 1 1/4 spurned Mr Tom went down. Shot at about 25 yds. He was broadside quartering away, so not much kill zone exposure.

Check out WildTurkeyZone.com. Use search tool, type in your gun and should see other's patterning results. That is where I picked up my combo.

As a side note: 50 yd shots are not typically recommended for turkey.

[redneck2]

I've used hevi-shot since it first came out for ducks/geese after far less than impressive results with steel. Performance is exceptional. I've got a friend that's killed over 75 turkeys. This dude lives for turkey hunting and hits 3-4 states every year. He swears by hevi-shot.

You still have to pattern it to check which works best and which choke. I just patterned some Remington tonight in my SP-10. Good to 45 yards+

[only1asterisk]

Heavishot doesn't just pattern well, hit hits hard too. Local gun shop display had small squares of heavy steet sheet that had been set out at 40 yards and shot with steel, lead and heavishot. The steel left little pockmarks, the lead left dimples, the heavishot made holes. It convinced me.

David

[only1asterisk]

Heavishot doesn't just pattern well, hit hits hard too. Local gun shop display had small squares of heavy steet sheet that had been set out at 40 yards and shot with steel, lead and heavishot. The steel left little pockmarks, the lead left dimples, the heavishot made holes. It convinced me.

David

[Lennyjoe]

I patterned the Ithaca shottie yesterday with Winchester Supreme #4's and Federal Turkey #5's. With the Undertaker extra full turkey choke the #4's patterned the best at 40yds. I counted 40 BB holes in the head/neck area. The Federals ended up with 12 BB holes in the target at the same distance.

Haven't tried Hevi-shot but I know this much, I won't take a shot beyond 40 yds anyway with the shottie. Don't want to risk wounding a bird and loosing it.

[danurve]

lrhuntr; sounds like you were using a choke with a restriction designed for lead shot.

[bowfin]

Are you sure it is the shells, and not the shotgun (or shotgunner) throwing the pattern wide, high, or low? We had a guy out on patterning day for turkey season throwing beautiful dense patterns out of his expensive trap O/U, but two feet high. He couldn't have killed a turkey at 30 yards reliably. We finally found a shell that would throw a very good pattern if he aimed for the juncture of the feathers and wattles at the base of the neck (Winchester Supreme 3" #4s 2 oz. load). If you can get the biggest paper you can find, say even a newspaper unfolded, and put that behind your turkey target, it can give you a clue if you are shooting off point of aim.

When you get out to 50 yards, a plain bead sight has a hard time cutting it as a sighting tool. If you are a single degree off in your aim at that range, it will move your pattern over 2 1/2 feet off of center, according to my rusty trigonometry.

A second, mid rib bead helps immensely, and an aperture sight would be better yet.

Oh, back to the Hevi-shot: It works well long range, but seems to blow patterns if shot out of the wrong choke, and maybe even pattern a little too tight* at closer range. A turkey head is not a challenging target, but they have a habit of making a guy shoot from awkward angles and around trees when they come in the "wrong way" through brush. So I would rather have a more forgiving pattern at close range. If you find your particular combinations isn't too tight at 20 yards and under, and you have the right barrel and choke, then Hevi-shot can really extend your range by a considerable margin over lead.

*My totally arbitrary and unscientific method of figuring out if a shotgun pattern is too tight for turkeys is to put up two 8 1/2 by 11 targets either side of a third at 20 yards, and by aiming for the center one, have a pattern that would haved killed all three. That way, I can be a "half head off", and still have a bird to show for it.

[pre'64 Dan]

the guy that invented hevi-shot lives down the road from here a ways. near everybody I know uses it at Klamath and elsewhere. best thing since a slit night-gown. we use it for everything that flies here

[Old Time Hunter]

Try Federal 3" #4 "controled flight", works well to keep the pattern together.