Remington Hevi Shot turkey loads

[dongun]

The wife and I went to Wally World last night for a loaf of bread. It cost us $218 and we forgot the bread. Anyway, I had to make my regular pilgrimage through the sporting goods department. Among other things, I bought a box of the new Remington Hevi Shot turkey loads for $20 (box of 10 shells).

I have a turkey choke for my Rem 870. On the choke it says for lead only. Does anyone know if this new shot will damage the choke?

 

[dongun]

Well, I answered my own question. I went to Remington,s web site and looked in the FAQs. They say they have shot over 500 rounds of Hevi Shot through all of their chokes, and none of them changed dimensions. I saw that they have made a choke specially for Hevi Shot turkey loads. Supposed to get a 94% pattern at 40 yds. Probably only want $50 for it.

 

[labgrade]

Heard of some incredible patternings with Heavy-Shot, but at $2 a shot, think I'll stick with less pricey stuff.

My turkey load'll do 'em past 45 yds or so & a lot cheaper. Worst case, I'll hunt 'em in the Fall & can use a rifle.

 

[cookhj]

any of the specialty turkey loads are far better than just using plain jane 4's or 6's. i use federal's 3" mag turkey loads, and although they kick like a son-of-a-gun, they pattern extremely well. besides, who cares if it's $2 a round when you're only gonna fire a few to pattern and one shot per turkey. you MIGHT use one box a season. it's well worth it in my opinion.

 

[yankytrash]

This past duck season I went with a couple seasoned veterans who swore by Hevishot. They also had the $1000 O/U shptguns to match.

I was thoroughly unimpressed with both of their performances all season, me bagging on average 4 more ducks per day than both of them combined with my cheapo 870 Express 28" and some cheap Remington steel 6 target loads from Cabela's at $8 a box.

Funny story, I was planning on turning the Express into my new turkey gun, so I wanted to try out one of those choke threading kits from Brownell's. For turkey I like a 22" barrel with Tru-glo's, and wrap the whole gun in camo gun tape. Well, these seasoned veterans of the waterfowl world told me I'd never drop anything like a duck with a 22", and especially with Tru-glo rifle sights. I told them I would. They told me I wouldn't, I told them I would. I was so confident that them little quackers would go down with a 22", I told them I'd do it in cylinder bore the next day just to shut'm up.
That evenin, I went out to the shop with my 870 Express 28", pulled out the chopbox, and turned'r into a 22" cylinder bore. Crowned it a little, dipped the muzzle, and outfitted'r for turkey with the camo tape and tru-glos (did I mention a pistol-gripped Chaote stock too? Oh ya, I went deep for this project... ).
The next morning I get some chuckles and rolled eyes about my brand-new turkeygun. Put out the decoys, got the blind set, and waited for first light. Light comes, and I procede to bag the entire boat's limit for the day - 24 ducks by 8:30 AM. That ol' turkey gun sent us home early that day, neither one of the seasoned veterans with a single wingshot.

I guess the ol' 22" was too quick for'm. Oh, and by the way, I was still using those cheapo Remington steel 6's.

 

[Poodleshooter]

Good man Yankytrash! I'm using $9 per box Kent Faststeel. It takes down even big Canadas with some authority.
Most guys overchoke their loads. Steel shoots just fine if it's going fast (over 1400fps) and is used in a modified or relatively open choke.
For turkeys, I'll be using reloaded 2-3/4" 1-3/8oz lead that costs me about $5 per box...of 25! I killed my last turkey with a rifle after calling it in to about 15yds.
The most important part is how well YOU can shoot YOUR shotgun.

 

[labgrade]

My only take on these "extra shots-loads" is just pattern already available stuff. See what's available & see how it shoots in your shotgun .... you may be surprsied.

Could/may be that there's already something out there that'll do the trick w/o having to spend $2/shot ... that's all.

Folks have been killing turkeys, at distance, for years, w/o resulting to a $2/shot round. Some of that is pullin' em in a bit closer - what huning is all about, no? - much is patterning.

Many a-one will just go out & buy the "best" off-the-shelf-newbie fodder & call it good. Probablly works, but you could do easily better by just patterning AND with much less cost AND have an all round smackin'-load for anything you'd want for a shotgun.

Whatever.

I betcha I spent an easy $100 patterning a turkey load for ONE shotgun.

Decided on a Federal Premium 2 oz load of #4 shot with a Rem 870 Express/full turkey choke. & that's just for this ONE gun - anything else will probaly work pretty good, but it's not a proven load.

One of my best patterning loads was an el cheap-o load of #4 shot, at 1-1/4 oz, in a mod choke, - a basic field load for (old time) ducks) ....

There is absolutely no reason to spend $2/shot for anything - let alone for a turkey.