Has anyone patterned these new Verdict Juror 20 gauge #5 Turkey loads.
I bought a couple boxes haven't tried it yet going to try sumtoy 562 and indian creek 570
Can these be shot out of a vintage gun?
Video on YouTube and this load. Patterns did not look very good.
The YouTube video I saw was decent. They were shooting a Mossberg 500 with a .585 choke. Farthest shot I saw was 35 yards and it was a dead turkey. Tighten the choke and I bet you can get a killing 40 yard pattern.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Just watched the video and I was not impressed at all, expected better. You should ALWAYS use a large backer to see the entire pattern. You should also shoot different chokes in the same gun to truly see what works best for the combo. I suspect they knew it was not great and never showed a 40 yd pattern and held to 35, which looked no better than lbxr in a 20 ga. Hope to see more soon and I will chat with Verdict at the Dixie Classic to learn more.
You'll get about the same performance as Grand Slams, XX, or Nitro Turkey at 3x the cost because they're " custom hand loaded" .
If they really wanted a decent pattern they should have loaded #6 instead of #5s.
Quote from: turkeykiller41 on February 10, 2026, 05:57:36 PMIf they really wanted a decent pattern they should have loaded #6 instead of #5s.
5s kill just fine.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Quote from: davisd9 on February 10, 2026, 06:52:50 PMQuote from: turkeykiller41 on February 10, 2026, 05:57:36 PMIf they really wanted a decent pattern they should have loaded #6 instead of #5s.
5s kill just fine.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yes they kill fine they are just less of them,and #6 kills fine too.
Quote from: turkeykiller41 on February 10, 2026, 07:18:31 PMQuote from: davisd9 on February 10, 2026, 06:52:50 PMQuote from: turkeykiller41 on February 10, 2026, 05:57:36 PMIf they really wanted a decent pattern they should have loaded #6 instead of #5s.
5s kill just fine.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yes they kill fine they are just less of them,and #6 kills fine too.
Agree that 6s would be the better option in the 20 gauge. Apparently, there is not enough demand for lead turkey shells in the 20 ga, so mfgs decided they would only offer 5s as a middle of the road option. Fives kill great and are probably the sweet spot between pellet energy and pattern density for a 12 gauge payload between 4s, 5s, and 6s. Unfortunately, you can not get enough of them in a 20 gauge shell, so you will ALWAYS run out of pattern before you do pellet energy. Sixes will kill as far as the limited pattern of a 20 ga will hold up.
Through extensive testing before moving to tss, we found that lbxr #5 loads in various 12 ga guns and choke combos outperformed #6 and #4 loads on 40 yard pattern counts every single time. 3" was better than 3.5" too. There is more to great pattens than just pellet and load size. Verdict likely found the same thing in their testing and went with 5s because they perform better. I heard the same thing from Federal's shot shell product manager when we tested tss for him. With that said, I have yet to see a lead load in our 20ga tests that I would hunt with to 40 yds, no matter what shot size. I was hoping the verdict load would change that, but not based on the videos available right now. If you have a 20 that shoots lead to 40, hang on to that unicorn, you have a good one!
No you are right about 40 yds with lead in 20 gauge,but I have got better patterns at 35 with lead 6s