Hevi-Shot is introducing a new Magnum Blend shell that has #4, #5 & #7 shot. I'll shoot some soon and let you know how they pattern. The addition of #4 shot should make them a crushing load but there's just no substitute for range time to let you know for sure.
Thanks,
Clark
Now there's a solution in need of a problem.
I wounded if they will name it the Nitro blend?
Hopefully it patterns better than the box of 5-6-7 that I picked up last week. Lows in the 110 range and high of 145 out of 4 different tubes.
Hope the shoot good.
If I'm spending money for Hevishot it's going to be on Hevi13 #7's. I've not seen anything any better.
Quote from: Tom Foolery on March 15, 2015, 08:10:39 AM
Hope the shoot good.
If I'm spending money for Hevishot it's going to be on Hevi13 #7's. I've not seen anything any better.
This. Until I get into handloading, this is still my go-to shell for my 835.
I should have said, I've seen nothing better commercially produced.
Handloads and the TSS stuff is more betterer.
Quote from: Tom Foolery on March 15, 2015, 09:02:16 AM
I should have said, I've seen nothing better commercially produced.
Handloads and the TSS stuff is more betterer.
Tom,
I agree with you 100%. Still the best shooting stuff out of my gun.
Yep great shooting stuff.....I will have to give the new magblends a whirl !!!! Off to the range !!
Quote from: BandedSpur on March 15, 2015, 07:56:45 AM
Now there's a solution in need of a problem.
Replacing the 6 shot with 4 shot...why????
Quote from: owlhoot on March 15, 2015, 10:04:41 AM
Quote from: BandedSpur on March 15, 2015, 07:56:45 AM
Now there's a solution in need of a problem.
Replacing the 6 shot with 4 shot...why????
Exactly! Glad I have a stock of older Blends. When I run out I'm either rolling my own or maybe going Nitro's or something. It seems Hevi is always changing stuff and going in the wrong direction when they do. It may explain the lower numbers guys are getting this year with the Blends. Too much of the bigger shot sizes. Probably an economic thing. They end up selling a lot more of the 6's and 7's so they end up with a surplus of 4's and 5's. They gotta sell em' one way or another so they change the ratio in the blends to get rid of them.That would make sense for production so they're not losing money. I don't know if that's what's happening or not, just my theory on why ammo companies sometimes do what they do.
:icon_thumright:
Quote from: the Ward on March 15, 2015, 10:39:35 AM
Quote from: owlhoot on March 15, 2015, 10:04:41 AM
Quote from: BandedSpur on March 15, 2015, 07:56:45 AM
Now there's a solution in need of a problem.
Replacing the 6 shot with 4 shot...why????
Exactly! Glad I have a stock of older Blends. When I run out I'm either rolling my own or maybe going Nitro's or something. It seems Hevi is always changing stuff and going in the wrong direction when they do. It may explain the lower numbers guys are getting this year with the Blends. Too much of the bigger shot sizes. Probably an economic thing. They end up selling a lot more of the 6's and 7's so they end up with a surplus of 4's and 5's. They gotta sell em' one way or another so they change the ratio in the blends to get rid of them.That would make sense for production so they're not losing money. I don't know if that's what's happening or not, just my theory on why ammo companies sometimes do what they do.
:icon_thumright:
As far as I know, they'll still have the regular Magnum Blend shells in addition to this one. It will be interesting to see how it patterns.
Thanks,
Clark
It's really hard to beat the Hevi 3/2/6's and 3/2/7's. I haven't been able to find any difference in those shells from year to year. Shooting 180's-200's with the 6's and 250's-280's with the 7's I can't find any reason to need something more. I've shot some good patterns with magblends I just didn't see consistent patterns from shot to shot. Too much money to go into hoping they will work.
Quote from: Longshanks on March 15, 2015, 11:22:27 AM
It's really hard to beat the Hevi 3/2/6's and 3/2/7's. I haven't been able to find any difference in those shells from year to year. Shooting 180's-200's with the 6's and 250's-280's with the 7's I can't find any reason to need something more. I've shot some good patterns with magblends I just didn't see consistent patterns from shot to shot. Too much money to go into hoping they will work.
I'm also a fan of the standard shells, normally the #6s because I've shot so many of them I know just what they do. I try new shells, just to evaluate their performance because no matter what we think, we just never know until we take them to the range. Hopefully, time and the weather will allow some range time this week.
Thanks,
Clark
I just ran a few of theses through my Mossberg835 today with the Hevi-13 choke, Carlson long beard choke, and an Indian creek. The Hevi choke at 40 yds scored 150 hits, the long beard choke scored 128 hits, and the Indian creek choke scored 138 hits. You can definitely tell there's a big decrease of pellets in theses shells. I shot the 3.5" 2.25oz. 4,5,7 shot and the patterns where significantly less dense at 40 yards when compared to the 5,6,7 shot. The patterns weren't "that" bad and resembled some of the patterns I've gotten with the Winchester long beard #4's. One question I would have is, if the 5,6,7 blend was advertised to kill out to 70-75 yds, I wonder how far this one will :z-guntootsmiley:!? I m pretty sure Pattern density will be the limiting factor on this load . :z-twocents:
Quote from: Tom Foolery on March 15, 2015, 08:10:39 AM
Hope the shoot good.
If I'm spending money for Hevishot it's going to be on Hevi13 #7's. I've not seen anything any better.
X2 Tom! I've had excellent results with the 7's.
I'm a hypocrite here but I went form the mag blends to long beards because of price in 12ga ammo, but I shoot federal heavyweights in my 20ga.
There's my review :TooFunny:
Quote from: petemoss83 on March 17, 2015, 01:01:34 AM
I just ran a few of theses through my Mossberg835 today with the Hevi-13 choke, Carlson long beard choke, and an Indian creek. The Hevi choke at 40 yds scored 150 hits, the long beard choke scored 128 hits, and the Indian creek choke scored 138 hits. You can definitely tell there's a big decrease of pellets in theses shells. I shot the 3.5" 2.25oz. 4,5,7 shot and the patterns where significantly less dense at 40 yards when compared to the 5,6,7 shot. The patterns weren't "that" bad and resembled some of the patterns I've gotten with the Winchester long beard #4's. One question I would have is, if the 5,6,7 blend was advertised to kill out to 70-75 yds, I wonder how far this one will :z-guntootsmiley:!? I m pretty sure Pattern density will be the limiting factor on this load . :z-twocents:
Very interesting. I appreciate the information.
Thanks,
Clark
Ok, I like the idea of these shells so I decided to give them another run today. I only used the Hevi-13 choke tube today since it yielded the best results on my last session with these shells. First shot from 40yds put 190 hits in the 10". Second shot was in the upper 180's. The temp was actually 10 degrees cooler today at 56 degrees. Not really sure what was different today from last time but the 4,5,7 shot seemed to pattern better than the 5,6,7 shot today. I shot the 5,6,7 shot through my indian creek, long beard choke, hevi-13 choke, and ssx today and the best I could get was 184 with the Indian creek. Not sure if its worth mentioning but the 5,6,7 did have better numbers in the 20" circle. The 4,5,7 shot had a total of 290 hits inside the 20" at 40yds(190 in 10" + 100 in outer ring) and while I didn't count the 5,6,7 shots 20" numbers, by simply looking at the patterns you could tell they had approx. twice the hits in that outer ring between the 10 and 20. I don't think my 835 is too crazy about these mag blend loads overall, but Im satisfied with the 4,5,7 patterns and have decided give them a try this year. Hope this info is helpful to someone and hope everyones season is off to a good start!!!
Quote from: petemoss83 on March 19, 2015, 11:33:14 PM
Ok, I like the idea of these shells so I decided to give them another run today. I only used the Hevi-13 choke tube today since it yielded the best results on my last session with these shells. First shot from 40yds put 190 hits in the 10". Second shot was in the upper 180's. The temp was actually 10 degrees cooler today at 56 degrees. Not really sure what was different today from last time but the 4,5,7 shot seemed to pattern better than the 5,6,7 shot today. I shot the 5,6,7 shot through my indian creek, long beard choke, hevi-13 choke, and ssx today and the best I could get was 184 with the Indian creek. Not sure if its worth mentioning but the 5,6,7 did have better numbers in the 20" circle. The 4,5,7 shot had a total of 290 hits inside the 20" at 40yds(190 in 10" + 100 in outer ring) and while I didn't count the 5,6,7 shots 20" numbers, by simply looking at the patterns you could tell they had approx. twice the hits in that outer ring between the 10 and 20. I don't think my 835 is too crazy about these mag blend loads overall, but Im satisfied with the 4,5,7 patterns and have decided give them a try this year. Hope this info is helpful to someone and hope everyones season is off to a good start!!!
It's helpful to me and I appreciate your sharing it.
Thanks,
Clark
Well sounds like a good pattern.
What would be neat is a hevi 6 and 7 blend load at the head whooping 1200 mag. Blend velocity
Hey Clark bend their ears a bit
A 6,7 blended load sounds perfect....... Pattern density would be awesome and range would be more than enough!!
Now that's a blend that would work. 6 x 7 wouldn't stay on the shelf
Clark,
Could you possibly do an article on penetration of pellets and post it on here. I don't have the materials to compare true terminal performance of loads other than what I see in the field. It would be really neat to see a 40 yd comparison of long beards vs. hevi13.... 6s vs. 7s ... 5s vs 6s and so on.
Not exactly what you asked for but here is an old test with lead, hevi and TSS on metal:
http://www.OldGobbler.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1653&sid=965967d595f43a1d6e874995b0f9b69a
Quote from: foxred1962 on March 22, 2015, 05:51:37 AM
Clark,
Could you possibly do an article on penetration of pellets and post it on here. I don't have the materials to compare true terminal performance of loads other than what I see in the field. It would be really neat to see a 40 yd comparison of long beards vs. hevi13.... 6s vs. 7s ... 5s vs 6s and so on.
Penetration tests are always interesting and also very time consuming. I've done a number of them on home and personal protection loads using barriers, internal walls, external walls and with mycrocrystalline wax, which is more stable than ballistic gelatin.
When evaluating turkey loads, I use "big paper" mounted on multiple sheets of corrugated board with an earthen backstop. That sits on top of and behind a large open box. At the end of any session, that corrugated board and the box have a lot of shot retained in them.
A pretty simple yet maybe revealing study could be done by using a few layers of new corrugated board and firing those various shells from 40 yards at them, changing out the boards with each shot, and observing penetration and retention of the shot. Maybe not too "scientific" but it should give a pretty good visual idea of what's going on.
That would need to be a late summer project for me however.
Thanks,
Clark
Thanks for the quick reply Clark. I love patterning a ton especially with finicky waterfowl loads. It's just tough to simulate kinetic energy when your talking about pellets and then simulate energy transfer to breaking bone instead of just feathers and breast bone like with geese. I have heard of people hanging little dowel rods and shooting them along with wet phone books and other materials.... i agree with most that pattern density is the key then energy but what load is the best of both worlds is very intriguing... My dad used to hunt with and old wingmaster full choke and 2 3/4 lead #2's back in the old days and killed a ton of birds it's amazing how far technology has came!!!
I would like to see a 6x7 blend running 1200 fps.
Quote from: foxred1962 on March 22, 2015, 05:51:37 AM
Clark,
Could you possibly do an article on penetration of pellets and post it on here. I don't have the materials to compare true terminal performance of loads other than what I see in the field. It would be really neat to see a 40 yd comparison of long beards vs. hevi13.... 6s vs. 7s ... 5s vs 6s and so on.
Here you go: 40 yds, sea level, 70 degrees, 1200 fps, penetration in ballistic gel (via KPY Ballistics)
Lead 4=2.2"
5=1.9
6=1.6
HS 4=2.6
5=2.2
6=1.9
7=1.6
I was talking to nitro yesterday and I'm almost positive that they can make whatever loads you want. May be worth checking into a 6/7 load from them
I understand from a reputable fellow sportsman that the mag blends are not good this year. Can anyone attest to this? I guess they're not patterning well?
I think a lot of shell companies are having trouble getting certain powders they usually load with. Atkeast that's the line I got from nitro
Well I'm not sure about the powders but I can tell ya that I've shot somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-10 boxes of magblends this year trying to find the best patterning combo and it does seem as if their loading isn't consistent. What I mean is, different wads and shot sizes varying more so than they say. I usually shoot a felt type material with a coated backing that I get from work. It stops a lot of the shot when firing from 40 or farther. So I could see all different sizes of shot including several bbs that would be stuck together. Some shot bigger than 4's and some way smaller than 7's. Patterns were inconsistent ranging from 108 to 200+ hits at 40 yds in a ten. I ran a bore snake through the barrel twice in between each shot trying to keep the shots consistent. The wad differences kind of surprised me. One wad type was clear and would actually tear when fired. Sides would come off half way up. The other type was a grey or light blue color but was clearly a more durable wad. Also patterned better. This has been my experience this year with Hevi shot and I do feel like for the cost, things could be more consistent.
Thanx for the feedback. I hope this is just a fluke and not what is going to remain for the future.
I posted pretty much the same things that petemoss said about the misshapen shot and inconsistencies for the amount of money they cost yesterday on a thread called, how consistent should a particular load be?
Quote from: petemoss83 on March 21, 2015, 12:12:07 AM
A 6,7 blended load sounds perfect....... Pattern density would be awesome and range would be more than enough!!
Agreed! I would like to see a load like this. The 4, 5, 7 load should make a good home defense load!
Hmm. The magblends were the pattern winner this year for me. I tried turkey thug 6's, LB 5's, and hevi 5's, all 3 1/2.