This is my first post to the forum. I have been coming to this forum for years and truly appreciate the wealth of knowledge to be found here.
Last spring I purchased the new Mossberg Silver Reserve Eventide Turkey o/u in 12 gauge. Both then and now there doesn't seem to be a lot of reviews or info about these guns so I thought I'd share my experience thus far with y'all.
Before I had purchased the silver reserve, I had been using a Winchester mod-120 12ga with a .675 briley turkey choke for several years. The ol 120 served its purpose for many seasons but I had grown tired carrying a telephone pole though the turkey woods
. After researching several different makes and models I had narrowed it down to two firearms. The silver reserve and Henry's new turkey gun (leaning more towards the Henry). After visiting my FFL the Henry was on back order and this was only a few months before spring opener, so as fate has it, the Mossberg it was. Once I received the firearm a few weeks later my first impression was "Holy cow is this thing short!" I was well aware that the gun was only 38.25" long but pictures don't do it justice for how compact it truly is. At just under 7lbs I was in love this gun before ever pulling the trigger. It came with two xfull turkey chokes from Mossberg, I had planned on swapping them for after market chokes but figured I might as well give them ago. Off to the backyard range I went. My initial plan was to set up a long and close barrel as many o/u guys do but couldn't wait to try her out any longer
I had been running 2oz #9 tss loads for the past few seasons but for $$$ sake decided to try a few 3.5" #5 longbeards through the new gun (only lead loads I had on me). I knew that recoil would be stiff but wow! Unless you like self punishment they are brutal in this 6.75lb beast. With the stock turkey chokes at 40yds I was pretty impressed with the patterns. I didn't bother to count but they were adequate by most standards. Heres where things sorta took a turn.. After shooting I went to take the gun apart and quickly found at that the chokes were tight and I mean REALLY tight. Too make a long story short I'm assuming that the cheap Mobil chokes that it comes with were far too thin for heavy turkey loads and bulged. I was able to get them out without any damage to barrels and promptly ordered some chokes from Rob Roberts.
As I said before I intended to have a long and close barrel. For most scenarios I would intend to use the close but as most of you know they don't always come into your lap. After talking with the guys at Rob Roberts I decided on the Final Strut .660 and T3 which is basically a full constriction. I tested the poi/poa with target loads before slinging $$$ down range. My biggest concern with this gun was how different the barrel may shoot. I found that the top barrel shoots a tad high but very close to poa out to 40 and the bottom barrel just a touch low. (I'll get into measurements late on.) My thought at the time was to shoot TSS in the long barrel and lead in the other. I came across some Apex 3.5" #9 at a fair price and went ahead and got them even though I typically avoid 3.5" loads. After a good deal of trying different loads I settled on the Apex 3.5" 2.5oz #9 out of the top (long) barrel and longbeard 3" #5 out of the bottom (close) barrel. The long barrel resulted in 475 hits in the 10 @40yds and the close barrel provided a nice even pattern that I liked out to 20 or so yards.
That season I harvest 3 mature gobblers with this setup. 2 with the long and 1 with the close. I found that unless birds are very close I tend to just run the longer barrel.
Fast forward to now, for Christmas the ol lady got me a few boxes of Apex's new Greenleaf blend. It's a 2 1/4 oz blend of tss 10s and 9s with a whopping total count of 1,096
. While I recognize that 10s are lacking compared to 9s I thought they would would provide an even more forgiving, even pattern at reasonable ranges. I also thought that this load would work well for shooting the same load in both of the barrels. I had grown to not like the idea of having to carry two different loads but did like having two different patterns. Today I hit the patterning board and I am very pleased with the results. The long barrel provided 432 hits in the 10" and while I didn't count the 20" it was pretty uniform with no holes. The close barrel provided 510 hits in the 10" @20yds and without counting appears to have the rest of shot close to or within the 20". While the close barrel did prove to be a little more dense and uniform I like the idea of having a pretty similar pattern at both 20 and 40yds. With these loads the top barrel shoots 3" high of center @40 and the close barrel shoots 3" low of center @20. I'm really looking forward to using this setup this spring! I will note that the latest patterning was done free handed so there may have been some user error as far poa goes but I have found the poi/poa to be close enough by my standards. I have considered putting a sight on this gun but have found that as long I keep my head down and the bead flush with receiver it will do what I want it to every time. I feel that such a short gun can easily be pulled or canted when aiming but if you do your part it will return the favor.