Remington hevi shot or Winchester extended range?

[Juan Gonzales]

Are the Remington heavy shot or the Winchester extended range shells any good? I've been going through different lead loads and still not real satisfied. So before I drop a bunch of dough on the hevi loads I wanted to see what you guys say. Also I have a SBE ll and I'm shooting a carlson .665 choke and the best pattern I've got is 66 bbs in a 10" circle at 40 yards. Is that ok or poor, that was with the longbeard #5 3". Thanks

[WV Ridge Reaper]

Yea that's poor..My buddy has shot the double Xs for ever out of his M2 and has put plenty of birds down.

I actually run those shells in my 20 gauge with good results..Both of us are running Indian creek chokes.

So give them a try,they won't break the bank like others will.

[Skeeterbait]

A fairly excepted number by many turkey hunters is any distance that you cannot put 100 shot inside a 10 inch circle then you are outside the range of that shell in your setup.  I personally want to see more than that, 150+ before I am truely confident.

The Rem Hevishot and Win XRHD were good shells, they have since been discontinued. So unless you know of a secret source for these, your probably going to have difficulty finding them.  The Longbeard 3" #5 can perform better than that in your gun.  They have proven to be quite probably the best lead load that has ever been offered.  My opinion is that you need to try some other chokes.

[learn2hide]

   are you shooting at a big paper or small target?  66 pellets is very low for any load honestly...couple ideas make sure your bore is clean...like all the way not just swabbed out. Might even give it a polish using instructions posted here.  That Carlson is not a bad tube but there are dozens of others.  Also shoot one at 20 yds on a big paper and count pellets.  This will give you a total pellet count for that shell that you can then compare.  You should be able to get 90% of the total pellets inside 30" at 40 yards maybe more. If the total count at 20 is low you could have a bad batch of shells. Had it happen once where I couldn't break 100 with 6 shot the ammo company stood behind their product. Good luck

[Juan Gonzales]

Skeeterbait- my local gun shop has around 10 boxes of each the Remington hevi shot and the Winchester extended range. I tried the Remington nitro loads from Walmart and they patterned worse. I also bought some #6 federals with the flight control wads in 3" and there were only 59 bbs in a 10" circle at 40. The best pattern I got was 102 bbs in a 10" circle at 40 with my 870 and a .665 undertaker choke.

[SCDieselDawg]

66 is low for Longbeard 5s. I'd guess that it's not the shells. You possibly have a Poa/Poi issue or a extremely dirty barrel.

[Juan Gonzales]

I've cleaned the the barrel really good and the poi and poa are different. It shoots low and left but I pattern  all my loads on a piece of 2x2 cardboard so I can see the entire pattern. Even my nova 20ga the best pattern I got was 99 bbs in a 10" circle at 30 with Winchester supreme #5 with a .572 undertaker,  I keep my barrels clean and shoot off sticks, squeeze trigger just like shooting my rifle. Am I worrying to much or should I try something new?

[learn2hide]

Definitely something not synching up but I can say from experience the hi density and old rem hevi were good loads...the 5s will hit super hard and 6s will give you numbers with good power. Do t be afraid to try them...obviously the lead loads aren't working for you.  I would also just go get at least one more choke....

[SCDieselDawg]

Yeah, I'd try something different! It's a shock that the LongBeards didn't do better than that for you. I have a Remington 870 that wouldn't shoot any lead loads better that 85 in the 10". But the LongBeards more than doubled the pattern counts in that gun.

[Grunt-N-Gobble]

Several guys are having good success with the Indian Creek chokes in their SBEII, plus there are several others that do well.  Your 2x2 cardboard isn't big enough and if your POI isn't the same as your POA, then you need a bigger piece to really know how far off you are.  You may want to get a set of adjustable sights or a scope/red dot for your gun.

I won't be shooting those flight control shells unless I had a choke specifically for those as they can be very picky on chokes.

Another option is to call William @ Sumtoy Customs and tell him what you want to shoot and he'll set you up with a good choke.

[Dtrkyman]

I got over 200 in the ten with extended range and old hevi at 40yds, both number 6s...The extended range can still be had but once it is gone its gone.

That is a pathetic pattern with the longbeards, something sounds wrong, you sure you can see your whole pattern on a 2x2, shoot a larger target 30x30 at least and see. I shoot a 660 jelly head..If you have the non ported carlsons you can try heavyweight federal loads or some hevi 13 number 6 or 7 in either load.

[the Ward]

you can try the hd/ Winchester-rem/hevi shot in that choke tube and you should pick up a better 10" count. A .665 isn't all that tight of a constriction with a benelli. They seem to shoot the best patterns out of something in the .650-.660 range, especially with lead.To be honest, although Carlson makes  good chokes, I really haven't seen their turkey chokes pattern all that great. Check out the pattern pic board, there are a lot of sbe combos to check out. Good luck hope you get it figured out.

[strutstopper]

Are you drawing your 10 inch circle before you shoot or after you shoot?

[Juan Gonzales]

I put the circle on the board before I shoot. The best pattern I've found is the 3" longbeard #6. Thanks for all your advice!!

[learn2hide]

don't draw the circle before you shoot...you need to circle the 10" best densest spot after the fact to find out what's going on otherwise you are just drawing a bullseye