I've been trying out the new heavier than lead loads. I shot Remington Hevi-shot 1 5/8 oz. 6 shot, Winchester X-tended 1 3/4 oz. 6 shot, and Federal flitecontrol heavyweight 1 1/2 oz. 6 shot, all 3" shells. First of all the new federals are a joke. I shot all shots at 40 big steps. The new flightcontrol wad doesn't do what they claim it does. At 40 yards the wad bounced off the target with EVERY shot!! The new wad is supposed to separate from the shot quicker to have less of an effect. I think it fails miserably at doing that. I suspect this is why the patters were so poor for the federals. Federal recommends shooting a non-ported choke. I only had one choke to shoot that was non-ported and it had the same results as the ported chokes. The remingtons shot better than the federals in every choke. But the winchesters shot the best! They outpatterened the remingtons in every choke I tried. I shot a MAD MAX .655, a COMP N CHOKE .655, the factory .670, a MAD supermax .675, and a Primos Jelly Head .660. The Winchesters shot the best out of the Jelly Head. I just put a big piece of cardboard up and shot at the center of it just so I could better see my whole pattern and determine if there were any holes in the patterns. I shoot a scope so I can move my pattern whereever it needs to be. I then drew a circle by tracing the top of a 5 gallon bucket (approx. 11.5 inches diameter) around the "concentration" of the pattern. Then I counted the nuber of hits within that circle. The winchesters outshot the best remington / choke combo by 55 pellets. I have ordered two cabela's hevi-shot non-ported chokes which I have not received yet. I want to try them as they are a .680 and a .700. I've read that the less constricted chokes actually perform better with a lot of these loads. I'll try all 3 shells with these chokes but it looks like right now I'll be shooting the Winchesters. Just thought I would pass this along in case someone else was wanting to try similiar combinations. My gun is a 9200 mossberg with a 24" barrel and a pentax SG lightseeker scope.
Browtine

I have heard many people talking about the 40 yard wads Seems the Flight Control wad are a good bit heavier then a "standard" wad. Several people feel that it flying the distance just from it's weight.

Sounds like your ready to go, good luck!

Browtine - Thanks for the report!!! I'm especially anxious to hear how the .680 and a .700 chokes do for you. If the rain holds off here in PA I plan to test the Winchesters as well through a Rhino .660 and a Pure Gold .670. I'll post a report when I'm done.

I'm shooting Winchester High Velocity 3" 1 3/4 oz #4s out of a Comp-N-Choke (.675) constriction and I am getting an outstanding pattern out to 45 yards. In fact Diablo has a ton of info regarding patterning results (I mean he has shot more gun/choke/shell combos than almost anyone alive and has the data to prove it) and the combo I mentioned above is shooting as well as anything he has ever tried. That doesn't mean my combo is the best, but what I am saying is an extremely tight constriction is not always the best when it comes to overall pattern. Also, note that I am shooting a 3" shell and an 1 3/4 oz load of #4s...for me they pattern better than all the 3.5" shells I tried and better than 2 oz loads meaning bigger shells and more pellets aren't always better either. Every gun is different but more isn't always better either.

Just a little extra food for thought.

-Eric