I've always had my doubts about hevi shot... I've only shot 2 turkeys with the stuff... One was about 50 yards away with Hevi13 #6's and i hit bird and watched him fly away... Looked for hours with no luck... I then bought a box of the HV13 #5's and shot a jake at about same distance... Hit bird and and knocked him down but had to finish him... Bird gave me a fit finishing him off...

I've done a lot of patterning with this stuff and it just doesent seem like it has the penetration like everybody claims...

I took some time this week end to just do some reading and did a few searchs on hevi shot reviews... And 99% of the reviews are about how great it patterns...

I hardly see any reviews on how well its destroyed gobblers at 40-50 plus yards...

And if I did see a negative review it was about how it didnt performe out at 45-50 yards...

I know this stuff patterns awsome compaired to anything else I've patterned... But I'm not worried about patterns... I want the stuff in my pattern to kill the dag gone bird...

So I guess what im getting at... Were is the kill reviews thats what I want to read!!! And not the ones at 20 and 30 yards...
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Looks like you proved to yourself that you should not shoot at birds near the 50 yard range. Obviously the hevi-shot is not doing the job out of your gun.
I did kill shot surveys with members here on the site in '07 and '08.
With 106 shots registered in '07 and 110 shots in '08, here is what I found.

Average shot distance in '07 was 26.68 yards and in '08 it was 27.2 yards
# of shots 30 yards or less...'07 there were 72...'08 there were 75
# of shots over 40 yards...'07 - 5...'08 - 7

I realize that this is not what you're looking for but it just goes to show that turkey hunting is mostly up close and personal. If you want that long range gun/load maybe try some other choke/load combos, if not just limit your shots to what your gun/load will do on a consistant basis. Good luck.

HS is bad news on ducks. Way out there. However I have avoided using it on turkeys. My gun is tuned for 3 in lead. Kills the Ones I should be killing. Barry's post above is excellent info. If I were stepping down to a twenty gauge for turkeys I might get a lot more serious about tuning a 20 gu forHevishot for Turks. Not there yet though.

I did alot of testing with the hevi-shot and the new tss-shot at the range and posted my results and kill results up last year. hevi-shot and tss has the killing power to kill @ 50, but its all about the guns set-up and that gun has got to be set-up to kill @ 50+ yeads (its all in having the right choke). im not going to get into all that now for i have had other hunters say im just bragging and go over board on my handloading and testing,.....BUT just get the right choke/ammo for your gun and time at the range to find what works for you.

hevi-shot, tss or lead shot all will kill birds........ most kills are @ 35yds+/-

Brian

If you have the right choke Hevi-shot will flat out anchor them at 50 yards all day long. However, its all in the choke tube and that tube makes a huge difference in the ability to put adequate pattern density on target. The old rule was if you can get 100 hits on target within a 10" circle at 40 yards you were gold. Hevi-shot in size 6 (with the right choke) will give you 150 hits within that same 10" circle. The only problem I have with hevi-shot is it can sometimes make the sport too easy and people don't work enough on their woodsmanship and their calling, set ups etc.. However, sometimes birds hang up and only give you that 45-50 yard shot. Hevi-shot will make that a make able shot 99 times out of 100 (with the right choke). For me Pure Gold and Indian Creek are the current Gold standard in choke tubes. PS. I've shot size 7 (not size 6) hevi-shot completely through a new sheet of 1/4" marine grade plywood at 40 yards. Its got plenty of penetration for sure.

GN i agree with ya! I use it on ducks and it does make a difference in longer shots...Ive seen too many ducks and geese take steel and keep on truckin probably to die out of sight. I've already gone through a case of Hevi Metal and 5 boxes of Hevi Shot on ducks in the past 3 months. But it gets to be really $$$$$. Thats why I shoot more Hevi Metal. (1/2 Hevi shot, 1/2 Steel per load)

As for turkeys, I go back in forth between lead and Hevi. I have killed them at 45-50 w/ Hevi but seems that bigger pellets do a better job. I like the 3 1/2 " #5s. I'm not a advocate for long shots on turkeys as I like to cut them when i can feel their breath from the gobble at 15 yards, but on occasion it is necessary for 50 yard shots.......i guess...............

I'm a firm believer in Hevishot for both turkeys and waterfowl. With regard to turkeys, I mostly hunt the woods and keep my range under 30 yards. Has knocked them dead everytime in that range. I don't hunt alot of fields, so can't comment on it's effectiveness out to 50 yards and I've never patterned at that distance because, honestly, I just don't think turkey hunting is a long distance game for me. A personal choice. Now, waterfowling, I simply LOVE Hevishot. My kill'm dead ratio goes WAY up. For the record, I'm not a good shot by any stretch of the imagination but with Hevishot, I kill far more birds that I shoot at. Agree with the expensive nature of it, but with so few opportunities to kill ducks here in SW VA, it to me is worth the expense at this point.

Well at the prices of hevi shot I doubt I'd buy these shells to shoot gobblers at 30 and 40 yards... My Win HV loads will take care of that at a 3rd of the price... I guess what it boils down to is... People want more than 10-15 hits in the vitals at 40 yards...

Once my Hevi shot loads are gone I'll be done with them... I have 2 box's of 3.5" Mag blend and 2 box's of 3.5" hevi13 #6's(1090fps) and a Indian creek choke I'll let go for 50 bucks if anybody interested...

PM sent

Hevishot is only 1g/cc denser than lead. It's a huge jump up from steel in terms of penetration energy, but not so much compared with lead. If you move up to Federal HWT, the energy jumps WAY up. And then TSS goes way up from there.

You can shoot heavier than lead, you can shoot 3.5" shells with more shot, you can use a R----. All depends on what you want to do. If you call them in close lead works great. If you call them in close a 2 3/4" works great. If you call them in close a .22 LR will knock them dead with proper shot placement. I won't own a gun with 3.5" chamber, just don't like the concussion with every shot. I will use heavy when lead is banned, hope it never happens. I will use a R---- if a shotgun isn't available.

All things are personal preference. Those are mine and yours will be different. Go out and have fun.

Vic