It is encouraging to see the proliferation of interest in TSS shot for wild turkey application. My first hand experience with the shot is that they hate turkeys and aim to get out of them completely as soon as they find themselves in one,which is good. Once upon a time, if you wanted to be toting the shells, you had to be loading the shells. and everybody didn't have the confidence in their abilities to do that. In light of the tremendous interest in TSS, based in no small part from patterning photos off of sites such as OG and others, it wouldn't be long before the shells became more available to the public. Up steps 3 commercial ammunition companies, Federal, Nitro and a startup company, Apex, who now provide TSS shells. These shells are not cheap, but they will flat deliver the mail. All of these companies are offering 20 gauge shells which don't surprise me one second as TSS is THE shot shell to ignite for launching down our carefully chosen barrels.
What shells will you be easing into the magazine in the dark gray mornings this year, TSS or otherwise?
FC
This will be my 5th season with TSS handloads.
I'm trying Apex and Federal #9's this year, but have handloaded the past couple of years.
Quote from: harleytom on March 05, 2018, 11:04:20 AM
I'm trying Apex and Federal #9's this year, but have handloaded the past couple of years.
Have you had a chance to shoot these two brands yet? Was wondering which one worked better for you.
I got a bit better pattern with the Apex straight 9's, but I think I could get similar patterns with Federal if I tinkered with chokes a bit more. I wanted to use Apex due to slightly lower recoil for my grandson.
Federal heavyweight 7s, hevi 6s& mag blends and MAYBE the longbeard 6s. I have 28 boxes of HW 7s and around 10 in 6s (that put up 130-140 avg) so I feel no need to run tss for at least the next couple of years... ;D
TSS here. I've been hand loading for 6 or 7 years now.
Quote from: harleytom on March 05, 2018, 02:31:44 PM
I got a bit better pattern with the Apex straight 9's, but I think I could get similar patterns with Federal if I tinkered with chokes a bit more. I wanted to use Apex due to slightly lower recoil for my grandson.
I'd be very careful with Apex. I've seen both overcharged and undercharged rounds. The overcharge cracked the receiver on the shotgun and the undercharged left a wad stuck in a barrel. From what I've been told, they blamed it on the powdered used. However, they don't date nor lot code their ammo so they couldn't recall those "bad" powder loads even if they wanted to. Sounds to me like they rushed a product out to market without quality control in place when manufacturing the rounds. There's no way I'd allow any member of my family to shoot their ammo. My .02 from what I've seen.
So, you've experienced some of these issues first hand? Sounds similar to what we hear about Nitros from time to time.
Quote from: harleytom on March 05, 2018, 03:32:24 PM
So, you've experienced some of these issues first hand? Sounds similar to what we hear about Nitros from time to time.
2nd hand knowledge, but I trust the source.
Explain how a federally licensed ammunition manufacturer and retailer gets away with not dating (almost never see that anyway), but worse not marking specific lots on their ammunition? ??? Somebody else chime in here as I've never purchased apex ammo but literally EVERY SINGLE OTHER load I've purchased from nitro to hevi shot is lot catalogued. ESPECIALLY since they also 3rd party wholesale to other major distributors...
I guess I'm the odd ball here. Older Remington hevi or plain old fashioned lead loads. No TSS for me yet. May get some for the side by side .410 in the future.
The best patterns I ever got with HeviShot were from those Remington shells. The Grex would leak out of about half of them, so I sealed the crimps with wax, but they still threw dense, even patterns that blew my mind. I was shooting a 12 gauge back then.
Very well worded description of tss from FC. Like many others I too have started handloading tss but have yet been able to reap what I have sewn. I started loading 20's after falling in love with the Fed HW 7's in my sons gun. Mostly to the benefit of my children and my father. I am not loading to be able to kill turkeys at ridiculous distances but to improve on what was already working. I recently loaded several 12 gauge rounds just to see and personally I see no advantage to it in the 12 gauge over a good dose of Hevi shot. To each their own.
I would not hesitate to shoot a load from any of the 3 companies.