Turkey hunting forum for turkey hunting tips
Turkey Guns & Shooting => 12 ga Winchester turkey gun patterns => Topic started by: frubois on April 26, 2015, 07:09:59 PM
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I have a 24" barrel winchester 1300 that I used a ssx choke tube in with the 3" magnum blends. I lasered the 40 yards and took two shots because I was on limited time. I looked around and I can't seem to find any patterns with the 3" mag blends come close to what I came up with. Is this an average pattern with the blends? Any input? I actually did worse with the heavy #7s.
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Another shot
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Looks really good. Can't read the number though in the pics. How many hits on each shot ?
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267 and 236, I was being conservative too whenever their was a discrepancy on how many pellets made that big hole. I kind of feel like this should be too good to be true? Maybe it's really 35 yards taped out?
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im thinkin so that's unheard of for 3 "
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What would be considered a good average with the 3" mb then?
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My Mossberg with 3" magblends is right in the 220-240 range and 250+ with 3.5". I think there's a good chance youve just got a good patterning gun and choke combo and I think the shells are mostly #7's either way there deadly
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Ok, I will be doing more testing. My jellyhead shot the #7s better then the mag blends but still only put up 208, and my ssx really did not like the #7s at all.
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What mossberg is it that puts up those numbers?
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If it is not exactly 40 yards and even if it is 35 then you are more than good to 40 yards as you may would lose 40-50 hits. I would hunt it with no problem. Good luck!
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I would hunt with that load/choke combo and never look back :icon_thumright:
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Mossberg 535 and a .660 primos tightwad choke . I have done a lot of testing and it is just a great combo for both hevi 7's and magnum blends. shoots great with hevi, but not that impressive with lead.
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Those are amazing patterns with the Magnum blends....doesn't surprise me at all
they are incredible shells
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All of the rangefinders I have used have been within 1 yard. I would be shocked if your rangefinder was 5 yards off, especially at such a short distance of 40 yards.
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Agreed. I have an old nikon that I got when they first came out and even that goes to 1/2 yard increments. I've even checked mine against known distances and it's been on target.
Nice pattern.
All of the rangefinders I have used have been within 1 yard. I would be shocked if your rangefinder was 5 yards off, especially at such a short distance of 40 yards.
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I agree, Mot rangefinders are +/- .5 yards. Thats a half yard. I say yours is dead on and you just have a great pattern. I have always liked the Mag Blends. I may have to add a SSX to my choke collection for the 1300.
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I've got and ssx for my 1300, it gives great patterns. Im not happy with how long it is, I may send it off to get dipped this off season. That pattern looks awesome.
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2
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I would hunt with that load/choke combo and never look back :icon_thumright:
X2!
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I think you found what you need, if that was me my search would be over.
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The Mag Blends throw the best pattern that I have ever seen. It is amazing how effective
these shells are....
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im thinkin so that's unheard of for 3 "
not at all. I push out 240s and 250s with longbeard #6s
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just got my barrel back from sumtoy. I bought a second barrel for my 870, go the forcing cone cut out. and had a choke made to shoot the longbeard 3" #6s. I got 233 in a 10" circle at 40 yards with the longbeard #6s out of the 21" barrel. with my stock barrel 28" with no work done to it and the sumtoy choke I shot 263 at 40 yards. pretty dang good. I keep my stock barrel for those field bird days, and use my short for woods hunting. 20-30 pellet difference in the 21" vs the 28" but sumtoy definetly helped me keep a great pattern for a 3" shell, and it shot 20-30 pellets better with it vs the jellyhead which is a pretty dang hard choke to beat
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Those are some awesome numbers with 3" MBs. It's a keeper and good luck.
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Those longer barrels sometimes shoot better patterns, but are harder to get though the woods with! I have a 30" barrel for an 870 that shoots some great pattern, but there's no way I'm carrying that long pipe around.
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My 870 is in the 240-250 range with the Mag Blends, so I wouldn't say they're wrong, just a great pattern. Be happy, I know I am!
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:z-winnersmiley: Devastating!
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Hmm? I have the same set up with my winchester 1300 and SSX truglo choke (.643) boy that pattern looks exciting. I was thinking of buying 3.5 and also look at the hevi-shot triple beard (which is like speed ball cousin) now I am not so sure. 3 inch is cheaper and looking at that pattern...deadly. I will post my results later this week.
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I would hunt with that load/choke combo and never look back :icon_thumright:
X2 :z-guntootsmiley:
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So I went out today...only day I could go. A little windy and cold for my liking, but you take your days when you get them. I have the same set up. Winchester 1300, SSX choke. I used Hevi-shot 3 inch magnum blend and......
I didn't get the same results.. ??? I took two shots. I unfortunately lost the first shot, but it looked fairly the same pattern as the second.
I wasn't conservative and used a paper plate on cardboard box. That being said....the paper plate is 10 1/6 size.
Pellet count was approximate 90 at 40 yds. And I did laser the distance. Sooo. Now what? Thought of trying a faster load with the new Triple beard (1300 fps)
Any thoughts or advice. I will post the pictures soon.
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I see your from PA.....and you did say it was windy......but....I live in PA....last Friday when you posted this it snowed ......A LOT....it was in the 20's .....I can bet you that had a lot to do with it.
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Yes, I did say it was windy. Not optimalike conditions, but not terrible. I actually went the Wednesday before it snowed. I plan on going one more time just to make sure it wasn't the weather. Thanks for the thoughs.
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I see your from PA.....and you did say it was windy......but....I live in PA....last Friday when you posted this it snowed ......A LOT....it was in the 20's .....I can bet you that had a lot to do with it.
So I went out on Wednesday 13th of April. Great day, sunny, 60 degrees, maybe 4-5 mph winds. I recreated same set-up. Laser sited 40 yds. Same gun Winchester 1300 NWTF, SSI choke, hevi-shot Magnum blend, 3 inch load. I also tried Federal Heavy weight, 3 inch , 6 shot.
Magnum blend= 117
Federal=46
Both will kill a turkey.
But I don't know what you did in the original post, but what every it is take thatset up to the bank, because it is money!
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My Win 1300 with 22" Barrel, 3"/2oz Mag Blends and the .643 SSX only put up 125(29%)/10" dirty and 164(38%)/10" clean of 426 total pellet count.
Year before last it put up 200 in 10"@ 35 yds(47%) with Undertaker HD .675. 40 yds was around 150(35%)/10"IIRC, but I accidentally threw away the target with info on it.
These were good even patterns, but considering there are 425 pellets in this hard recoil load(for 3" shell), I wasn't impressed with penetration beyond 40yds(even though I took 2 birds beyond that with them).
I tried the Long Beard #5's after suggestions/reading ...and they were pretty pathetic with SSX at 99 hits/10"@40yds...(33% of 296 total pellets) in my gun/choke.
This year I dedicated some effort to the Fed HW 7's after being so impressed with the 7's knockdown/penetration on my kids bird at 35yds with little 20 ga 1 1/8 oz load.
I've patterned these in my Win 1300 12 ga with 92 hits/10"@50 yds and 165 avg/10"@40 yds. Pattern isn't too tight in close that I'll miss but tight enough to enable a genuine 50+ yd pattern..as well as sustain enough penetration to do the job at longer ranges as well.
The HW'7s out penetrate the Mag blend's by far..In fact, I think Lead 5 is actually as good or better than the Mag Blends.
The MB pellet count is mostly made up of small(smaller than #7)shot and it doesn't penetrate well beyond 40yds. The handful of 5-6# shot penetrate a bit better, but NOT even close to the FED 7 HW and there isn't enough of them to make them to really matter.
IMHO- The HW7 has only 1 5/8 oz (in 3" 12 ga) and puts up the same numbers as the Mag Blends despite having less pellet count(353 vs Hevi 426) in my gun with a LOT less recoil and more penetration at longer ranges. I honestly believe it has the penetration to do the job beyond 50yds whereas the Lead 5 and Mag Blend are simply not AS good.
I'll be using the Fed HW 7's in both my 12 as well as my 20 now. I like the better recoil, for equal patterns as MAg Blend in addition to enhanced penetration on longer shots..
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Id hunt that pattern the OP posted
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I am thinking about getting a SX3 and I will try the MagBlends
after seeing that pattern. That is amazing how many pellets
are in the circle.
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Excellent results....Well done