Found a good deal on some mag blends and figured I'd try them out. Not the best numbers but these shot perfect POA/POI and are very even. I only took one shot, so maybe if I took a few more I'd see a higher average in the 10 ring. It was 45 and sunny today. I will primarily be shooting fed grand slam but I want to also find a load (lead or htl) that can be pushed to 40 yards if the setup calls for it. The Longbeards put up better numbers but they don't shoot POI and are unforgiving in close with only a bead. I'd like to give the hevi 7s another try in this setup but they aren't legal to hunt with here.
Here's the 40 yard mag blend (10" & 20")
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190405/4e8efec611dc856a6a90142e2774f7cd.jpg)
I'm kinda wondering where all the shot went. The pattern doesn't look blown at all. I counted 236 total hits on the 2 ft x 3 ft target. The .565 trulock shot the hevi 6s better than then the .550 SSX, so I can only imagine it would should the mag blends better. Hmmm
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Quote from: DBell on April 05, 2019, 04:50:14 PM
Found a good deal on some mag blends and figured I'd try them out. Not the best numbers but these shot perfect POA/POI and are very even. I only took one shot, so maybe if I took a few more I'd see a higher average in the 10 ring. It was 45 and sunny today. I will primarily be shooting fed grand slam but I want to also find a load (lead or htl) that can be pushed to 40 yards if the setup calls for it. The Longbeards put up better numbers but they don't shoot POI and are unforgiving in close with only a bead. I'd like to give the hevi 7s another try in this setup but they aren't legal to hunt with here.
Here's the 40 yard mag blend (10" & 20")
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190405/4e8efec611dc856a6a90142e2774f7cd.jpg)
I'm kinda wondering where all the shot went. The pattern doesn't look blown at all. I counted 236 total hits on the 2 ft x 3 ft target. The .565 trulock shot the hevi 6s better than then the .550 SSX, so I can only imagine it would should the mag blends better. Hmmm
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I did some looking around and it sounds like 230-240 is roughly the pellet count of the 1 1/4 oz mag blends. I figured it was higher for some reason.
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I put a micrometer on my chokes and the SSX measured the larger then my .570 Tightwad. Even my 12 Mobil choke has a larger exit diameter than my .665 Carlson.
Quote from: albrubacker on April 06, 2019, 11:40:29 AM
I put a micrometer on my chokes and the SSX measured the larger then my .570 Tightwad. Even my 12 Mobil choke has a larger exit diameter than my .665 Carlson.
That's interesting and good to know. So likely the trulock .565 has a tighter exit diameter than the SSX. I'm wondering if a .575 would improve the mag blend pattern. I'm not that upset about how it looks in the pic above, with how even it is.
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I personally wouldn't hunt with 60 pellets in a 10" circle at 40 yards. I'd call that probably a 35 yard gun. My 2 cents it to try Sumtoy in .562. That's what i shoot out of my Benelli Nova.
Quote from: ahfox16 on April 06, 2019, 05:53:30 PM
I personally wouldn't hunt with 60 pellets in a 10" circle at 40 yards. I'd call that probably a 35 yard gun. My 2 cents it to try Sumtoy in .562. That's what i shoot out of my Benelli Nova.
I should clarify, I meant I'm not upset with the above pattern at 40 because I know it'll be a nice hunting pattern at, like you mentioned, 35 yards easily. I don't think a bird would have walked away from that 40 yard pattern though.
I need to take a few more shots and see what the average is. I usually run a bore snake through at the beginning of the session and the patterns seem to improve after a few shots for whatever reason.
I'd be happy if could shoot consistent patterns like that at 40 with an average 75-80 even hits in the 10
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Here's a couple more 40 yard shots from today. 45 degrees and sunny. Same gun and choke setup. I hit low on both shots. The bead on this gun is raised up on a pedestal and I think if I tuck the bead too far down when I'm aiming, I tend to hit low. I think I need to have most of the pedestal showing in my sight picture. Anyone else with a raised bead find this to be the case also?
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190411/91848f4f261281f207253fd2dda9eea9.jpg)
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190411/33e030866e75432495d84db6aa89ee21.jpg)
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Wouldn't even consider hunting that combo, too many much better options out there. But to each his own.
Quote from: BandedSpur on April 12, 2019, 08:09:02 AM
Wouldn't even consider hunting that combo, too many much better options out there. But to each his own.
In Maine, we can't use shot size smaller than 6 unless it's a blend of 5,6,7.
Limits you for sure, if you're following the law.
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I'm no expert OP. That is even too me as well. A deep clean and polish might bring them numbers up a lil bit. In my turkey woods most birds are taken between 20 and 30. Some a lil less some a lil more. LBs aren't to my liking and I believe they are unforgiving as well. JMO Definitely enough head and neck hits,dead bird ;^)
Quote from: DBell on April 12, 2019, 08:19:43 AM
Quote from: BandedSpur on April 12, 2019, 08:09:02 AM
Wouldn't even consider hunting that combo, too many much better options out there. But to each his own.
In Maine, we can't use shot size smaller than 6 unless it's a blend of 5,6,7.
Limits you for sure, if you're following the law.
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I would be looking at the Fed HVWT #6's (Rogers has these for 15.00 a box)
with the right choke combo you should easily get good 10" numbers at 40yds.
if you need a fast followup shot the HVWT 6's penetrate close to lead #2's and will smash bones
in my gun the 6's didn't pattern good with the SSX or Truloc HVWT #7 choke, but they patterned very good with a more open extra full turkey choke.
Quote from: DBell on April 11, 2019, 02:23:03 PM
Here's a couple more 40 yard shots from today. 45 degrees and sunny. Same gun and choke setup. I hit low on both shots. The bead on this gun is raised up on a pedestal and I think if I tuck the bead too far down when I'm aiming, I tend to hit low. I think I need to have most of the pedestal showing in my sight picture. Anyone else with a raised bead find this to be the case also?
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raising the front bead on the gun (which is what the pedestal is doing will make you shoot low.
to raise POI, if your eyes are still good enough, you can put the base of the pedestal on top of the flat of your receiver to use it as a rear sight.
if thats blurry, and you want to shoot just a bead, put a middle bead on the gun and use that as a rear sight.
Quote from: crow on April 12, 2019, 12:49:06 PM
Quote from: DBell on April 12, 2019, 08:19:43 AM
Quote from: BandedSpur on April 12, 2019, 08:09:02 AM
Wouldn't even consider hunting that combo, too many much better options out there. But to each his own.
In Maine, we can't use shot size smaller than 6 unless it's a blend of 5,6,7.
Limits you for sure, if you're following the law.
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I would be looking at the Fed HVWT #6's (Rogers has these for 15.00 a box)
with the right choke combo you should easily get good 10" numbers at 40yds.
if you need a fast followup shot the HVWT 6's penetrate close to lead #2's and will smash bones
in my gun the 6's didn't pattern good with the SSX or Truloc HVWT #7 choke, but they patterned very good with a more open extra full turkey choke.
I've been going back and forth on the idea of ordering a few boxes of the HW #6 to try. At this point I'm only looking for a shell to back up my primary load, in case of a miss. As Trackey mentioned above, I'm more focused on 30 yards than 40 yards for the majority of my shots. But I would like to find a load that shoots well out to 40 out of the same .565 trulock I'll be using with the grand slam #5, just in case I need it.
Quote from: crow on April 12, 2019, 12:57:34 PM
Quote from: DBell on April 11, 2019, 02:23:03 PM
Here's a couple more 40 yard shots from today. 45 degrees and sunny. Same gun and choke setup. I hit low on both shots. The bead on this gun is raised up on a pedestal and I think if I tuck the bead too far down when I'm aiming, I tend to hit low. I think I need to have most of the pedestal showing in my sight picture. Anyone else with a raised bead find this to be the case also?
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raising the front bead on the gun (which is what the pedestal is doing will make you shoot low.
to raise POI, if your eyes are still good enough, you can put the base of the pedestal on top of the flat of your receiver to use it as a rear sight.
if thats blurry, and you want to shoot just a bead, put a middle bead on the gun and use that as a rear sight.
That's what I was thinking. When I can see the pedestal and the bead, the shot seems to hit POA. When I can only see the bead is when it shoots low I believe.
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Quote from: DBell on April 05, 2019, 04:50:14 PM
Found a good deal on some mag blends and figured I'd try them out. Not the best numbers but these shot perfect POA/POI and are very even. I only took one shot, so maybe if I took a few more I'd see a higher average in the 10 ring. It was 45 and sunny today. I will primarily be shooting fed grand slam but I want to also find a load (lead or htl) that can be pushed to 40 yards if the setup calls for it. The Longbeards put up better numbers but they don't shoot POI and are unforgiving in close with only a bead. I'd like to give the hevi 7s another try in this setup but they aren't legal to hunt with here.
Here's the 40 yard mag blend (10" & 20")
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190405/4e8efec611dc856a6a90142e2774f7cd.jpg)
I'm kinda wondering where all the shot went. The pattern doesn't look blown at all. I counted 236 total hits on the 2 ft x 3 ft target. The .565 trulock shot the hevi 6s better than then the .550 SSX, so I can only imagine it would should the mag blends better. Hmmm
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Put a better sighting system on it and hunt it!
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