I hope everyone had a safe, healthy season. There has been talk this year about defective Winchester Long beard shells. I myself "might" have had a problem shell this year. I shot a Tom in NY with Longbeard number 6's. The shot was 25 yards, wide open. The shot sounded different, muffled, not so loud. The gobbler did drop right over, but he was close. I was in a hollow valley it might have been a weird echo, not sure. I was wondering if anyone experienced this, and does anyone have any lot numbers of potentially defective shells? Thanks...
The only shell I've ever had mis fire in 38 years is a long beard #6 around the time they lst came out .
I shot the remaining shells in that box at targets , and never bought long beards again .
I've had two light primer strikes using longbeards. Of course both times on birds and not the patterning board. Ended up getting both but the click and panicked rush of shucking another shell in was frustrating. It's unfortunate because they pattern great out of my 20. Guess I'll make the move to TSS next year.
A couple years ago I had one out of the box that you could shake, like it wasn't full. let them know and they sent a new box. 12 g #5 LB. No issues since. I do take each one out now after buying a box and shake just incase. Great shell for my gun.
Issues with Longbeards did not start this season, it has happened since they were introduced. Lots of clicks without them going off.
I killed a bird this year with a Longbeard I've had for 3 years at least. No problems here but I may not go through shells as much as others.
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Haven't had any issues yet, but i have only shot a few patterning.
No issues here... :camohat:
Thanks for feedback. They seem to be a great shell, except worrying about them working at the moment of truth scares me a bit.
I had my first shotgun misfire ever this year with a 3" LB shell. I figured it was due to some "crap" in the trigger assembly but after reading this post that may not have been the case. In the future I'll make sure there's no "crap" in the trigger assembly....it's very easy to remove and clean with my Mossberg 930.
The biggest problem i have is they are not making them in 10 gauge!
No issues so far, but I've still got several boxes to shoot.....
Quote from: Tom007 on June 04, 2021, 02:36:09 PM
Thanks for feedback. They seem to be a great shell, except worrying about them working at the moment of truth scares me a bit.
I agree with Tom. Kind of worried now. I actually shot a 2 3/4 in the LB. Its out of my Remington 1100. No probs yet but concerned abit.
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Quote from: Tom007 on June 04, 2021, 07:56:49 AM
I hope everyone had a safe, healthy season. There has been talk this year about defective Winchester Long beard shells. I myself "might" have had a problem shell this year. I shot a Tom in NY with Longbeard number 6's. The shot was 25 yards, wide open. The shot sounded different, muffled, not so loud. The gobbler did drop right over, but he was close. I was in a hollow valley it might have been a weird echo, not sure. I was wondering if anyone experienced this, and does anyone have any lot numbers of potentially defective shells? Thanks...
Tom was this shell 12 ga or 20 ga ?
Only misfire I had with Longbeards was with a 835. Every other 12 & 20 ga turkey gun (non Mossberg) I own has been 100% with LBXRs. Your milage may vary. :newmascot:
I have shot hundreds of longbeards with no issues. And honestly if I had a misfire at a bird and didn't get the bird that would not be that big a deal. Not enough of a big deal to pay TSS prices.
Quote from: Greg Massey on June 04, 2021, 07:52:42 PM
Quote from: Tom007 on June 04, 2021, 07:56:49 AM
I hope everyone had a safe, healthy season. There has been talk this year about defective Winchester Long beard shells. I myself "might" have had a problem shell this year. I shot a Tom in NY with Longbeard number 6's. The shot was 25 yards, wide open. The shot sounded different, muffled, not so loud. The gobbler did drop right over, but he was close. I was in a hollow valley it might have been a weird echo, not sure. I was wondering if anyone experienced this, and does anyone have any lot numbers of potentially defective shells? Thanks...
Tom was this shell 12 ga or 20 ga ?
12 3.5 #6 Greg...be well
Great feedback, could have been a valley echo, just didn't sound like a normal 3.5 inch.....
I've shot LB shells since they came out in my 870 and I have never had a shell misfire. This year when I was patterning my gun I had a few shells that just seemed to have an off pattern form the rest. Never had a problem with them before that.
As stated earlier, I had a misfire this year. However my background as an engineer dictates that a misfire requires analysation. Did you have a good dimple in the primer? Well...that would be a primer problem. I may be mistaken but I would think all the primers for Winchester shells are the same. If not...someone let me know different. Now on forward to a less than normal dimple....which is what I had with my misfire. Upon ejecting the shell I immediately diagnosed it as the hammer not striking the firing pin with sufficient force. When I removed the trigger assembly from my 930 some "crap" came out. I was immediately suspect. So I guess what I'm saying is that you need to investigate the problem thoroughly before blaming the shell.
When I returned home, after removing my trigger assembly, I went out to the range a fired 5 shells. All worked fine. In the future I'll have my spring loaded center punch with me to easily remove the 930 trigger assembly during season. I don't think I'll have any further problems.
Not longbeard related, but I had Winchester 350 legend loads with a good dimple in primer not fire.
I realize they are not the same primer, but seems to be a Winchester issue.
No problems with other loads I tried.
I'd be surprised if the primers were different amongst the Winchester shotshells. Now, with rifle shells you have standard and magnum primers. But, I'd be very surprised if primers differed with the shotshells. Only Winchester could answer that.
Buddy wanted to try my long beards several years ago, gave him one next day he called up a bird and it misfired .. we both moved on to tss .. he still thinks I gave him a dummy shell ..????????
Longbeards have been notorious for misfiring ever since they first came out in 2014. In the beginning the majority of people with the issue seemed to be shooting Mossbergs, so a few chalked it up to a firing pin problem. Even though the Mossbergs didn't have trouble with other shells. But in the coming years more and more people had issues with them and it obviously isn't tied to a specific gun brand or model. You are rolling the dice if you shoot them IMO.
I had one I shot, the primer went off, the black color of the exit was gone and only clear remained but nothing exited from the shell itself. That was in 2019 By the way, by the title of the thread I thought it was for a new Jim Spencer book.
Quote from: Sir-diealot on June 07, 2021, 10:02:48 PM
I had one I shot, the primer went off, the black color of the exit was gone and only clear remained but nothing exited from the shell itself. That was in 2019 By the way, by the title of the thread I thought it was for a new Jim Spencer book.
Wow Steve, that's a bad shell........lol
I had a bad one years ago when I did some shotshell handloading. Didn't drop the powder. Primer was enough to throw the load a few yards out the end of the barrel but that was it! Luckily it was a patterning load...not on a turkey.
I am sure it happens on occasion.....
I took a nice Gould's in Mexico this year with the 3" Winchester 1 1/4, #5 shot in a 20ga. at 30 yards. It's the only time I've used a Long Beard load. I did have a Browning TSS fail to fire this year at about 15 yards, 20ga 3", 1 1/2 of #7, the click sent a big Merriam running back into the woods. I fired the shell two more times at a target and it's definitely a dud. I emailed Browning ammunition and told them about the shell failing to fire and got an e-mail back from Winchester Ammunition Marketing Services. I did a quick search and sure enough Winchester manufacturers the ammunition for Browning to there specifications. If you run into this you'll need the box because they'll want you to answer the following questions.
"The symbol # this should be located above or below barcode and should start with a letter, the Caliber, the lot code and how much do you have left? Also, can you please provide me with what type of firearm you were using (Make, Model, Caliber), also was this an OEM firearm or was it assembled from aftermarket parts?"
Currently Winchester is sending me a $5.00 check for my inconvenience and to please allow them 8 weeks to process it.
No primer issues but I did have pattern issues this year. I'm back on hevi shot
Quote from: jhoward11 on June 04, 2021, 12:01:57 PM
A couple years ago I had one out of the box that you could shake, like it wasn't full. let them know and they sent a new box. 12 g #5 LB. No issues since. I do take each one out now after buying a box and shake just incase. Great shell for my gun.
I have noticed this before also. It is what ever material they use to cusion and buffer the shot. (I forget its name). This material sometimes shatters during transport. I am sure there maybe some issues with all brands from time to time and longbeards being such a big success are of course going to get more attention then most. I still shoot it and have never had a failure.
I use longbeard in my 12 and only need one more of them Florida birds to finish my second slam not to mention a great number of Easterns. Most have been killed using LB 5, 6, or 4. I also use the 4's LB for Bobcat and coyote.
My primary shotgun (12) is a Browning BPS. It leaves a strong dimple on the primer. I always check all my primer strikes when shooting my shotguns. Should they be weak I fix them so they do strike well as I think most misfires are due to primer issues. (I also check my rifle primers).
TSS is a great shot and I have been loading and using it in my 20g for coyote and Bobcat and sometimes turkey. However, while Coyotes can be hard to kill while Turkeys are not and I find TSS over kill and after this years harvest will not be using TSS for Turkey: only LB. Another plus for LB is that it is considerbly cheaper then TSS for the price sensitive. Any brand shell may misfire or not perform to expectation. Factory quality control frequently leaves something to be desired and, in my opinion, quality can only be assured by the handloader. Just my 2 cents!
I've had several misfires/Nofires with LB's, not using them any longer.
I've had rattling shells in the past. Winchester took care of that and replaced the shells.
This year I DID have issues with some of the L/B's not patterning well. As in 50 yd. patterns at 25 yds.
I sent Winchester a complaint about two weeks ago. No response yet.
I had two misfires and contacted Winchester they asked me to return the unused box and they would reimburse me as the shells I had were not available at the time.
Sending the unused box to them shipping it and with the price and all the BS of sending it correctly by law via Fedex or UPS ground
and labeling it correctly with the ORMD labels was more than what it was worth. Seems Winchester's customer service just don't care to me.
Will not buy anything Winchester again .
Quote from: bcuda on July 01, 2021, 09:31:52 PM
I had two misfires and contacted Winchester they asked me to return the unused box and they would reimburse me as the shells I had were not available at the time.
Sending the unused box to them shipping it and with the price and all the BS of sending it correctly by law via Fedex or UPS ground
and labeling it correctly with the ORMD labels was more than what it was worth. Seems Winchester's customer service just don't care to me.
Will not buy anything Winchester again .
Really surprised to hear about these misfires. I have had such good performance from them since they came out. In fact I liked them so much that I bought several boxes of 5's and 4's plus a couple of 6's. Hopefully these will last several more seasons and as I nomally only shoot 3 or 4 a season they wii. By that time perhaps winchester will have fixed the problem.
Now I have had several misfires with Winchester 40 grain 22 mags. I no longer shoot these except at targets as a misfire on a coyote or bobcat would be hard to bear. Long beards threw my pump is not an issue as I can shuck the shell fast enough to get him on the second. Proved it with a Remington that failed once.