Have two Rem 870's 21" and 28" barrels. Found the Kicks .655 to shoot Win XX and HV 6's the best and the kicks .660 to shoot Win XX and HV 5's the best. What would you guys recommend with the new Win Longbeard shells in 3" for these set ups. Also have an Indian Creek .665 and a Hastings Non-ported .665. Longbeard 4's, 5's, 6's? What chokes? Barrels?
There is a wealth of knowledge on this website. Curious to get y'all's thoughts before I go out and buy 4's, 5's, and 6's.
Can't say what any will do in your set ups for certain but 5s and 6s are my choice in the LB XRs.
I have some 6s in hand but will be awhile before any 5s come my way it seems.
From what I can gather about the shot-lock system it is a resin that holds the pattern together longer. I've heard they like a more open choke. I'm wondering if a non ported choke would work better than a ported wad stripping choke such as Kicks.
Some of these patterns I have seen with 4's have made me strongly consider giving them a try. These Win Longbeard shells seem to be a game changer.
I would certainly feel that any ported choke will fill up pretty soon with the resin chips and residue a sit goes by the wad cutters or ports. I am also thinking about buildup inside grooves in non ported chokes. If they perform well enough I'll be glad to occasionally give it a cleaning or two.
This will be an interesting shell to follow up on no doubt.
I wouldm't hesitate to try the 4's. I know that 4's prefer a little more open choke. If you go with the 5's the .660 range should be good.
My Stoeger M3500 liked the .655 Tightwad choke the best. I tested XXX Full Comp-n-choke, Kicks, Rhino, and Truglo.
Thanks guys, I guess I will start with the 6's out of the Kicks .655, 5's out of the Kicks .660, and 4's out of the Hastings non-ported .665. Trick now will be finding them. Cabelas is the only place I have seen them and they are now on back order.
Longshanks, I picked up a box of 3-1/2" 5s at Bass Pro. Ya may can order them from there. I'm anxious to see how they do for you in those two barrels w/ those chokes. Good luck brother!!
Found some 3" longbeard 6's locally and avoiding paying shipping..fired up and waiting on a decent day to pattern. Looking for 3" 5's now. Im hoping the Win Longbeards not going to be like the Turkey Thug shells. Those things were hard to find after a short period of time and disappeared all together.
Quote from: Longshanks on February 01, 2014, 01:51:31 PM
Thanks guys, I guess I will start with the 6's out of the Kicks .655, 5's out of the Kicks .660, and 4's out of the Hastings non-ported .665. Trick now will be finding them. Cabelas is the only place I have seen them and they are now on back order.
Run one of those 4s trough that .655! I ran a 3.5" LB 4 through a .670 kicks in my Mossberg 935 and it was impressive.
I put the 3.5" #5s thru my 870 SM with kick's .665 this wknd at 40 yards. Simply amazing pattern. Never seen anything like it before
Ditto to the #5's. I haven't tried the 4's or 6's, but the 5's through my 28" 870 Express 3.5" with a .665 Jellyhead landed pellets extremely close to Hevi-6's in the 10. For $24 a box, it will be tough to buy more htl after I run out. That being said, only the bird will tell the tale for that decision. :z-winnersmiley:
Found 3 boxes of 3" 6's. Gonna have to go with the 6's. Waiting on some weather to shoot. Rain and 30's around here, the chances I've had to shoot. Still searching for 3" 5's. Anyone shot the 3" 5's yet?
The results I have seen with the 3.5 5's and 6's are impressive. Rem 870 wingmasters I have only shoot the 3".
Just got some 4's to try but 20 degrees is a bit chilly!
I have 2 870's one short barrel 3" and one long barrel 3.5". I use Winchester Supreme (black shell) #5 out of both with a .665 Briley straight rifle choke. The patterns are awsesom, no turkey would walk thru it. I just got a SX3 and it came with a .655 choke (They have three sizes that come new with SX3) I ordered a Briley .665 straight rifle choke, I have not patterned it yet but will pattern it with Winchester Supreme #5 and Winchester Long Beard #5. I recently read somewhere that #5 shot is best used with .660 to .670
Interested to see how this turns out.
QuoteI recently read somewhere that #5 shot is best used with .660 to .670
I like .655 to .665 for #6's / .665 to .675 for #5's / .675 to .690 for #4's.
Yes i have shot the 3" 5's
47 degrees or so. Snow still piled up by the bench. Damp and muddy. Missouri weather and it felt great.
Anyhow the 870 SM 26" with a polished barrel and a Win. LB 5 went 139 in the 10" = 108 in the 20" for total of 247. This is with a .660 Carlsons un-ported tube.
The Win. X2 with a 28" barrel is un-polished and a Win. LB 5 went 117 in the 10". Sorry no 20" yet.
This is with the Supermax from mad tube made by Indian Creek.
The 870 above with the same .660 carlton only did 91 and 88 in the 10" circle . No 20", no point.
This was the 3" 4's LB .
For the 3" thug load with 5's the same 870 and .660 carlsons tube did 81 in the 10".
And with the 870 again with the straight rifled tube and 3" thug 5 did 81 in the 10". Yes i double checked.
*139 in a 10 with 5's is excellent. That a consistent/good coverage pattern? I've seen some 5 patterns with good numbers but allot of gaps in the pattern.
Looking forward to seeing what the LB beards will do..been working out of state the last couple of weeks. Still looking for 3" 5's. Guess I will run across them soon. Hoping the .660 in my 21" bbl will shoot the LB 5's. I'm pretty sure the .655 will be business with the LB 6's in either barrel 21" or 28". .655 will turn good numbers with all the Win Pb 6's.
Been reading allot about different sizes of shot in the 6's..allot of 7's. Anyone checked out the 5's? This may be a stupid question but how does Winchester have a difficult time getting the right size shot in a shotgun shell? They been doing this a long time. I know very little about loading shotgun shells but have done it a few times. Getting the correct shot in the shell didn't seem to be a problem. I understand that it's a large company but one would think they would have a system in place that works. Killed more turkeys with Win than any other load, not bashing Winchester, just don't quite understand.???
The 10 is pretty even , quartered there is 36, 36, 29, 38
The 20 has a strong half and a weak one with 38, 14 and a 14 ,16 for what is there is fairly even but gaps from not many hits in the 20, better than a few on here, but they had stronger 10 counts.
291 0n big paper total
Quote from: owlhoot on February 23, 2014, 09:42:22 PM
The 10 is pretty even , quartered there is 36, 36, 29, 38
The 20 has a strong half and a weak one with 38, 14 and a 14 ,16 for what is there is fairly even but gaps from not many hits in the 20, better than a few on here, but they had stronger 10 counts.
291 0n big paper total
Thanks, just found a box of 3" 5's in bass pro/ memphis passing through on a work trip. Looking forward to running them through the kicks .660.
Good deal 20 bucks i hope.
I still have a Ventilator .655 to try with them. Also a .640 Carlsons
But for now the snow is coming back and cold for the next ten days.
Also shot a .660 roberts for a 115 in the ten with the 5's longbeard. That choke will not shine.
Good luck with the kicks!
Quote from: sbraham on February 10, 2014, 08:21:24 AM
I put the 3.5" #5s thru my 870 SM with kick's .665 this wknd at 40 yards. Simply amazing pattern. Never seen anything like it before
I shoot this same set up and it does pattern GOOD!!! But I wouldn't say best I ever saw... Hevi shot still patterns best... I'm just not sold on penetration at 50+ yards
I shot some longbeard 6's in my old 1100 magnum today, 26" barrel,Comp n Choke xxx full choke, i didn't count pellet holes but this would be a dead turkey everytime, tape measured 40 yds... I'm impressed with the longbeards....
Looks like I may just be hunting with the 20 guage this year. Torn rotator cuff a couple of days ago. Patterning with the 12 guage Winchester Longbeards will have to wait. Thanks for the help guys. Good luck in the turkey woods!
Man, i hate that for ya. I had surgery on my left shoulder in late Jan. I just shucked my pillow sling and will be starting therapy Fri. I shot my 3-1/2" longbeards one handed while my cuz held the barrel down w/ one hand the other day 3 times. That last shot was enough for me. I'm gon try to kill em tho. Good luck brother.
Sorry to hear about the shoulder.
My 870 with a 21" barrel put up 200 in the 10 @ 40 through a ventilator. Longbeard 3" 6's. Not to shabby
I shot a LB 3" #5's today, for some reason I could not find my 10" circle maker so I used a 12" circle. I know it's not the holy grail 10" circle but it will have to do today.
Kicks .660
LB 3" #5
Rem 870 20" barrel
41yds
154 - 12" circle - the 20" was very weak. I will probably use them but from my gun for a hunting pattern I was not impressed. I like even 10"-16"-20" patterns. I would have rather had #6's just to see if the holes would fill in.
Quote from: Tom Foolery on March 07, 2014, 07:31:36 PM
I shot a LB 3" #5's today, for some reason I could not find my 10" circle maker so I used a 12" circle. I know it's not the holy grail 10" circle but it will have to do today.
Kicks .660
LB 3" #5
Rem 870 20" barrel
41yds
154 - 12" circle - the 20" was very weak. I will probably use them but from my gun for a hunting pattern I was not impressed. I like even 10"-16"-20" patterns. I would have rather had #6's just to see if the holes would fill in.
Sounds like the pattern with the HV 5's out of your gun may even be a better hunting pattern. Interesting.
Rem 870 21" bbl Kicks .655
214 in a 10 @ 40 Win 3" LB 6's
Entire pattern in a 8" circle at 20 yds. :fud: :gobble:
Great pattern, how was the 20" @ 40yds?
Quote from: Tom Foolery on March 16, 2014, 09:09:16 AM
Great pattern, how was the 20" @ 40yds?
The 20" looked good, I didn't count the numbers. I was surprised at the overall size of the pattern @ 40. I was thinking the overall patterns would be more than just a couple of inches smaller. (8" at 20yds with numbers it turns at 40. Will do somemore testing. Just wanted to shoot a few times to make sure the gun was on to hunt. Gun didn't kick terribly bad either on the shoulder. Gonna shoot the 5'sand see what they will do soon.
Update: Further testing showed me that the 8" pattern that I had at 20yds I also had at 30yds and the pattern wandered around at 30yds off a shooting table. Had a few patterns cut in half with all the shot in the bottom of the pattern and a couple that were a super tight core with scattered shot around the core :emoticon-cartoon-012: back to Win XX and HV I went. 160's and 180's in a 12" with XX and Super X with consistent results.
Good deal, I have a couple boxes of 3" 6's coming to test out.
Quote from: Tom Foolery on March 18, 2014, 08:13:06 PM
Good deal, I have a couple boxes of 3" 6's coming to test out.
Death punch at 20yds..I'm gonna have to ease the trigger off like a rifle inside 20yds.
Yeah, at 20yds I'd say they are very tight. I shot my old 835 @ 21yds a few years back and I think I had 12 pellets outside a 10" circle.
I have thought about putting a low power scope or red dot on my turkey guns but I never have.
I just fired a Long beard XR 3" #6, I counted twice just to be sure I was not going crazy.
184 - 10"
169 - 20"
Total in a 20" circle - 353
Kicks .660
Remington 870 - 20" barrel
This stuff is a game changer
Quote from: Tom Foolery on March 21, 2014, 07:24:54 PM
I just fired a Long beard XR 3" #6, I counted twice just to be sure I was not going crazy.
184 - 10"
169 - 20"
Total in a 20" circle - 353
Kicks .660
Remington 870 - 20" barrel
This stuff is a game changer
Thats a turkey killing machine right there. I have my kicks .660 in a 28" barrel that shoots 100+ with the 3" HV 5's. Im chomping at the bit to run some 3" LB 5's through it and see what it will do. It may do fine with the 3" LB 6's as well. One thing for sure is that the LB's have brought life to my 870/ Kicks lead slingers.