I read an article today that opened up my mind to what Federal was thinking when they designed the 3rd Degree. The article suggests that Federal came full circle in turkey load technology to design a load appropriate for 10 yard shots. And out to "50" of course. I'd suggest keeping it under 40. I just assumed Federal was trying to develop their own "magblend" formula, some gimmick, the next long-range load, or cut costs. All of the above. Either way, if a person likes this cocktail of shot and specialize in lower yardage shooting.. This stuff might just do ok. I know I didn't give it a chance when I first read about it. The concept of extending the effective range to the limits and them bringing it back to reality caught my attention.
Second, I didn't know Winchester was making LB XR Magnums in 2015. 3" - 1 7/8 and 3.5" - 2 1/8 loads. Interesting.
Concept sounds good but you are only getting a partial shot charge out past 30 yards. I will stick to conventional loads. I do like the longbeards. Al Baker
I'm going to give the WLBs a shot when some of the snow melts in upstate NY. I have doubts myself that this load will have the same energy at 40-yds as Hevishot MBs.
Quote from: zelmo1 on March 22, 2015, 03:52:56 PM
Concept sounds good but you are only getting a partial shot charge out past 30 yards. I will stick to conventional loads. I do like the longbeards. Al Baker
We have seen a number of the "gimmick" loads come out in waterfowl hunting... Some of them have their place, but most of them are over-priced loads that in many cases do not even preform as well as standard loads.
I have to agree with Al here... If you make a load that is open at 10 yards, you will be losing pattern density at 30 and 40 yards... Although I have not seen the patterns or shot the shells, my experience and intuition tells me that this is gimmick geared more towards marketing than killing birds.
And the bottom line is that if you have a load that will kill out to 50 yards, it will sure as heck kill out to 15... Just need to know where the gun is shooting and put the pattern where it is supposed to go (which I always thought was part of the fun).
Clark aka allaboutshooting did some patterning with them, they actually performed better than I thought they would. The 40 yard pattern was not tight but even and for sure a killing pattern.
I guess if guys are prone to missing in close then this is a good load, or maybe for inexperienced shooters who may be nervous and more prone to miss.
I would still prefer the tighter pattern, I have killed a couple birds inside 5 yards, my turkey gun shoots dead nuts poi., so if i miss some day, well that is on me!
I shot a bird last year at about 30 yards in pretty thick brush with the new long beards in 3.5" #4's and it absolutley crushed that bird was great pattern testing also not switching to anything else anytime soon