I recently purchased a new shotgun so I thought I would run some different loads through it. For the majority of my turkey hunting years I have swore by anything hevi-shot. I never really doubted lead but I never tried it either for the simple fact that I felt heavier than lead loads were superior to any lead shot or "old timer shells"
At the NWTF convention I spoke with a few guys and no one that I talked to mentioned anything bad about Winchester long beards. Since the weather has been warm I recently got out to compare, hevi 5's, 6's, blends and the longbeard 6's. I tried every way in the world to make my browning like hevi-shot better and it just doesn't. The longbeards patterned better out of my Sumtoy .675, Trulock .660, and Indian Creek .665 by a landslide with the trulock having the most pellets in the 10" circle at 40 with 248. The reason for this post is to let someone know that no matter what you hear about the longbeards they are the real deal and should be tried if you're searching for the best pattern out of your gun.
