Long beard pattern blown out.

[Extendo Clip]

I shot a box of LBs through my mossberg 500 with a truglo tg158x. At 40 yards i was getting 3 or 4 pellets in 10 inches.  At 40 yards the factory modified was doing about the same.  Just a bad shell/choke combo? Seems strange that the pattern is so blown out.  Ive had great success with LBs in my 12 gauge.

[captpete]

Where is the rest of the pattern? Are you shooting at a big piece of paper/ board so you can see the whole pattern?

[Extendo Clip]

Rest of the pattern is low, but still not nearly concentrared enough to be lethal, i.e. its not a point of aim/impact problem

[mightyjoeyoung]

Did you buy them new this year?  Sounds like Winchester has made changes to the buffer resin, and NOT for the good, as I'm seeing horrible patterns all over the internet lately...

[captpete]

From what I can see that choke tube is .550...it might just be to tight. Try the factory full choke or a more open turkey tube....something around .560/.565 and see what you get.

[ahfox16]

I shoot a .572 out of my 870 and it does pretty good (`148 in a 10 inch circle at 40 yards).  I'm shooting size 6 LB.  The size 5 isn't worth a crud in my gun.

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They are number 5s,  so maybe I will try a box of 6s.  Yes, i bought them new this month.

Thanks for the help yall

[mightyjoeyoung]

They are number 5s,  so maybe I will try a box of 6s.  Yes, i bought them new this month.

Thanks for the help yall

Sounds like you got a bad lot.  Been hearing a ton about it an the chat sites lately.  A more open choke really wont do much but open your pattern up even more with lead.  The resin buffer is supposed to pulverize upon firing and I think that's exactly what ISN'T happening with the new lots.

[Extendo Clip]

Interesting.  I cut a shell open because i thought it might have been an issue of the resin pulverizing too fast, but it seemed to be intact.  I will email winchester and see what they say.

[mightyjoeyoung]

Interesting.  I cut a shell open because i thought it might have been an issue of the resin pulverizing too fast, but it seemed to be intact.  I will email winchester and see what they say.

You won't be able to tell the difference between the old lot stuff and the new lot stuff just by cutting one open. From what I'm getting, it's a hardness issue that's causing the resin to perform poorly.   Doubt Winchester will divulge information on a defective item such as the LB round either. There was one member on here that said "he pressed the issue" with Winchester and got the ole "we'll call you of we find anything wrong with the shells, (that he had to ship to them)...

[Charlie 51]

I agree with mighty joe. Probably a bad run of shells.Federal had same issue years ago with their heavyweight 7's..took them a year to say oops..go withTSS..I am still a Winchester shell fan but I have several boxes of older shells..since I switched last year to a 20 gauge an TSS I'm pleased..

[captfire]

long beards are JUNK I shot them last year and they shot good . got some this year and was not happy we tried them in 4 Mossberg 835 and they went south real quick. so I bit the bullet got some tss #9 and won't shoot any thing but them...