I have had problems ( and there are others - with several posts about them) with consistency in the Longbeards. When they first came out I tried some 3.5 inch #5's out of my Remington Supermag and my Winchester Sx3. I was getting numbers around 175-185 in the 10 inch at 40 yards. I used them for 2 seasons and bought some more. I shot both guns before season and they were all over the place as far as numbers. The first shot was around 120 - so I took another shot and was a little better (130's) . I shot a third time and it was worse. I tried the Winchester and had equally bad results. Others were reporting similar experiences. After the hevi- shot lot number inconsistencies, then the longbeards- I decided to load my own.