Remington Wingmaster HD?

[devin4484]

Has anyone on here tried em out?  Local sports shop has em cheap I mean cheap and I'm gonna try em out of my stoger m2000 and see if they are any good.  Specs on em are 3" 1 5/8 no.6.  Thanks for help.

[HuntSource]

In short, it depends on your interests. Ducks and geese -- definitely. Turkey -- maybe.

It's was recently raised in another section and was also broadly discussed last summer when GM first started discounting them. Here's a link to the most recent thread.


http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,19555.0.html

[01Foreman400]

I wish I could find some for cheap.

[mightyjoeyoung]

Non-buffered loads that simply do not pattern anywhere near as well as their turkey load sprcific counter parts in the hevi shot.  Here's another thread on them form last year.

http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,12009.0.html

[HuntSource]

Mighty,

Have you actually shot it at the pattering board? Just curious. I read that thread and one guy said it didn't work for him, but didn't offer any numbers. Others noted it wouldn't pattern as well, but didn't elaborate in great depth.

Obviously, a 1.675 load won't deliver the numbers of a 2oz load. However, even so, I didn't find difference in number in the 10" ring to be all that meaningful to 40yds and a bit beyond.

IIRC, I bought 45-50, 5-round boxes of #6s and and nearly 40 of the #4s for a little less than $6/box. I'd have to look at the receipt to be exact, but I have less than $1.30 per round in it. I figured at the worst I'd have some stellar duck and goose rounds compared to steel for the same price as steel. If they patterned well enough for turkey, it'd be gravy as far as I was concerned.

At the board, I've patterned 11 rounds of the #6s on three different days. My notes indicate that my pellet average in the 10" was 124. I've found Hal's rule of losing about 30% center density every 10 yards works pretty well. Thus, that load would deliver 100 pellets in the 10" to roughly 46yds, which I consider to be max effective range.

Now, I get an average of 170 pellets in the 10" from my Hevi-13 "Old Whites" #6 1.75oz load. Even though the payload is less, I've found it at least equals the performance of the current production 2oz load. This load is good to roughly 55yds according the the rule of thumb.

Yes, there's a 9yd difference there. IME, that puts the load in between lead and typical Hevi-13 offerings. Now, let's compare the cost. The GM sale price, if you can get it, of the Wingmaster stuff is less than $1.50 a round. Hevi-13 3" 2oz loads are running north of $20 for a box of five from most vendors. My guess is one would have at least $4.00 a round in it.

Unless you have first hand experience to the contrary, I wouldn't dismiss it too quickly given the price point. Yeah, I'll likely load my remaining Old Whites this year or the Hevi-13 #7s I bought on sale last year for the most part. However, I'll probably load the Wingmaster stuff a fair bit too.

Heck, last month, I ran a load of it through a .670" choke on a windy day with the temp in the 30s and low humidity and still got 97 pellets in the 10" at 40yds. I was mainly testing my Hevi-13 #7 loads to see how they'd perform in bad conditions for patterns. The numbers for the #7 load fell off by about the same percentage.

[coyotetrpr]

I guess shells don't have to be expensive to kill a gobbler. I only wish I could have figured this out for myself.

[HuntSource]

Hehehe...me too. You also don't need expensive shotguns, polished bores, trigger jobs and custom chokes, but I haven't learned that lesson either.

Oh, I do understand the allure of things like an $8, 2oz load of #9 tungsten on several fronts. In the end, many believe that 40yds is the max ethical range a gobbler should be harvested, including those who moderate this sand box.

Irrespective of whether one agrees with this arbitrary marker, I feel it's safe to assume most harvest opportunities on gobblers are between 20 and 40yds. I'd speculate that 95% of the birds I've killed were in that range.

Thus, the field performance between this Wingmaster HD load at $1.30 a round, current production Hevi-13 at $4.00, or tungsten handloads at $8.00 is indistinguishable for 90-95% of shot opportunities as all deliver more than adequate pattern width and density to 40yds.

[surehuntsalot]

I picked up several boxes of the 3" #6's for 6.00 a box,gonna try them and see what happens

[WildSpur]

My local gander mountain has 3 boxes left for $6.97.  That is cheaper than some lead.  If they do as good as lead they are going in the woods. 

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk

[mightyjoeyoung]

Yes huntsource, I do have first hand experience with them.  Like my post in that thread, I found they did not pattern well at all compared to their hevi shot counterparts in any/every choke and gun combo I shot them through.  I got them to perform "reasonably well" in my 835 and a TG .670 SSX but that was it and numbers were about 40%+ lower...and worse with other combos, than with the 1.75 ounce hevi shot straight 6s that only carry 1/16 ounce more shot.  Sure they'll print the minimum 100/10" at around 35-40 yards, but let's face it, it is hevi shot and it SHOULD perform much better.  For about the same money, I can get much higher numbers with virtually any decent, buffered lead load at the same range.  Trying to justify cost as their only redeeming factor only works when you compare these loads to med wt pb loads or waterfowl loads.  What those loads do excell at is flat destroying ducks with the 6s and late season honkers in the #4s!  Just crushed birds at rediculous ranges and I never had one birds head up after I pulled the trigger when I had one in the pipe.  I purchased I think around 25 boxes of the 4s and around 35 boxes of the 6s.  They're a luke warm turkey load at best and a fantastic waterfowl load.  For the money they're selling for NOW, they are a decent value for sure, but compared to virtually EVERY other hlt turkey load out there...they just fall short...

[pogo]

I got a box of HD #4s a few years ago on sale and patterned two rounds with my BPS, 28" barrel and Indian Creek 665 choke.  I got right at 100 pellets in the ten.  Where they excelled is in the even spreading of pellets throughout the ten and twenty inch circles.  And, if my numbers were right on the # of pellets contained in the 1 5/8 oz of 4's (I asked on this site), I had a 96% pattern of all pellets in a 24" circle at a measured 40 yards.  That shocked me.

I hunted with the three remaining shells for fun since I had been a lead #4 guy back in the late 80's when I started and wanted to try it.  With no surprises I pulled the trigger confidently on the next three birds that came in to range.

I would not hesitate to use the #6s, especially if they patterned as evenly as my 4's did.  Even patterns just outside the 10 inch circle are often overlooked as we play the extreme numbers game.

[Oconeeguy]

I found a box of 10 old Rem heavyshot 1 5/8 #6 on sale for $18. at a small Mom&Pop Hardware store in middle Ga. a month or so ago. How do those shells compare with the Wingmaster? I have never shot either.

[WildTigerTrout]

IMO they are better.

[HuntSource]

Yes huntsource, I do have first hand experience with them.  Like my post in that thread, I found they did not pattern well at all compared to their hevi shot counterparts in any/every choke and gun combo I shot them through.  I got them to perform "reasonably well" in my 835 and a TG .670 SSX but that was it and numbers were about 40%+ lower...and worse with other combos, than with the 1.75 ounce hevi shot straight 6s that only carry 1/16 ounce more shot.  Sure they'll print the minimum 100/10" at around 35-40 yards, but let's face it, it is hevi shot and it SHOULD perform much better.  For about the same money, I can get much higher numbers with virtually any decent, buffered lead load at the same range.  Trying to justify cost as their only redeeming factor only works when you compare these loads to med wt pb loads or waterfowl loads.  What those loads do excell at is flat destroying ducks with the 6s and late season honkers in the #4s!  Just crushed birds at rediculous ranges and I never had one birds head up after I pulled the trigger when I had one in the pipe.  I purchased I think around 25 boxes of the 4s and around 35 boxes of the 6s.  They're a luke warm turkey load at best and a fantastic waterfowl load.  For the money they're selling for NOW, they are a decent value for sure, but compared to virtually EVERY other hlt turkey load out there...they just fall short...

Yep, you've clearly took them for a spin. I've found some with little good to say have never patterned them. Of course, there's lot-to-lot variations as well as a load's interaction with gun and choke. My experience was a little better than yours. No, mine won't replicate comparable Hevi-13 loading, but they did significantly better than 2oz lead loads I've tried. With my Rhino .660" in a Benelli Vinci, I get roughly 100 in the 10" to 46yd. I really don't kill that many turkeys beyond 40yd so it's not a huge handicap for me.

As you noted, though, they're the real deal for ducks and geese given the cost. Moreover, I figured out that I have about $13/lb in the shot. Even after shooting quite a bit of it duck hunting, I'm pretty sure I still have about 15lb of the #6s. The math was attractive when Hevi-13 was selling for $160 for 7lb. Now, that it's at $230 it's a really, really good deal. Plus, not only is it the same density as Hevi-13, they pellets are much more uniform. I doubt I'll cut many shells for reloading, but it's always an option.