Any one tried the new Hornady turkey loads?

[Swamp]

just curious how they pattern,and if you can shoot them through a turkey choke. Looking for a good load for my mossy 535 willing to try anything besides the real expensive stuff.

[tyelper]

you ever pee in a fan,,,,,,dont waste your money on the hornadays,,got to walmart and buy you some 3'' winchester 13/4 number 6's or some winchester super x if your wanting to stay cheap,,,,,

[Swamp]

thanks for the advise. I'm having a hard time getting my 535 to get a real good pattern even at 30 yards.Ive tried the win supremes 3 1/2''  number 5s with bad results and also the rem nitro turkeys and still havent found anything Ive liked yet. Havent shot number 6s through it. I'm using the 22'' barrel.

[tyelper]

what choke are you using,,,,,,

[mightyjoeyoung]

you ever pee in a fan,,,,,,dont waste your money on the hornadays,,got to walmart and buy you some 3'' winchester 13/4 number 6's or some winchester super x if your wanting to stay cheap,,,,,

[Philippe]

you ever pee in a fan,,,,,,dont waste your money on the hornadays,,got to walmart and buy you some 3'' winchester 13/4 number 6's or some winchester super x if your wanting to stay cheap,,,,,

Totally agree with ya!

[Swamp]

what choke are you using,,,,,,.

.655 Kicks Gobbling thunder.

[HuntSource]

I've never shot any of these loads and maybe Hornady has captured lighting in a shell. I don't think that's the case though based on the patterning photos on their website. There, they show pictures of 25yd and 40yd of target shot with #5s. The 40yd target is anything but confidence inspiring.

On the rifle side, I have tremendous respect for Hornady's brass, bullets and loaded ammunition. IMO, it offers the best bang for the buck out there. Even so, the logic behind their 1.5oz, nickel-plated lead turkey load escapes me.

In essence, based on payload, it's a 1.5oz load good for 35yd in a market filled with 2oz, 40yd loads that cost roughly the same. The patterns on their website seem to confirm that fact. What they show is about what I'd expect from lead loads of that payload at those ranges. The "VersaTite" wad used also seems to be a clone of Federal's FC wad, which I've found to be very fickle.

[Grant Flaming]

Just looked at the Hornady website page for them. I find it somewhat interesting that they talk about how these loads are lethal out to 50 yards when they clearly show patterns that would all too likely cripple a bird that is standing even a hair over 40 yards away. Especially that #5 pattern- why would they even show that on their website!

[HuntSource]

Yeah, it's befuddling isn't it? Sure, a #5 lead pellet may have enough juice to kill at 50yd. It's just that one landing in the right spot with that load at that range is largely luck based on the 40yd pattern they posted. I can't imagine they posted the worst pattern either.

Some of these manufacturers let their marketing folks paint with a big brush. Environmetal is pushing their Hevi-Shot blend as effective to 70yd+ because of the #5s in it. According to the shells I've cut and analyzed, there's less than 1/2oz of #5s in the 12ga, 3" load. Who would take a 70yd shot at at tom using 1/2oz of Hevi-Shot #5s and expect success? That's essentially .410 load.  I don't think many would argue the #6s and #7s in the blend would do much at that range, so it's all about the #5s.

I have much larger image relations concerns with this kind of stuff than I do with guys putting together long range TSS loads. With those loads, you can at least get both the penetration needed as well as pattern density to effectively kill at the ranges in question. I can't imagine hunters much success taking shots that Hornady and Environmetal seem to suggest are possible.

[WyoHunter]

They were advertised on "Hornady's Africa" on TV the other night. I'll stick with my Hevi-13's.

[Lucky Clucker]

I agree, I got a box of the 5's.My single shot 3.5  loves the fcw of fed, lead 5's, did not like these,it put 2 in the vitals at 40 yards, it has a full choke in it,I give 1 to a friend to try and he shot at 35 yards, and said the petal broke off the wad, and had a 3 foot spread,no good, he had a hastings .665 choke,we gonna shoot a few more and see if we can get a pattern, with a improved or modified choke like it suggest on the box, I don't have high hopes for this load, ther is also no buffer in the shot.

[Lenny870]

I just looked at their site also and that pattern is horable, you could do better throw in a handful of pea gravel

[surehuntsalot]

money wasted