35 yard gun max?

[SumToy]

 :morning:I would run a 650 or 660 with Winchester LB.  665 with Federal FCW.  This should fix you up just fine.   

[surehuntsalot]

try some Winchester 3" 2oz #6  XX magnums

[d.winsor]

First, I would try longbeards, Second I would Try #6 shot (trust me after 60 birds with #6 I know it will kill at 40 plus a little wiggle room) Third, if you've polished it and still can see machine marks, (the machine marks are a dead ringer it's an Express apposed to a SP barrel as the final honing is skipped on express barrels as a cost saving measure)  you didn't polish it enough and you might try having it professionally done.  It's cheaper than you might think.

Lastly I have two 870 and neither of them will shoot #4 at all and #5 is marginal at best, but you load them with #6 and it's death and destruction all day long.

That's been the story with my 870's, they are all business with Win 6's but the 5 patterns are mediocre. Kicks .655 and Ventilator .655 best results.  Win LB XR's are guaranteed patterns to 40yds but may have to look into some optics. I have loaded up on XX, HV, and Super X 3" 6's. Should have enough for a lifetime.

I had the same thing happen with me using a .660 choke, I tried a .665 choke and the spst and SM are killing machines with #5's now.

[peashooter]

I haven't tried Longbeards yet due to no local availability, and being too cheap to pay the shipping for just one box. I'll have to pick some up to try though. Might try giving the barrel a little extra polishing, and I wondered if a tighter choke might help some. I also wondered if the patchy patterns could be from being overchoked and blowing the patterns, which I didn't think seemed likely with the Jellyhead .665.

I did pick up a box of #6 Thugs yesterday to try. I'll be curious to see how they do.

For those using #6 lead, how "dead" do they make a turkey at up to 40 yards? I hoped to use 5's to give better odds of them hitting the ground dead (or mostly dead) rather than flopping for 5 minutes.

Everything I read about using lead 5's vs 6's seemed to be split about 50/50. Heard a few bad stories about birds not being taken cleanly with 6's, but who knows what the range really was, or how good the shot really was, or if they had patterned their gun. Some people are quick to blame their equipment before themselves.

[trkehunr93]

I'd say they kill about the same.  Like Gooserbat said in an earlier post, your gun may love #6 shot.  Don't get too focused on the 10" circle, look at the 20" circle around the 10 and know what the bird will walk into if he goes left/right.  You may only have 90-100 in the 10 but you may have 50-60 more pellets to the left/right.  As long as there are no gaping holes your fine with lead out to 40, with 99% of your shots being inside 30 yards.

[Longshanks]

I'd say they kill about the same.  Like Gooserbat said in an earlier post, your gun may love #6 shot.  Don't get too focused on the 10" circle, look at the 20" circle around the 10 and know what the bird will walk into if he goes left/right.  You may only have 90-100 in the 10 but you may have 50-60 more pellets to the left/right.  As long as there are no gaping holes your fine with lead out to 40, with 99% of your shots being inside 30 yards.

Yup,the 10" doesn't tell the whole story. My gun that I shoot lead out of the most shoots 120+ in a 10" but 180's in a 12". Not sure what the 20" count is but it looks good.

[Spurcollecta]

I haven't tried Longbeards yet due to no local availability, and being too cheap to pay the shipping for just one box. I'll have to pick some up to try though. Might try giving the barrel a little extra polishing, and I wondered if a tighter choke might help some. I also wondered if the patchy patterns could be from being overchoked and blowing the patterns, which I didn't think seemed likely with the Jellyhead .665.

I did pick up a box of #6 Thugs yesterday to try. I'll be curious to see how they do.

For those using #6 lead, how "dead" do they make a turkey at up to 40 yards? I hoped to use 5's to give better odds of them hitting the ground dead (or mostly dead) rather than flopping for 5 minutes.

Everything I read about using lead 5's vs 6's seemed to be split about 50/50. Heard a few bad stories about birds not being taken cleanly with 6's, but who knows what the range really was, or how good the shot really was, or if they had patterned their gun. Some people are quick to blame their equipment before themselves.

As long as you hit what you're aiming at lead 6's will kill 100% of the time at 40yds and I've killed them a good bit farther than that

[peashooter]

I'd say they kill about the same.  Like Gooserbat said in an earlier post, your gun may love #6 shot.  Don't get too focused on the 10" circle, look at the 20" circle around the 10 and know what the bird will walk into if he goes left/right.  You may only have 90-100 in the 10 but you may have 50-60 more pellets to the left/right.  As long as there are no gaping holes your fine with lead out to 40, with 99% of your shots being inside 30 yards.

Yup,the 10" doesn't tell the whole story. My gun that I shoot lead out of the most shoots 120+ in a 10" but 180's in a 12". Not sure what the 20" count is but it looks good.

That makes sense to me, and is the other issue I have with how this gun has patterned with what I have tried so far. Outside the 10" circle, pellets are very limited. I haven't counted 12 or 20" circles but they are pretty sparse. It's amazing how many pellets seem to fall off the face of the earth after 35 yards.

[peashooter]

I haven't tried Longbeards yet due to no local availability, and being too cheap to pay the shipping for just one box. I'll have to pick some up to try though. Might try giving the barrel a little extra polishing, and I wondered if a tighter choke might help some. I also wondered if the patchy patterns could be from being overchoked and blowing the patterns, which I didn't think seemed likely with the Jellyhead .665.

I did pick up a box of #6 Thugs yesterday to try. I'll be curious to see how they do.

For those using #6 lead, how "dead" do they make a turkey at up to 40 yards? I hoped to use 5's to give better odds of them hitting the ground dead (or mostly dead) rather than flopping for 5 minutes.

Everything I read about using lead 5's vs 6's seemed to be split about 50/50. Heard a few bad stories about birds not being taken cleanly with 6's, but who knows what the range really was, or how good the shot really was, or if they had patterned their gun. Some people are quick to blame their equipment before themselves.

As long as you hit what you're aiming at lead 6's will kill 100% of the time at 40yds and I've killed them a good bit farther than that

That's good to hear. I don't have any plans to shoot 50 yards (or I wouldn't be dealing with lead), so as long as I can go up to 40 I'd be happy. I'm curious to see the results I get with 6's. I have been too busy or it's been too windy to try them yet but hopefully they look good. If I can't find any 6's that perform well either I'll probably be talking to Sumtoy, which I'm tempted to do regardless.

Tucker