shotgun ammo lot numbers....does it matter?

[Bigeclipse]

I bought some hevi mag blends and they shot excellent out of my gun. I want to buy more but the original place I got them from is much further than the store closest to my house. Will different lot numbers of the same ammo pattern about the same with maybe a point of impact change or so I make the drive where I got them and buy boxes of the same lot. I purchased them yesterday and they had many boxes left so I'm assuming they were all the same lot at Dicks sporting goods

[Birdyblaster]

I don't have allot of experience with it so take my opinion for what you paid for it.  From what I've seen and read different companies seem to have more issues with this than others.  Hevi-shot is probably one of the worst for changing crap around constantly thereby changing the performance between lot #'s.

[hs strut]

I don't have allot of experience with it so take my opinion for what you paid for it.  From what I've seen and read different companies seem to have more issues with this than others.  Hevi-shot is probably one of the worst for changing crap around constantly thereby changing the performance between lot #'s.

i will never buy hevi shot again i bought a box of magnum blends that had never been opened the tax stamp was across the lid of the box with that bieng said i shot 2 of these shells one shot decent and one shot horrible (they were shot from a clean polished barrel) when i got my wads they were 2 seperate designs ive switched to the lb xr 3.5 #4s with real good #s

[Deputy 14]

Yep, it matters a lot with Hevi Shot. I've not found two sucsessive lot numbers that shoot the same.

[Bigeclipse]

I don't have allot of experience with it so take my opinion for what you paid for it.  From what I've seen and read different companies seem to have more issues with this than others.  Hevi-shot is probably one of the worst for changing crap around constantly thereby changing the performance between lot #'s.

i will never buy hevi shot again i bought a box of magnum blends that had never been opened the tax stamp was across the lid of the box with that bieng said i shot 2 of these shells one shot decent and one shot horrible (they were shot from a clean polished barrel) when i got my wads they were 2 seperate designs ive switched to the lb xr 3.5 #4s with real good #s

That stinks. All 5 shot SOOOO well out of my shotgun. Outperforming my Longbeards by a very large margin. More shots in 10 circle...and much larger and more even pattern to boot. I'm taking the chance with them and bought two more boxes of the same lot number. I will test a shell from each box to confirm. I got 175 hits at 40 yards...when Longbeards only gave 130. Also, the hevi mag blend had many more hits outside the ring with a very even pattern allowing room for error should "buck" fever kick in haha. This to me shows great promise. Again...I will definitely verify to make sure. Worst case...I lost 60 bucks and still have my Longbeards left. Best case I have a new load for this season way outperforming my old longbeard load.

[Dr Juice]

Allegedly, magnum blends are not up to par this year. Hence, it is important for me to use the same lot number ammo to hunt with as I did when I patterned the canon.

[CrustyRusty]

There are so many variables that can change pattern.  Barrel condition, atmospheric conditions including pressure, temperature, wind...you name it, anything can affect pattern.  I am a hunter, and although I like high numbers in the ten the bottom line is as long as you get a good even pattern of over 100 in the ten, you will be good to go.  I buy hevi whenever I find it on sale, wherever I find it on sale and don't really care about lot numbers.  What I do care about is an ethical killing pattern, and so I will usually fire a round or so to confirm that and use the rest of that box for hunting. However, I've never had a box of hevi perform so poorly that I wouldn't use it for hunting at ethical distances.

Are there differences between lots...sure, there are differences within lots too.  Does it really matter for hunting, probably not.

[captin_hook]

There are so many variables that can change pattern.  Barrel condition, atmospheric conditions including pressure, temperature, wind...you name it, anything can affect pattern.  I am a hunter, and although I like high numbers in the ten the bottom line is as long as you get a good even pattern of over 100 in the ten, you will be good to go.  I buy hevi whenever I find it on sale, wherever I find it on sale and don't really care about lot numbers.  What I do care about is an ethical killing pattern, and so I will usually fire a round or so to confirm that and use the rest of that box for hunting. However, I've never had a box of hevi perform so poorly that I wouldn't use it for hunting at ethical distances.

Are there differences between lots...sure, there are differences within lots too.  Does it really matter for hunting, probably not.

[stinkpickle]

There are so many variables that can change pattern.  Barrel condition, atmospheric conditions including pressure, temperature, wind...you name it, anything can affect pattern.  I am a hunter, and although I like high numbers in the ten the bottom line is as long as you get a good even pattern of over 100 in the ten, you will be good to go.  I buy hevi whenever I find it on sale, wherever I find it on sale and don't really care about lot numbers.  What I do care about is an ethical killing pattern, and so I will usually fire a round or so to confirm that and use the rest of that box for hunting. However, I've never had a box of hevi perform so poorly that I wouldn't use it for hunting at ethical distances.

Are there differences between lots...sure, there are differences within lots too.  Does it really matter for hunting, probably not.

Exactly.  It's probably not worth worrying about, unless you're pushing the range limits anyway.

[Bigeclipse]

There are so many variables that can change pattern.  Barrel condition, atmospheric conditions including pressure, temperature, wind...you name it, anything can affect pattern.  I am a hunter, and although I like high numbers in the ten the bottom line is as long as you get a good even pattern of over 100 in the ten, you will be good to go.  I buy hevi whenever I find it on sale, wherever I find it on sale and don't really care about lot numbers.  What I do care about is an ethical killing pattern, and so I will usually fire a round or so to confirm that and use the rest of that box for hunting. However, I've never had a box of hevi perform so poorly that I wouldn't use it for hunting at ethical distances.

Are there differences between lots...sure, there are differences within lots too.  Does it really matter for hunting, probably not.

Exactly.  It's probably not worth worrying about, unless you're pushing the range limits anyway.

40 yards is definitely my max. I'm a very patient bow hunter for deer and know how to wait and let the game get closer BUT in that rare case something goes wrong I'd still hope to have enough pattern at slightly further ranges. So I know everyone says if you have 100 or so pellets then you are good for that range well I beg to differe. You may be good for that range but lets say you thought it was 40 yards range but it was actually 47 or 50...then you'd likely be screwed and may injure the turkey. Now if my pattern stays above 150 pellets at 40 yards then I know if I judge the distance a little wrong I will likely still have enough pellets at 47 or so for an ethical kill. I will never intentially pull the trigger on a turkey that I KNOW is beyond 40 yards.

[CrustyRusty]

Big E...Generally, I pattern incrementally at ten yard intervals. When I reach a certain range, and reach my lowest limit of pellet count, I know that is my max range.  So, if I were to only get 100 at say 40 yards, I limit my shots to 35 yards to allow for misjudged distances, I don't consider 40 my max and go from there hoping I didn't mis judge.  I hope I explained this correctly, I mean no disrespect but sometimes I find it difficult to put my thoughts into coherent writing and hope you understand what I am trying to say.