A couple years ago I made the switch to Long Beard shells and was very impressed with the patterns. I didn't want to jump on the Hevi whatever wagon because of the price. After sighting in my new Franchi last week with 3rd degree, HW, Federal TSS and Apex I wouldn't shoot anything else by choice other than shells loaded with TSS. The Apex shells are great and I plan on reloading my own TSS shells next year. The shells are expensive, but the average guy isn't going to shoot more than a few boxes sighting in their gun and on turkeys so I'm willing to pay for the difference in performance (a huge difference). Long Beards were the best lead shells that I tried, but there are other options these days.
