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Turkey Loads


SBE2

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I am finally a proud Benelli owner. My dad has bought me a SBEII SteadyGripfor Christmas, but it has not gotten here yet, and I was woundering what are some good turkey load? I have heard good and bad on Hi-Vi, like it has good range and power but can be a mess and can ruin barrels and chokes. Are Benelli barrles rated for steal and Hi-Vi? Finally are there cheaper "regular" turkey loads that can have the range of Hi-Vi turkey loads. Please help.

 

[ 01-25-2006, 09:21 PM: Message edited by: SBE2 ]

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Hi-Vi appears to be a Chinese speaker company. :confused:

 

Do you mean Hevi-Shot?

 

Hevi-Shot can be used as a substitue for lead shot, through any choke. It will not damage your gun's barrel, and it is very effective.

 

Lead shot (copper plated lead paritcularly) is excellent for turkey. I like to use 4's, but anything from BB's to 6's is OK.

Check local regulations, which may limit shot type and size.

 

Benelli and most other modern firearms are designed to handle steel shot, but are recommended for chokes no tighter than modified.

Lead and lead alternatives can be used in any choke.

 

[ 12-28-2005, 11:43 AM: Message edited by: tucker301 ]

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For my SBE II, the best load is the Winchester Extended Range #6, 3.5", through a .660 1.5" Rhino choke tube.

 

I shot 150-170 rounds through eight different chokes to come up with that combination.

 

The word 'cheaper' does not factor in to any of my hunting situations. The words 'the most effective way to respectfully kill a precious game animal' do factor into my hunting situations.

 

mudhen - CA

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For several years now I have been loading 2 oz. of Hevi Shot # 6 for turkey and getting excellant results. I have patterned the loads to 50 yards and consistantly have killer patterns at that distance. I have also loaded 2 oz. of Hevi Shot # 2's for geese for several years with equal success.

 

I've shot litterally hundreds of Hevi Shot loads through my SBE with no damage of any kind. It is great stuff, better than lead. # 6 shot penitrates about 50 pages of a wet phone book at 50 yards. I wont use anything else on live birds.

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Can I use any choke with hevi-shot? I am sold on it and going to use it this season in m1 20 gauge. I called and it was okayed in all invector plus chokes. After tests it was just as tight in mod as in turkey. What is Benelli`s position on hevi-shot? Not backbored make a diff?

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What I read about Hevi-Shot (I did a lot of reading about Hevi-Shot prior to buying a box of 3 1/2" turkey loads for my SBE):

 

- This stuff is better than lead shot because it's actually slightly more dense (read: heavier per volume) than lead.

- The material composition makes the pellets much harder than lead...more comparable to steel shot. In some instances, scoring of the barrel and/or choke was witnessed. I recommend that you DO NOT send Hevi-Shot through choke tubes not approved for steel or Hevi-Shot explicitly.

- Remington (not sure about other manufacturers) encapsulate the shot in the wad complete with a plastic cap on in front of the mass of shot to keep scoring of the barrel down to a minimum.

 

What I think about Hevi-Shot:

- Awesome stuff

- Patterns well

- Nothing beats blasting 3 1/2" shells

- This stuff will GUNK up your barrel. I've never seen such a gooey, thick mess left in a barrel after 2 shots!

 

Happy hunting/shooting,

-Steve

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I've been shooting an SBE with Hevi Shot for 5 seasons now and love it. I load 2 oz of # 2 Hevi Shot for waterfowl and get much better terminal ballistics with it than I used to get with lead. I can put my 2 oz load in a 3" shell but the 3.5" allows room for felt cushining wads and plastic buffer that greatly improve the pattern. I use one of Cabela's zero chokes (no constriction at all) for waterfowl and get great patterns that work well up close and at long distance. You'd swear I'm lying if I told you how far this stuff cleanly takes Canadian Geese. For turkeys I switch to # 6 Hevi Shot and use a Cabella's Full (0.695) tube. It is approved for use with Hevi Shot. Pattern density and penitration are exceptional even at or beyond 50 yards. Hevi Shot is a lot better than lead. It patterns tighter and penitrates much better. Loading it according to BPI's specs I have fired many hundreds of Hevi Shot loads through my SBE and had no damage to the barrel or either choke. The 3.5" allows options the handloader can capitalize on. The shorter chambered guns just limit your options. My handloads burn much cleaner than Remington's Hevi Shot loads. My SBE gets only one good cleaning per season and I rarely have problems related to dirt. I put in 35 to 40 days of goose hunting each season. Handloading allows me to incorporate features not present in factory loads (felt under and over wads in the shot cup, an 8 pedal wad and a mylar wrap and granulated plastic buffer in the shot cup, rolled crimp). This stuff is easy to load. BPI sells all the components and publishes the loading data. Also, their engineers were very helpful at getting me dialed in to properly load Hevi Shot. I don't know where Benelli stands on Hevi Shot, but I really like it. IT IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR WELL PLACED SHOTS. NOTHING WILL DO THAT. It dose make me a better hunter. This stuff will fold birds like a wet newspaper a lot further than I am comfortable shooting. Use it. You will not be sorry. The extra cost is a minor cost compared to all the other money I spend on goose and turkey hunting. The best reason to use it is that it all but eliminates cripples.

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I've been using Winchester High Velocity 3.5" #5's with a Kicks .655 choke. Works awesome on paper out to 50 and actual turkeys out to 45. I'm going the same route as Mudhen this spring with the Rhino choke and Winchester Extended Range, after I send in my SBE barrel to 300Below to have it crio'ed. My SBE really seems to perform well with Winchester shells. Patterning turkey loads and slugs gets expensive and painful really fast. I would try out what is recommended first and see it you like it. It seems to be easier on the wallet and shoulder.

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I'm shooting Hevi-Shot out of a SBEII 26" with a George Trulock choke tube.

 

http://www.trulockchokes.com

 

He offers the Precision Hunter in a Turkey .055, .060, and .65 constriction.

 

I bought all 3 and ended up shooting the .060 choke to get my spring turkey last year. The .060 seemed to pattern the best in my barrel.

 

[ 01-03-2006, 08:11 AM: Message edited by: roadrider18 ]

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  • 3 weeks later...

Rhino Choke, Nitro loads, end of story, end of turkey

 

 

I have a 95 SBE which I converted to a Turkey Gun.

I hate to promote an individual company, but I have played with several chokes and loads on the patterning board and this is your answer, without any question.

Get the Rhino .673 choke that is specific to your gun.

Then buy the Nitro 3.5 load, 4.5.7 shot, that is specific to your gun.

When I patterned this load I got between 60 and 78 pellets in the head of a turkey target at 40 yards.

No other load/choke combination ever patterned over 20 pellets at the same range.

They cost 4 buck a load. It's the best dollar you spend turkey hunting.

you will get acceptable patterns at 60 yards. I don't advocate shooting at this range, but when I had a wounded bird up against a fence at that range my 3rd round dropped him without flopping.

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Went to buy a few more boxes of Winchester Extended Range 3-1/2" #6's ... came back with Remington Hevi-Shot because the Winchester stuff went from $26.99 a box to $40.00 a box. I asked the guy if Winchester is $18.00 a box better than Remington! LOL That's 4 bucks every time you light one off!

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thanks for the help guys. I have chosen to go with the Rhino/Nitro combo because of what I have heard. Ha! now I have to figure out what constriction of choke to get. I have heard .660 and .673. Any help on this matter will be appreciated.

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Originally posted by Butch-M:

Went to buy a few more boxes of Winchester Extended Range 3-1/2" #6's ... came back with Remington Hevi-Shot because the Winchester stuff went from $26.99 a box to $40.00 a box. I asked the guy if Winchester is $18.00 a box better than Remington! LOL That's 4 bucks every time you light one off!

$24 at Macks, $29 at Bass Pro, $25 at my local gun shop, etc. Buy now while they are still in stock.

 

MSRP did take a nice jump to $34 for the 3.5". Your shop added the $6.

 

When I take a week off to hunt KS, MO, OK, the $4 per shell is worth it, no question, no contest over HS.

 

Must be a material price increase. This is going to kill Winchester's non-tox waterfowl plans...

 

mudhen - CA

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Yeah, they did the $5 increase overnight here too. I'm leaning towards a demand driven price increase. Maybe if we all start saying how bad they suck the price will go down!?!

 

Assuming I get drawn for all my hunts, and kill with one shot, all I need is one box this year. Which is good since I can barely find them and they are 3X the price as HVs. The way I have it worked out is: 4 shells for Ft Campbell, 1 shell for Ft Knox, 2 shells KY, 2 shells OH, 1 shell PA. And then when I don't get drawn for Campbell or Knox I can actually pattern them before my real hunts! And then when I don't fill my tags I will have enough for the fall...and then probably next spring!

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Originally posted by 69beers:

Yeah, they did the $5 increase overnight here too. I'm leaning towards a demand driven price increase. Maybe if we all start saying how bad they suck the price will go down!?!

 

Assuming I get drawn for all my hunts, and kill with one shot, all I need is one box this year. Which is good since I can barely find them and they are 3X the price as HVs. The way I have it worked out is: 4 shells for Ft Campbell, 1 shell for Ft Knox, 2 shells KY, 2 shells OH, 1 shell PA. And then when I don't get drawn for Campbell or Knox I can actually pattern them before my real hunts! And then when I don't fill my tags I will have enough for the fall...and then probably next spring!

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Originally posted by corvus32:

I see Benelli has a turkey CrioChoke listed on their site, but no technical specs are given. Does anyone have any information on it? How does it perform compared to others?

None of those tubes have ever been made.

 

The ones in the photo are not even Crio Plus!

 

mudhen - CA

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