Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Dissatisfaction in Hevi Shot 20ga ammo

For one, it doesn't pattern worth a darn in my gun. But that may or may not be the mfg fault.
The real issue is the lack of penetration. The target is standard weight card board. 40 yards. 3" #7 and Mag Blend. Out of 4 rounds each load every piece of card board rattled like a baby rattle. Needles to say, I'll never take a shot on a live bird bigger than a dove with the ones I have left. Even the 2 3/4" #7.5 field loads I shot that day did better

That's odd. I've gotten better penetration with the magnum blend than any thing else I've shot.

How long of a barrel are you shooting? I wonder if the penetration you seen was coming from the #5 and #6 shot?
The cardboard from my straight 7's had a lot of rattle. To me, the Federal Heavyweights have more recoil than either Hevi Shot loads but I passed that off to the extra 1/4pz of shot in the Federal load.
I wonder if mine were made when powder was hard to come by. Cutting even a half grain per load would be a huge savings over a years production.
I know that Hevi Shot lied about their average pellet count when they came out with the mag blend in the 3" 12ga. Out of the 3 shells that I cut and counted they were running around 20% short of their advertisements.

That's weird, the #7's patterned good from my 21" barreled 20 gauge. They kill the hell out of turkeys too.


That said I did switch to Federal HW #7's because they out patterned the Hevi13 loads from my gun.


The Hevi13's patterned best for me from a .550" choke. The Federal HW 7's from a .562" choke.

After switching to a 20ga this year and seeing how well the Federal HW #7's perform on paper and birds, I'll never carry a 12ga again.

I have quite a few friends around that loved their gun / choke / Hevi Shot combos. I say "loved" because after they seen my little 870 with a Sumtoy .562 and the Federal HW patterns they don't talk about their guns much anymore.

I may have just got a bad lot of the Hevi Shot. I know it happens from time to time. It just seams to happen to Hevi more than others.

For me hevishot patterened just Ok I went back to copper plated lead or Fed HW.

Tried hevishot once patterning, went back to my reliable copper plated 6's. Not impressed at all.

Hevishot likes a lot of choke.

Haven't found a choke for my 870 20 gauge with hevishot 7's that outperforms the factory XFull and Federal HW 6's. Not done looking, but for now I am happy with the 6's.

Took somebody's recommendation for the Federal Heavyweight #7s for my future DIL's 20 gauge 870. Very glad i did, she nailed a big gobbler at 38 yards with he stuff. Killed as well as any of 12 gauges!