Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Winchester longbeard XR

I just got back from patterning 2 different 12 gauge Remington's. Winchester longbeard XR did substantially worse than plain old 3" Remington nitro mag and even worse than Kent 2 2/3" loads. It also had a failure to fire. Two clicks in one gun and a bang in the other. It's just a few data points, but I found it interesting. Both guns sported the standard Remington full choke. I suppose it's nice to find your gun likes cheap loads.

Edit. I just noticed autocorrect changes longbeard to longboard. Nope, I wasn't shooting surfboards.

My experience is just the opposite.
My sons shotgun patterned awesome with longbeards, haven't he a chance to pattern mine yet (work keeps getting in the way) but we'll see how they do in mine.

I can't believe a Remington turkey load out patterned anything.


Did you shoot at a big piece of paper, 3'x3' or so? LB's pattern low left from my 870. Low enough if you were shooting at just a turkey target it would catch the edge of the pattern.

Interesting. LB's and Federal Hvywt Turkey both pattern low from my Model 37 as well. At least there have been no failures to fire.

nothing i have tried comes close to the Winchester Longbeard

I'll have to get a bigger sheet and try again. It is possible I caught the edge of the pattern all four times, especially if it was quite a bit low and patterning really tight. Everyone I know hypes them up, so I was surprised at the results.

LB #5's are the bomb in my turkey gun.

They don't shoot any better or worse in my guns that any other standard lead load to be honest. I prefer the hevi shot mag blends as they pattern 2nd best to nitro shells. I don't like spending that much money but they flat kill stuff better than the lead. Killed 3 this year alone with hevi and they rarely twitch

I was using Federal turkey loads, last year I bagged a nice tom with the #6s. Thing I like about Federal is they put 2 ounces of payload in their shells. Trying Longbeard XR this year, #6 again. Good luck to everyone this spring!

They patterned good in my guns, most of the time. But for every 10 shells I shot, I'd get a weird/terrible pattern for about 2 of them. Also, the patterns were always shifting poi. Very inconsistent for me. I get better patterns out of my guns with the hevi13 shells, and they're consistent. That's where my money will be spent. As bad as I wanted the longbeards to do great in my guns, I just can't trust them.

I was told long ago to clean and polish the barrel between every shot when pattern testing turkey loads. Specifically, I was told to use a combo of a bronze brush, wrapped with a cleaning patch, soaked in Kroil and JB paste, driven by a cordless drill at a lower speed. Don't ask me why, but I do it.

That said, I settled on the load(s) for my turkey gun(s) long ago. Haven't changed them in years. Nitro 4x5x7 HeviShot, 3" in the 12ga; Nitro HeviShot 7s in the 3" 20ga.

I prefer Nitro 4x5x7, but I have found a choke that works well with Longbeard #6 and will roll with that once the Nitro's are gone.

Just a heads up, I have a brand new still in the box, Carlson Long Beard XR Choke for a Browning Invector Plus in the for sale section.

$20.00 shipped USPS Priority Mail. It's over a $50.00 choke.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth..._Carlson_Long_Beard_XR_Turk#Post12002816

Smart Man on the cleaning method and 20 ga!!

Steve

I've never tried Longbeard, but I've heard lots of good things about it. That said, there are lots of good turkey loads out there. I've always been very happy with using Hevi-shot, Hevi-13. It's always been a real great turkey crusher for me.