Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Maybe the makers of TSS shotshells ARE going a bit too far

Lots of discussion about TSS here on the turkey forum, so I'll keep this post here since the most interest in TSS seems to be here.

I hunt deer with buckshot on occassion. I'm required to in some areas, and in others it just makes sense. I use 00 buck, 3" or 3 1/2" 12 gauge. Out to 50 yards it's perfectly adequate. I've killed my fair share of deer with buckhot. Deer bleed out pretty quickly when they take a load of 00 buck.

Now it seems Apex is loading TSS for deer. They call it "Predator" loads but write, ""Loaded with your choice of BB, 2, or 4 shot you can shotgun predators, hogs or deer with maximum confidence."

https://apexmunition.com/product/pk-3-12ga-3-2oz-qty-5/

BB, 2 and 4? For deer? Turkeys are turkeys and you are generally taking headshots at close range. But hunting deer with buckshot is pretty much body shots. I simply cannot fathom shooting a deer with BB, 2 or 4 shot. It's absurd. It's hard enough to get buckshot out. I can't imagine cleaning hundreds of tiny pellets out of a deer. I can't imagine shooting a deer with hundreds of small pellets hoping enough blood that eeps out of is enought to drop it quickly.

Maybe some of these makers need to step back. I get the turkey and waterfowl thing. But deer? That's just dumb.

Having shot a couple with buckshot, I fully agree with you

BB, 2 and 4? For deer?

On other turkey hunting forums the guy that sells the shot was saying the TSS 5’s will shoot through coyotes at long ranges. I would think the BB’s would be worth trying on deer.

I can't see BBs doing the kind of damage necessary to bring one down quickly. I can't imagine them passing through.

The entire TSS and small shot on any game is crazy..

I was reading a forum post elsewhere where someone claimed a TSS BB shot will completely pass through a deer at 50-70 yards. Bullshit. No I've never tried it, and I still call bullshit. One doesn't need to touch, smell, and taste bullshit to know not to step in it.

TSS has merit for turkey. But head/neck shots on birds and body shots on deer are not even in the same league of consideration.

When TSS hit the turkey hunting scene you had guys claiming 80+ yard kills with TSS #9 pellets.....just lucky horse chit.

When real turkey hunters jumped their azzes they changed their tune to read.....

"I call all my turkeys in close and I use TSS because it kills better than lead".

Just more horse hockey.

If that is the case why the need for the 10" hummingbird swarm at 40 yards ?

It's all about stretching the distance.....

I've owned a literal pick up truck bed full of turkey guns and I'm a fan of the Benelli SBE I own two identical guns....one I bought new in 2000 the other is a about a 2003.

With me my "stretch" is when hunting big fields I use a Pattern Master Code Black Turkey tube with a 3.5" Winchester Long Beard 12 ga. 2oz. load of #4.

If I'm hunting woods I might use a Patternmaster Code Black Goose tube and might cut back to a 3" Winchester Long Beard 12 ga. 1&3/4oz load of #4 shot.

It not as much about the "stretch" as to help cover my azz should I read the distance wrong.

I don't carry a lot of stuff....just a vest some water a box call some ammo and few essentials....and I'm still in shape enough to handle a 12 gauge gun and have nothing to prove to anyone.

Never shot anything but turkey with TSS so I cant say what any of the bigger shot will or will not do, but I do have a buddy that is in Louisiana that has told me knows guys that are killing deer with it. I don't remember but I think he said it was BB TSS.
I have no interest in hunting deer with a shotgun unless it is a slug gun as that is what I started out with and know what they will do.

Never saw anybody post up about 80 yard shots with TSS and I have been loading it long before you could buy factory stuff, but I must not have looked where you did. No interest in shooting one that far even if I could.

Buck shot has never been legal in Tennessee....in some places in Virginia Buck shot is all that is legal.

The “marketing team” from Heavy shot somewhat ruined the entire bunch…. When it comes to reality and standards in product categories and naming.

If they had been engineers they would have standardized “types” based on facts vs. Marketing names…. Those days of responsibility are toast now.

I think TSS is good stuff, but it is not the be all to end all for everything. No different that the 6.5 CM, it is a good round and easy to shoot and effective, but I would not go grizzly bear hunting with it.

Pretty good analogy

IF that is who I think it is he got ran off from Predator Masters after making some outrageous claims. TSS is great on coyotes, TSS shot sizes #2, #3 and #4 do a super job out to 60-ish yards when the gun and choke are set up correctly. I have killed hogs with tungsten BB and wouldn't hesitate to shoot a broadside deer at 40 yards with it. TSS would be a bit better than the Remington HD tungsten BB that I have been using for coyotes and the occasional hog. But everything has limitations and beware those that claim too much. When it comes to buckshot I am a fan of #1 Buck. The 30 caliber load is nearly the size of 00 Buck but the 1 Buck has enough more pellets to help flush out the pattern and fill in the gaps and shred more vital organ tissue.

That's where I think a 12g 3 1/2" 00 load shines. 15 pellets helps to get enough into the boiler room, with lots of bleeding, and enough ooomph to break bones, and with little meat damage, and with pellets big enough to be easy to find and recover. I use slugs more than 00 these days. But when I do use buck, is a 3 1/2" 00 load. Then it's Winchester's XX High Velocity load at 1450 fps.

I don't see weight listed on Apex boxes in the pictures I've seen, but how many #4 or #2 or BB pellets does a 12g 3" round hold? I know with steel shot, there's something like 60 BB pellets. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) And something like three times that amount for #4 shot, so 180. Really, I can't even image the mess of pellets one would have to pick out of meat in a deer. A coyote, fine, no one one but the most adventurous eats those, so kill them humanely with whatever. But a deer. I just don't see any TSS #4, #2 or BB being viable deer shot. I image the vast majoirty of that shot is going to be captured inside the body. Not saying it won't kill a deer, I know it will. But for TSS aren't gamma rays. They just are not going to always pass through eveything they hit. Those little pellets are still subject to the laws of physics. And deer flesh and bones are way tougher than bird meat and bones.

Small TSS shot may be adequate for killing deer. But I don't see it as a viable round for harverst deer one plans to eat.

I've haven't tried and won't ever try it on deer regardless of the manufacturers claims.

I killed a deer with a claw hammer once....



TSS is not covered by the laws of physics....

Once TSS leaves the muzzle it defies gravity......it's more aerodynamic in it's 40 yard journey than a fatter lead pellet.....TSS some how gains energy as it slows down.....TSS has heat seeking powers that no other pellet posses if your aim is off a little it doesn't matter once on it's mission it can't be stopped......TSS is able to leap over and around tall trees in a single blast.....so powerfull is TSS it can shoot clean through big oaks and kill the turkey.....

I know a feller that carries a small bag of TSS dust in his pocket and if the turkey gets in close enough he sprinkles a little in the palm of his hand hand gives a stout blow had just the sight of it will kill a turkey.

That's how TSS got the name "Magic Fairy Dust".....

Only thing more potent on a gobbler than TSS is the copper plated #4 Kryptonite I shoot out of my SBE.