Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Winchester Longbeard XR 2 3/4"

I prefer the thicker pattern of #8's, but if the ammo works, I'd not whine about the size of the shot! 😉👍
I personally think that turkey specific ammo is overrated and over priced. But then...I'm an old tightwad, too! LOL!

MS-Interesting about # 8 shot.
Would work in my old Smith-Foxes and M-12 Heavy Duck guns.
Tom Kelly would agree about patience and what works.

The twin trigger of a double gun allows for instant selection of a possible different loaded shell.......

Cut my teeth on a 16 ga "Elsie".
Back trigger, left/full barrel
Front trigger, right/mod barrel

As a kid, nobody explained the L/F, R/M thing to me, but I wasn't trying to do anything but kill squirrels. Choke didn't mean a whole lot.
My Elsie got the job done, that's all that counted.
Only later in life after experiencing some disappointments pass shooting ducks did my Dad explain the "pattern density kills, not shot size" theory.
With a box of Rem Hi-Velocity #9's, I began clearing the skies of ducks with my little hunting group. They sneered at me shooting #9's, but when the smoke cleared, I won the "rounds per duck" pot every time. They continued to shoot Rem 2.75" Nitro Mag 4's with shot buffer. ????


The theory is pretty simple.
Turkeys don't have high carbon steel bones. It doesn't take but ONE pellet to the brain or to disrupt the CNS (central nervous system) to collect a turkey.
The more pellets I can put on target, the higher the probability of a fatal pellet strike.

"The more pellets I can put on target, the higher the probability of a fatal pellet strike."

Sounds good if the pellets have enough energy to reliably break bone and scramble things. In this article that you wrote with the turkey head X-rays it is actually quite surprising how few pellets there are in those turkey noggins considering that was a load of #8 shot. Using the standard 10" circle at 40 yards as a metric to compare results between various combinations, a good turkey gun, choke and load will score well over 100+ pellet strikes with lead #6. Tungsten patterns even tighter. That means there will be double digit pellet strikes in the skull and neck vertebrae with those #6 pellets. That at 40 yards. Better than your results with #8 shot. Did I miss what choke constriction you used?

The shotgun was a Rem 870 w/after market "X-Full" tube.

"... if the pellets have enough energy to reliably break bone and scramble things. ..."

A turkeys skeleton isn't that tough. It's just bone. Even if it is a turkey, birds bones are more lightly constructed than say, even a squirrel or rabbit. It's a natural thing when God designed them to fly to reduce weight. (...and no, I'm not a biologist! ....but I DO know which bathroom to go to! LOL!)

I honestly wish I had x-rayed more heads and I may in the future.

My entire point is: "dedicated turkey ammo" is overrated and overpriced.
I'm not going to argue that tungsten or bismuth or some other non-toxic shot is any better or worse, just that it makes the ammo more expensive when plain Jane lead ("chilled shot" is very hard to locate) works just fine for a lot less money.

I'll agree with you over priced species specific ammo. Print some camo on the box and add "Turkey" in bold lettering and instantly the price jumps 50%+. When I started turkey hunting as a kid I had my old corn cob forearm Remington 870 with 28" fixed modified barrel and killed quite a few with 12 gauge heavy field loads of 1.25 ounces of #4,5,6 shot. Whatever I had from squirrel or rabbit hunting. Later I got sophisticated and began using Winchester 1.5 ounce short magnum XX loads of buffered and copper plated #5's. Later I went with a 3" Benelli M1 camo turkey gun and 3" turkey loads and special extended chokes and all that jazz. Truth is I could kill 90% of my birds with that old 870 and field loads or especially so with the old red XX short magnum loads.

It's all a combination.

I packed a 10 gauge for years. Pretty sure I killed 2, maybe 3 birds that I don't think I could have shot with a 12. We will never know though.

I have killed my closest birds with the old 10 as well. Probably 6 feet on one and maybe 10 yards on another.

This year I am leaning hard towards an IC/M choked 16 SxS. Load it up with 7 1/2 and figure out max distance.

If that's 25 yards then that's where I will try to get all of my birds which shouldn't be an issue since seeing 20 yards on my place is a chore w foliage on.

Weight has nothing to do with hardness.

Look at an antelope. Super hard bone but I bet lightweight.

I can put that many #5 or 6 in a turkey head at 40 yards. Maybe more with Longbeards.

Super! Stay with it if you're happy with the results.

Actually, I'm shooting #8's because I haven't been able to locate the #9 ammo I've been looking for.

Good luck.

Visited 4 pretty large gun shops on Thursday. Did not see a single box of Longbeards of ANY length, gauge or description.

Sad.

I went to a gun store this last weekend in Richmond, Va and saw premium Federal and Remington turkey ammo in 2 3/4", and Winchester Super X turkey ammo in 2 3/4", but no XR 2 3/4" (saw plenty in 3" and 3 1/2"). It's about as rare as turkey teeth.