Favorite steel

A5 Sweet 16 said:
spend some time on a football field.
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I did this and honestly looking at the stripes I feel that for myself I am usually overestimating the distance. I do have a range finder, need to play around with it while taking walks. And if I can get a tame pheasant to run and fly around the football field with me, then I'll really have it dialed in!
 
Bob Peters said:
And if I can get a tame pheasant to run and fly around the football field with me, then I'll really have it dialed in!
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This may sound berating to some people too, but don't drop your standards that low. Catch a few wild ones & let them go at the football field. Wild is always better, & Skye & Roxy will think more highly of you. They do know the difference & do care. 😉
 
It’s tough to judge distance in the field. I’ve walked to birds that I thought were out there and was on top of them in no time.
You tube videos are even tougher with distance and especially angles. The first time I ran my camera my dog broke on a dove and I ran it back and looked like I shot my dog.

My ac runs a little bit wider fov than GoPros so mine looks a little bit farther away. If I run back footage on my phone and even can make out so much as a wing beat it’s under 40. I think I shot 2 this year on camera that may have been close to 40 one of them may have been a little farther.
I picked a spot across the street that I thought was about 40 before I left this morning and snapped a picture of it with my ac. The address on the yellow house stuck on the side of the house left of the flag is about 2 ft by 8 inches and by wheel measures 112 ft away.IMG_3747.jpeg
 
Bob Peters said:
I feel that for myself I am usually overestimating the distance.
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Me too, or at least GH thinks I am. When he & Sage are in the mood to learn something (by watching game films of Ace & I hunting), he somewhat frequently asks how long a particular shot was. He regularly tries to tell me all those 55-65 yd shots looked more like 35 to him. 40 tops. I may be a yard or 2 off (I sometimes round to the nearest 5), but come on man. He really needs to practice range estimation.😆
 
BrownDogsCan2 said:
It’s tough to judge distance in the field. I’ve walked to birds that I thought were out there and was on top of them in no time.
You tube videos are even tougher with distance and especially angles. The first time I ran my camera my dog broke on a dove and I ran it back and looked like I shot my dog.

My ac runs a little bit wider fov than GoPros so mine looks a little bit farther away. If I run back footage on my phone and even can make out so much as a wing beat it’s under 40. I think I shot 2 this year on camera that may have been close to 40 one of them may have been a little farther.
I picked a spot across the street that I thought was about 40 before I left this morning and snapped a picture of it with my ac. The address on the yellow house stuck on the side of the house left of the flag is about 2 ft by 8 inches and by wheel measures 112 ft away.View attachment 7739
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That also seems to be getting people confused these days, watching YouTube videos and not realizing that yardages look a mile away. I shot a bird this year that looked 35-40 yards on camera and everyone was saying what a great shot it was, took my puppy 6 strides to get to it so it may have been 15-18yds. I always say divide what you think a gopro footage yardage is by half and youll be close. I tried to use it dove hunting once and it looked like i was shooting at 100 yards. But people see the videos and think "wow you can kill them that far!" When it was way, way closer in reality. Same with photographs, that white house looks 80-100yds away but I know its not.

Dove hunting this year, i posted some barrel cam footage and had a few people say "wow i am way over leading birds" because i was only giving them a foot of lead at most in the footage. Thing is, they looked 40yds away but were inside 20 for the most part. Social media can be deceiving, be careful guys!
 
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This on top of all the other snake oil they sold over the years is a reason I'll never buy any "hevi" product unless it's a last resort. To me it's a crap shoot what you'll get. That brand might make a good shell but I'm not taking the gamble guessing on it. Too many other good options out there.

*I do have a few hevi-shot shells left, magnum blend 4s,5s, and 6s for a turkey load, which patterns good out of my gobbler gun. After I blow through these tungsten shells I'll stick with winchester longbeard.
 
Bob Peters said:
View attachment 7814
This on top of all the other snake oil they sold over the years is a reason I'll never buy any "hevi" product unless it's a last resort. To me it's a crap shoot what you'll get. That brand might make a good shell but I'm not taking the gamble guessing on it. Too many other good options out there.

*I do have a few hevi-shot shells left, magnum blend 4s,5s, and 6s for a turkey load, which patterns good out of my gobbler gun. After I blow through these tungsten shells I'll stick with winchester longbeard.
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I think this is a different can of worms. Those are from federal not hevi-shot. They are just using hevi-shots bismuth. At least from my understanding.
 
Not as much this one shell defect, the fact that hevi bismuth patterns like trash, and federal puts their stamp on it. I'll stick with kent, boss for bismuth, and look into winchester.
 
Bob Peters said:
Not as much this one shell defect, the fact that hevi bismuth patterns like trash, and federal puts their stamp on it. I'll stick with kent, boss for bismuth, and look into winchester.
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I do like kent steel a lot. Not that there isn't a good amount of steel now a days, but they seem priced right for the quality. Their bismuth seems way overpriced, but I've only shot a few and didn't pattern them. I really want to like boss and I know many do, but my guns did not pattern well with them. I might try their buffered loads later, but working on handloading tss as a project currently. Patterns so far have been great. Just need to see how they work in field.
 
LittleBigHorn22 said:
I think this is a different can of worms. Those are from federal not hevi-shot. They are just using hevi-shots bismuth. At least from my understanding.
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Vista outdoors purchased hevi-shot brand from Environmental 3-4 years ago. Now vista sold its shotshell brands to another owner, but federal and hevishot are still together.

Obviously federal uses hevi-bismuth in their own shells now too. So if it says federal on the box its a federal shell with hevi-bismuth in it, but if it says hevishot (hevi-bismuth) then its hevi-bismuth in a federal hull. And now Remington came out with a new premier bismuth shell and it is also hevi-shot bismuth in a Remington or federal hull. The joys of corporate ownership.

Federal, remmington ammo, and hevishot are all the same owner now, along with a few others in the rifle/specialty markets.
 
Bob Peters said:
Not as much this one shell defect, the fact that hevi bismuth patterns like trash, and federal puts their stamp on it. I'll stick with kent, boss for bismuth, and look into winchester.
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I know you have never patterned them just from that statement. BOSS has been the worst patterning shells we have EVER tested, across the board. It takes up to an XFull or Turkey choke to get an acceptably tight 40yd duck/pheasant pattern with some of them however all of them required at least an IM once beyond 30yd.

Hevi-bismuth has been one of the best, which is surprising because they are very similar and sometimes the same wads as boss uses. We were routinely using Mod and LM to get nice decoying duck patterns. Kent bismuth is almost identical to the hevi-shot, the shot looks the same, wads are the same, and hulls were the same until hevi started using federals in the last 6mo. But at $70 a box its cheaper to load your own TSS than shoot hevi or Kent bismuth.

ive actually never seen a bad patterning hevi-shot branded shell. The old hevi-metal, new bismuth hevi-metal, hevi-steel, hevi-hammer, hevi-shot duck all patterned fantastic when we tested throughout the years. Even the hevi-shot duck which looked like welding slag patterned extremely tight. All their shells flat out work, they just cost a fortune and are quite misleading on the marketing side.
 
KEOutdoors said:
ive actually never seen a bad patterning hevi-shot branded shell. The old hevi-metal, new bismuth hevi-metal, hevi-steel, hevi-hammer, hevi-shot duck all patterned fantastic when we tested throughout the years.
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HEVI-Bismuth No. 5 load update

12 GA 2 ¾” HEVI-Bismuth No. 5 load (Replacement shells) After dissecting and patterning the HEVI-Bismuth shells I originally purchased from Hevi-Shot, I contacted them about my unusual results and findings. See my previous post about the HEVI-Bismuth load. Hevi-Shot wanted my left-over shells...
forum.ultimatepheasanthunting.com forum.ultimatepheasanthunting.com

Boss vs. Kent vs. HEVI bismuth loads

Boss vs. Kent vs. HEVI Bismuth loads For those needing or wanting to shoot bismuth loads at waterfowl and/or upland birds, I recently dissected, and pattern tested six bismuth loads and one bismuth/steel duplex load from three shotshell manufactures to assess their components and patterning...
forum.ultimatepheasanthunting.com forum.ultimatepheasanthunting.com
 
Numbers and percentage doesnt mean anything to me anymore regarding patterns. Some of the highest percentage have been the worst when it comes to bismuth, with fracturing and blotching (BOSS). However with the ones it appears you got some bad shells... id guess they fractured into dust like the old bismuth shotshell co did for us once.

I have a picture somewhere of a 50-55ct pattern at 30yds with kent fasteel 1 1/4 2s in SX3. Bad lots happen
 
KEOutdoors said:
I know you have never patterned them just from that statement.
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You're right. But Joe Hunter did, and he's been around for a long time doing a good service and posting his patterning results. He's a well respected guy on a lot of different shooting and hunting forums.
KEOutdoors said:
. However with the ones it appears you got some bad shells...
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He might have. Then I believe they sent him replacements and they were bad shells too. Hmmmm, I'm seeing a pattern here.... Regardless everyone has their own decision to make.

I was in Scheels yesterday and low-and behold, they had some "new" bismuth shells from Federal. The box looks similar to PS or the new wing shok box. Price was $50.
 
KEOutdoors said:
I know you have never patterned them just from that statement. BOSS has been the worst patterning shells we have EVER tested, across the board. It takes up to an XFull or Turkey choke to get an acceptably tight 40yd duck/pheasant pattern with some of them however all of them required at least an IM once beyond 30yd.

Hevi-bismuth has been one of the best, which is surprising because they are very similar and sometimes the same wads as boss uses. We were routinely using Mod and LM to get nice decoying duck patterns. Kent bismuth is almost identical to the hevi-shot, the shot looks the same, wads are the same, and hulls were the same until hevi started using federals in the last 6mo. But at $70 a box its cheaper to load your own TSS than shoot hevi or Kent bismuth.

ive actually never seen a bad patterning hevi-shot branded shell. The old hevi-metal, new bismuth hevi-metal, hevi-steel, hevi-hammer, hevi-shot duck all patterned fantastic when we tested throughout the years. Even the hevi-shot duck which looked like welding slag patterned extremely tight. All their shells flat out work, they just cost a fortune and are quite misleading on the marketing side.
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Strange how different ammo patterns differently in different guns. I patterned 2 different Boss options out of my OG Super Black Eagle and waffled between a Mod choke and an Imp Mod choke. I stuck with the Mod and cleaned house on a 6 day trip to ND hunting ducks. So much, that my buddies went home and ordered a case. Great patterns and dead ducks…
 
Bob Peters said:
After I blow through these tungsten shells I'll stick with winchester longbeard.
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I can highly recommend Longbeard XR. I used it for years when it first came out. I was able to successfully tag turkeys at 50 and 61 yards with it in a 3 inch load. I would personally feel comfortable taking a shot at a turkey out to 65 yards with it. If your shotgun can handle a 3.5 inch load, you could go with that too.

I've since used that box of 10 and I tried a TSS load last spring. It was deadly but it was only 35 yards. They are very expensive. When they are gone, I'm going back to Longbeard XR.
 
Yeah, there's no need for tungsten in turkey guns if you're shooting a 12 gauge. That Longbeard XR by winchester is a great shell.
 
Bob Peters said:
You're right. But Joe Hunter did, and he's been around for a long time doing a good service and posting his patterning results. He's a well respected guy on a lot of different shooting and hunting forums.

He might have. Then I believe they sent him replacements and they were bad shells too. Hmmmm, I'm seeing a pattern here.... Regardless everyone has their own decision to make.

I was in Scheels yesterday and low-and behold, they had some "new" bismuth shells from Federal. The box looks similar to PS or the new wing shok box. Price was $50.
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I'm hoping the Hi-Bird bismuth (w/ fiber wad) they announced at shot show hits the market at some point.
 
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