Federals new turkey shells for 2018

turkeyfoot

turkeyfoot

Old Mossy Horns
Yeah my wife is clueless on cost luckily we been married so long she don't even ask anymore to much for her frugal mind to get she still washing and reusing aluminum foil and ziplocks. Only reason I asked about size is unless your hunting in state that has regs for 7 or larger with the tss 9 is way to go with so many more pellets and more than enough punch to kill as far as you want. Hope it patterns well for you keep is posted in curious to see how these do hopefully rain will be pushed out and Sun AM if going to fire off some 9's I got
 
Billy

Billy

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
dpc said:
^ Invector Plus Extra full. It does ok with the federal 7's heaveys so just figured I'd start there and when those don't work buy the 9's I suppose.

I had $40 gift card I needed to use up. I should of recorded my conversation when wife was doing check book: went something like this.

What did you buy at Cabelas?

I bought some turkey shells I had to use up a gift card.

So what did you spend $31 on the debit card for?

Oh I got two boxes, there's only 5 in a box.

You spent $70 on 10 f.ing bullets?
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Ha ha. That's hilarious! :)
 
sky hawk

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
The brown truck stopped here yesterday too, but I got mine before the dog did. :D

I had just enough time before dark to sight in the new Venom with some older shells and then put a couple of the Federal 12 Ga 3" #9's on paper. The choke I had been using was a Truglo .665 ported, so I tried that and a Remington factory .685 X-full turkey choke (non-ported). Here is the setup and the first shots:

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The .665 Truglo put 238 in the 10" @ 40 yards, and the .685 factory X-full put only 157 in the 10" out of a 23" barrel. That surprised me quite a bit that there was that much difference between the two because everything I had read was that a more open choke would likely do better. It is a shorter barrel, so that might have played into it. The pattern out of the .665 was much more evenly spaced also than the .685, which seemed to have a diagonal appearance. This was only one shot through each because it was getting dark.

238 in 10" @ 40 yards is a very good killing pattern, but it's not quite as impressive as the ones dhsten posted in this thread. Any thoughts?
 
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turkeyfoot

turkeyfoot

Old Mossy Horns
That is little disappointing especially on that 685. I got box other day gonna shoot this wknd the 665 is to tight for my liking ill be using 670 indian creek I'm more curious than anything else with them new federal wads my chokes are ported. That 685 may be tad to open. Ill compare the federal to Apex should be interesting
 

dhsten

Ten Pointer
I like the .665 pattern, but I would want little more out of that shell. The Indian Creek chokes are expensive, but they usually throw killer patterns. That wad of theirs seems to throw previous choke thinking out the window.
 
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sky hawk

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I had a setup I liked pretty good, but now I've changed the barrel, sight, and shell. I just ordered an Indian Creek .665 BDS, so we'll see how it does.
 
sky hawk

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I changed too much to make a direct comparison. The previous fiber optic sights had my cheek smashed against the shurshot stock, which felt like I was getting punched in the face with every shot (3.5" mag blend). That was the reason for the sight change. Putting a red dot on it raised my face up so at least now the recoil is going into my shoulder and not my head.

Recoil was less, but that was shooting 1/2 oz. less shot, a shorter barrel, and a higher sight, so...? I will shoot a few more rounds with the TSS and mag blend once the IC choke comes and maybe I can make a better comparison.
 

Starfan

Eight Pointer
I had just enough light when I got off work to shoot a couple of times. I'm happy with the TSS results. Plenty of pellets and a lot less recoil. I may need help posting a picture if it doesn't show up.
 
josh

josh

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I have federal and apex shells on the way (410), can’t wait to shoot them, the little Mossberg 500 is a joy to carry in the woods.
 
stilker

stilker

Old Mossy Horns
I just ordered 2 boxes of the 3.5 #7's from Cabelas..going to try them through an undertaker hevi-shot .675 choke on my short barreled 870 supermag.
 
sky hawk

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Here's an update after shooting a few more shells:

After ordering an Indian Creek Black Diamond Strike .665 choke (on sale @ Midway), I did another round of testing with the 3" TSS and 3.5" Mag blend. The 3" TSS #9's 1 3/4 oz. shot 270 and 279 in the 10" @ 40 yards. The Hevi-shot Mag Blend 3.5" 2 1/4 oz. shot 189 in the 10".

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So, on average, the Federal premium 3" TSS shoots ~275 #9 pellets in a 10" circle out of my 870 with a .665 IC choke. That's an increase of about 15% over the Truglo with the same constriction and 75% better than the Rem. X-full .685. It is also a 45% increase over the Mag Blend with the same IC choke, even though it is 1/2 oz less shot. I'm satisfied with that.

The felt recoil was considerably less with the 3" TSS than the 3.5" Mag Blend as you might expect. I would say the 3" was about 75% of the 3.5" recoil. Neither shell shot with the red dot sight caused the recoil issues I was having before when I was using lower fiber optic sights. For the past 5 years, every shot has felt like getting punched in the face - to the extent that there was soreness for a few days. The lesson here is if you choose to use a shurshot thumbhole stock, you really need to go with a sight that is elevated 1" or more above the rib.
 
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Papa_Smurf

Papa_Smurf

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
awesome results. either combo will get the job done at 40 yards.

i wanna see 60-70 yard patterns haha
 
josh

josh

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I shot the federal 410 today, Mossberg 500 with full choke , 123 pellets in a 10”circle at 40 yards... pretty good

I have apex shells on the way to try
 
sky hawk

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I am interested to see how those two different .410 shells match up. That sounds like a killing pattern @ 40.
 
TravisLH

TravisLH

Old Mossy Horns
What’s the % that you should be looking for on a 40yard pattern, 60% inside 10 inch plate?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
lasttombstone

lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
Seems to me hawglips said at least 100 hits in a 10 in. I may be remembering incorrectly, but with his loads I have gotten over 130 hits consistently out of my Winchester 37.
 
lasttombstone

lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
^I remember those days. Just don't have enough in the seat of my britches to shoot those any more. Hope they work good for you.
 
grim reaper

grim reaper

Ten Pointer
Shot a couple the other day. Was reading the box after the fact and noticed a warning that said may cause barrel damage in some guns. Looked inside my barrel and noticed some "drag marks" all the way up the barrel. Haven't had time to clean it out to see if they go away, I sure hope so. I'll know this evening
 
Blades

Blades

Six Pointer
grim reaper said:
Shot a couple the other day. Was reading the box after the fact and noticed a warning that said may cause barrel damage in some guns. Looked inside my barrel and noticed some "drag marks" all the way up the barrel. Haven't had time to clean it out to see if they go away, I sure hope so. I'll know this evening
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Wow that for me is a game changer.. I hope it didn’t ruin your barrel, let us know.
 
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