I've patterned Hevishot. They make a variety of "weights" of it apparently but part of the whole idea of it was that it was to be heavier than lead--so you can use a smaller pellet size to achieve greater pattern density with the same degree of lethality. It patterns significatnly tighter than any lead load I've ever seen, including several premium buffered low-velocity and light shot-charge for the gauge loads. My 3" 12ga pumpgun that I use as a turkey gun with a regular factory choke easily has a 50 yard range, and that's being super conservative. The same gun with the best lead loads I could find after extensive patterning has a 40 yard range and that's stretching it.
Do I need the range? Not usually, but it never hurts me and has come in handy more than once. I don't have the luxury of always getting a bird that much closer and I don't have an unlimited amount of time--and there's not a ton of turkeys where I live. So for me, I have a place in my kit for a whomper of a turkey gun simply in the interest of a turkey dinner or two every spring. This HS stuff is also great because it turns a lighter 20ga gun into a humane 40+ yard turkey gun so you can carry a lighter gun around without limiting yourself at all compared to most 12ga's.
For the 1, sometimes 2 shells I fire every year at a turkey, why go to all the trouble or even potential danger of loading marginally (un)safe handloads? one box of 10 shells lasts me 5 years or more...that's $8 a year or less even at the ludicrously high prices charged for these shells. I ain't rich but I can afford that.
Last edited by David Furman; 09/03/10 10:37 AM.
