New Turkey Loads 2014

New Turkey Loads 2014—These new optimized turkey loads hit strutting toms like a Mack truck and do so with astounding efficiency. Don’t go after longbeards this season without some of these turkey loads in your vest.

Federal Mag-Shok Heavyweight

With all the marketing hype surrounding magnum turkey loads, you’d think it was nearly impossible to kill a turkey with anything less than a howitzer round. The engineers at Federal Premium know differently and have proven it with a 2¾-inch turkey load that hits hard downrange, yet is nearly 50 percent easier on the hunter side of the shotgun compared to a similar 3-inch round. It is filled with 1¼-ounces of tungsten-based Heavyweight shot packed into a pattern-producing Flitecontrol wad atop optimum loads that deliver up to 1,300 fps at the muzzle.

Remington High-Velocity Magnum Turkey

Magnum charges can play havoc on lead pellets, deforming them in the shot column and creating scattered patterns with holes big enough for a turkey to escape unscathed. To help reduce the chances of that happening, Remington fills its high-velocity loads with buffered, copper-plated shot that resists deformation and uses a specialized piston-like wad to absorb some of the initial blast at ignition. The result is a tight wad of shot that exits the muzzle at 1,300 fps and retains that energy to produce a turkey-killing pattern well down range. 

Winchester Long Beard XR

Winchester’s newest turkey offering hits the market hard with perhaps the most innovative, and certainly the most hyped new load to come along in years (see review on page tk). And with good reason—independent testing has shown Long Beard XR is truly capable of pushing the killable range beyond what most folks thought possible. The unique secret is a resin that bonds the lead shot together in the shell, yet shatters upon ignition, creating a buffer that essentially eliminates any shot deformation. This results in tight, turkey-killing patterns at, dare I say, up to 60 yards. 

Spectra Shot White Lightning

Continuing the trend of downsizing loads, yet optimizing performance, Spectra Shot packs White Lightning turkey killers with just 1 5/8 ounces of shot. That, along with a special blend of all-weather Hodgdon powder that pushes a muzzle velocity of around 1,200 fps, makes these shells lighter on the shoulder, but the dense, uniform nickel-plated lead shot still retains plenty of energy downrange to ruffle more than just the feathers of a strutting tom—it also puts them down hard. The manufacturer also claims the lighter load allows for tighter choke constrictions, something both turkey hunters and competitive target shooters can appreciate.