3" 20 Gauge Loads

[WereWeasel]

Hi All!

Yesterday I bit the bullet and bought a box of "Winchester Super Pheasant Magnum High Brass" 3" 20ga shells. I've had little success finding reviews or really any info other than whats on the side of the box in regards to the lead counterpart to the 20ga "magnum" family so I decided in the near future to pattern a box of 2 3/4" #6 and these 3" #6 and see the difference in density. I'm curious to see if the cost difference is warranted as the distance increases.

Have any of you hunted/experimented with 3" 20ga rounds, lead loads more specifically; what conclusions did you draw from these shot shells (other than buy a 12ga)?

 

[dutchhunter]

Well I shot a lot of 3 inch magnum 20g turkey loads .I have shot the heavy shot #5 and #6 and had the best luck with the federal heavy weight ,out to 40 yards with very nice patterns ,this stuff cost a little more then say a pheasant load but it works well ,sorry that's all the help I can be ,,lol Dutch

 

[abramh]

I've shot 20 ga remington, Hornady and Winchester turkey loads, all in #5 shot and I got a nice pattern for turkey out to 30 yards, that was as far as I tested. 7/8 oz of #6 was good for me out to 20-225 yards. This was with a factory full choke in my Weatherby PA-08. I'd like to hear your results with those pheasant loads, I'd like to see if they would work for turkey.

 

[WereWeasel]

So made it to the range this week however testing did not go as planned and I had a small learning curve; 1) Buy actual cloth table cloths or bed sheets, the dollarstore plasic ones can't take a breeze and were unused 2) Bring your chokes, I had forgot I changed my chokes to cylinder and modified for clay birds. So a retest is in order but I do have a descent pattern check at 20 yards with those chokes and the two loads.

The Ammo Used


The 3" Rounds (six shots)


The 2 3/4" Rounds (six shots)


As you can see the 3" is much denser and hits much lower; the standard round sparse for six shots and makes me weary of using such a open choke and such fine of a shot in a hunting situation where any real distance is involved. One thing I did note is the recoil is far greater from the 3" than I expected, after shooting them the 2 3/4" didn't seem to have any as all.

The retest will happen sometime this week with a cloth sheet and both barrels full choked at 40 yards and at 20 yards.