16ga.com ~ View topic - The Hammer of Thor

*Last edited by UncleDanFan on Tue Oct 27, 2009 7:02 am; edited 1 time in total*

Prior to a weekend pheasant hunt to eastern WA., I loaded up some new pheasant loads for my Lefever: 2 1/2" roll-crimped federal hull, 1 oz. 6's, polywad spredr post, Z16 wad, CCI 209, and 24.7gr Longshot, all at about 1300 fps and 8,300 psi +/-. I was flat out amazed at the results. This load dropped birds like the hammer of Thor, and I rolled one wild rooster end over end at 45-50 yds. quartering away. I previously had thought 5's were the cat's meow at longer ranges and had only used 6's for closer range work, but the added speed, better pattern density, and the spredr post worked really well in my m/f gun. I was going to have the barrels opened up, but now I'm thinking I'll leave them just as they are.

Nice pics and nice gun. An ounce of shot if on target always get the job done.

Joined: 06 Aug 2009 Posts: 960

Uncledanfan,

Nice looking rooster. I can't wait to hunt some real pheasants, that photo makes me jealous.

You just gave me an idea, I have been shooting some 7/8 oz. loads that really aren't impressing me any. I have some Spred-R's and a few loads that I really like at longer ranges and I am gonna put them together and find out what happens.

Nice birds and thanks for the inspiration.

Thanks. It was a relief to find a load with that much effectiveness without having to resort to 1 1/8 oz. It makes my Lefever infinitely more useful.

Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Posts: 1460 Location: Eagle, Nebraska

Good load. I use a bit more Longshot than that, 25.5-26grains.
But end result is the same.

After using this load on chukars this last weekend, I am quite impressed with it. It is a night and day difference from the slower 1,100 fps load I was using last year, in terms of how hard it hits and how it has increased my hit ratio due to its speed on crossing shots. i didn't think speed made that much of a difference, but now I'm a believer.