Cost of Hevi Shot & Remington HD

[fabsroman]

Okay, I was about to order some Hevi-Shot and reloading supplies because I am out of the stuff, but I noticed that there was one heck of a jump in the price. After some calculating, I determined that I can reload a 1 1/2 oz. load for just under $2. However, Hevi-Shot offers a 1 3/4 oz. load at 1,300 fps that I cannot duplicate and even if I could, it would cost me nearly the same amount.

What are you guys buying Hevi-Shot and Remington HD for? Give me some mail order places if possible. I looked at Bass Pro, and Remington HD there is in the $30 range. I found Hevi-Shot in 3 1/2" 1 3/4 oz loads at Midway for $26. I might just end up going that route if I cannot find anything better. For the couple of dollars I'll save it doesn't make sense to spend it behind the reloader. There used to be a time where I could reload a Hevi-Shot round for just slightly over a dollar. Those days are gone.

[skeet]

Check the rebate on Remington HD shells

http://www.remington.com/pdfs/2006OpenSeasonCoupon.pdf

Buy 4 and get a 5 bucks a box back. Puts them in a reasonable area. Then ya get some more and submit the UPC in your fathers name...and then ya get some more and submit in your wife's name at work address. Get em cheaper tehn and beat the price increase for next year. BTW the Rem HD are good shells. The couple of boxes the Remington rep gave me accounted for 15 quacks...and 1 pheasant. One shot...one kill!! mostly except for the ones I missed. I bagged 2 teal with one shot though.

[mdmike]

Has anybody hunted with the Hevi-steel?I bought a box of #2s to try this year for geese.Out of a box of 25(I still have 14 left)I killed 8 geese.I am impressed with the results.And they cost about half what the Hevi-shot costs now.

[M.T. Pockets]

Fabs,

I booked a waterfowl hunt for 2007 in Saskatchewan. I asked the outfitter what kind of shot he recommended we bring.

I was expecting him to say something like 3.5 BB's for geese, and 3" #2's for mallards.

He said bring 3" #4 Remington hevi-shot for everything. He said you'll spend less using hevi-shot because you don't have to keep shooting to finish off cripples.

Now, I'm used to shooting Winchester Expert #3 shot in my little sloughs around home, so this will be like coming out of the stone age for me.

I was reading an article by Layne Simpson last month and he described a duck hunt he took in Uraguay. He used a 20 ga. with #4 Hevi-Shot and said he'd take this rig over any 12 guage using steel.

[fabsroman]

MT,

I hope you don't think I am not a fan of Hevi Shot, because I think that stuff works great. The one time I got to hunt geese this year I didn't have any Hevi Shot and the store I stopped at the night before didn't have any either. They only had Remington Sportsman's Steel. So, it was either that or throwing rocks at the geese, so that it was. In hindsight, I might have been better off throwing rocks.

I have killed, stone dead, mallards at 50 yards with Hevi Shot. The first time this happened was 3 years ago on a pair of mallards. They came in really fast and really close. I was using 3" Hevi #4 loads and I missed the first shot. The second shot got the drake and I thought the hen was out of range for the 3rd shot so I didn't take it. The hen decided to come back around and fly directly overhead at about 50 yards. I decided to take that shot even though it was further than the last one I decided to pass up. I pulled the trigger and she came down like a rock. I just could not believe it. Since then, I love the stuff, and does what everybody says it does. Barely any cripples and you can kill birds further out.

With that said, it is still expensive, especially for people that do not shoot very well. Good thing my dad and I are pretty good shots, just not as good as Skeet. LOL

Being as cheap as I am, I am just trying to find Hevi Shot as cheap as possible. I used to be able to reload that stuff for $1 a shell for a 3.5" B shot shell, but that isn't the case anymore. At the end of the day, I think I will still reload it and save some money. Wait till my wife hears that a shotgun shell costs $2+.

[M.T. Pockets]

Fabs, I wasn't questioning your use of heavi-shot. I'm just trying to phsych myself up to paying that much for shotgun ammunition.

I look back fondly on the days of lead shot when I was a kid. I shot reloads at everything. My favorite all around load was 1 1/2 oz. of #5 shot in a AA hull over a good dose of Win. 571. Absolutely perfect for waterfowl over decoys. We didn't have the geese like we have now, but I'm sure this load would have done fine in a pinch if they came into the decoys. (I hunted geese with my 10 guage and the loads I used there is a whole nother story).

I bought a Browning BPS 12 ga. for the main reason it had bottom ejection, easier to find the empties so you could dry them out and load them up again.

Things change...

[skeet]

MT,

I used to use a load somewhat like yours for ducks over decoys and shot quite a few geese with them too. I started out using Alcan 7(30 gr) a red winchester wad and 1 3/8 oz of copper plated 5's. When Alcan went out of business I started using 571 Winchester also but still with a 1 3/8 oz payload. 5's were ok for tolling geese but if ya didn't shoot them in the head they really got ground up with all that shot. Shooting geese up front isn't too hard....but ducks are another matter. And speaking of ducks... man....I wish the season was still in. Have thousands of Mallards and Pintails on a friends ranch in a little stream....and I ain't even feeding them. I love to shoot pintails...and teal...and wood ducks and canvasbacks an...an... well y'all know!! And he just told me they have been there almost all winter. If I had known that I woulda been there most of the winter too. Unfortunately the ranch is for sale and will probably get sold before next season. I'd buy it if I weren't in the process of buying the ranch next door to me. By the time I get done with that I'll be broke. I might even have to find a JOB!! Werk IS a 4 letter word. But I will have about 1600 acres so nobody is gonna get too close to me. I gonna be what the ol farmers call Land Poor!:D

[skeet]

If ya go to Saskatchewan take some #2 Hevi also or the Remington HD stuff. BTW I'm jealous. How many of ya are going? I went up there a time or two in the past. Even got paid for a few days. That was years ago though. If you go out with some of those indians up there you'll be amazed at how well they can shoot! I wish I had the opportunities now that I had years ago. I guided for a group back in the early 80's that hunted from Canada to Mexico and lots of places in between. They offered me a full time job coordinating(and guiding) their hunting but I had too much time in the fire dept to just up and quit.

You're gonna really like the hevi shot if you remember shooting lead. It's even better in some respects. Holds great patterns. If you shoot tolling birds use a skeet or improved cylinder. For longer shots try a light modified. Real long go with improved modified. Go to the skeet range..or sporting and shoot a little hevi before you go so you know how it shoots. It's expensive but it'll really surprise you. Not many cripples!:D :cool:

[M.T. Pockets]

Glad you're getting a chance to buy the land next to you. I've got some friends that lived near Jackson, then down by Alpine, and now they're near Pavillion. They said the billionaires are chasing the millionaires out of that part of the state.

[skeet]

Yep that is surely happening. That is a good way from me though. Pavillion is near Riverton. I thought about buying a farm/ranch down there but thats near the Rez and it is different country there. Wind River area. My sister and her husband are considering a move to Pinedale. He has been offered a job paying around 150 grand...and free housing for a year...and that might not be enough to be able to live there. First time I was in Jackson hole there were still some unpaved streets...and no millionaires:confused: :rolleyes:

[M.T. Pockets]

Last time I was in Jackson was Sept. 2003. I was hauling elk quarters in the back of my truck right down main drag down to see Chuck at the locker plant. I had a Hummer on my left at the stop light, and a blue haired kid on a skateboard with his pants half down his a$$ go past me on the right.

I was glad to get to the trailhead and ride back to camp that night.

We're looking forward to the Saskatchewan trip, we're going late in October since it "supposed" to be better for the large Canada geese and Mallards. There are 6 of us going, we had to book that many to guarantee we'd have our own group in the field.

I plan on doing a bit of pattern testing when it gets back above zero up here. I only have Improved Cyl, Modified & Full. I've never had Full in the gun. I'll likely buy an aftermarket choke, but that's a whole nother thread I'll start later in shotguns.

The outfitter said that they only hunt over decoys and hold the shooting til they're committed. He said the first shot, on average, is 15 yards. The guides won't be carrying guns, I guess that's not allowed in Saskatchewan. That's fine with me, if a guide wants to carry a gun he can carry mine til I need it.

[skeet]

As far as chokes get a skeet and a light modified at the least...preferably Briley extended. Easy to remove and they shoot great patterns usually. Still take some 2's for the last shot on the tolls. They'll be getting out of there in a hurry ya know. The only thing that is bad is that you have to shoot a Browning(gag). I just sold 4 Browning extended Brileys on ebay. 80 bucks. They sell for 40 each in the store. Got them in a bunch of stuff i bought at a yard sale. I don't usually have anything that Browning makes...except a 4 in 1 Waterfowl parka. But my wife bought that for me. :eek: :D

[toxic111]

M.T. whereabouts in SK are you heading. There are tons of places for incredible bird hunting. I know around here, pretty much everyone was getting thier limit everytime they were out.

I have seen areas south and east of here that the snows have the fields white. I have also seen fields black from the canadas!

[fabsroman]

You guys are making me sick.

I wish I were going to Canada to hunt and that I were buying up the ranch next to my ranch. I need to get into a different line of work.

[M.T. Pockets]

We're going somewhere within a hundred miles of Swift Current, depending on where the birds are at the time.

I forgot about the Brownings....

I've moved up a bit now, I shoot a Winchester SXII

:eek:

[toxic111]

M.T. Swift Current (Speedy Creek) is pretty much where most of my family is. The birds should be good when you are going. The bonus of the birding down there is that you are right on the Mississippi flyway, the numbers are incredible.

You will also get to enjoy the thousands of cranes that move through that area.

Let me know when you are there, and I might just have to go down that way for coffee... Unless I am lucky enough to have drawn a antelope tag, then I will already be down!

[M.T. Pockets]

Toxic, thanks for the encouragement. We'll be there Oct. 17-20.

Can you tell me anything about the cranes ? I know we can take a few a day, but how are they to eat ? Not that snow geese are anything to brag about, we're planning on having a batch of sausage made out of them, it's not too bad.

[toxic111]

I have never had crane, but I have heard it is not worth eating. But I heard the same about antelope, and I find it my favorite game meat.

Make sure to remind me about the dates.. I might just have to make that weekend my pheasant hunt with my brother in law.