April 01, 2024
By Jace Bauserman
The smirk I sent Federal's J.J. Reich when he handed me a single Hevi-Shot Hevi-18 Reduced Recoil round wasn't good. I tend to do that when pretending to be excited, but I am actually not impressed.
Honestly, the shotshell felt like a paperweight. Before letting Reich give me his PR spiel, which he is always outstanding at, I snagged the box from his other hand and started reading.
The words "Reduced Recoil" jumped at me from the get-go. Each 2 3/4-inch shell packed a 1 1/4-ounce payload of No. 9 18g/cc Tungsten Super Shot, which exits the muzzle at a velocity of 1,090 fps.
Another box was on the table next to Reich. Glancing at it, I saw the same branding minus the Reduced Recoil label. Picking up the box, I smiled and said, "Yeah, J.J., I'm going with these."
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The specs promised turkey-killing perfection: A 3-inch shotshell packed with a 2-ounce payload of No. 9 18g/cc Tungsten Super Shot that would scream from the muzzle at 1,250 fps.
Reich didn't argue. He didn't go into a PR spiel. Instead, he said, "Those are killers for sure. When you go to the range later to pattern, I only ask that you give the Reduced Recoil loads a chance."
A man of my word, I got comfortable on the bench, turned on the Burris Red Dot, and got a feel for Benelli's Super Black Eagle 3 Turkey shotgun. I racked a Hevi-Shot Hevi-18 Reduced Recoil round and settled the red dot halfway up the neck of the turkey target 30 yards away.
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The first surprise came when I pulled the trigger. The shotgun's recoil reminded me of sending lead from my suppressed .223. My next surprise came when fellow outdoor writer and friend Brad Fenson and I approached the target. The pattern of No. 9 tungsten pellets smashed the head and neck of the turkey target. Benelli's Custom XFT choke did its job, and so did the TSS.
For the next 45 minutes, Fenson and I shot targets from 30 to 60 yards with the Reduced Recoil rounds, and two things remained consistent: reduced recoil and pattern density.
After burning through a pile of Reich's ammo supply, we switched gears to the 3-inch, 2-ounce loads. Of course, they were impressive. Honestly, they were what I expected, and they also pounded the shoulder. The Reduced Recoil loads greatly exceeded my expectations.
I had to eat crow. I hate doing it, but Reich was right. Of course, the same grin I gave him earlier in the afternoon was returned my way when he looked at the patterns on the collected targets on the bench.
"Well, what load are you going with?" Reich asked with a laugh.
I chuckled, rolled my eyes, slapped him on the shoulder, and said, "Well, amigo, even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally. I may stick with these Reduced Recoil loads for now."
It was late May, and though our turkey crew chased longbeards on private dirt, it was apparent the birds had been hunted hard. Most gobblers paid little attention to live hens and dismissed our best calling and lifelike decoys.
Still, slowly but surely, every time I returned to camp, a new bird was strung up on a rope that stretched across the canvas tent. Both Hevi-18 loads proved their salt. All four hunters had made a mess of the turkey’s heads, all within 40 yards.
Time was winding down. It was the fourth quarter, and my guide cut me loose. As a western hunter, I wanted to burn boot leather, cover the ground, and strike a bird. That didn't happen. However, my guide was perched high on a hill while I was off conquering the Nebraska countryside.
When I returned to the truck midmorning, he looked at me and asked, "How was your walk?" Never had I had my tail-end kicked by turkeys like on this hunt. But all I could do was laugh and give him a high-five.
After the bromance concluded, he asked, "Well, are you done messing around? Do you want to keep walking, or do you want to go kill a turkey?" I thought he was joking. We hadn't seen a turkey in two days. But when the Ford diesel rolled out to the rim of the long cedar-sprinkled plateau, I saw he wasn't kidding.
In the distance, a tom courted a trio of hens while a pair of jakes tried to kill each other. The birds were far off, and there was no cover beside a deep, dry creek.
I was confident the birds didn't see me sprint down the hillside into the creek bottom. I could still hear the tom gobble from time to time, and though they were more than three-quarters of a mile away and the odds of getting spotted were high, I made my play.
Halfway into the stalk, I discovered parts of the dry creek weren't so dry. I was soaked and covered in mud when I reached the pin I'd dropped on my Hunt Stand app. My Benelli looked like it was used in a Rambo
When I popped up over the creek bank, the birds were gone. I glassed back toward the hilltop for hand signals from my guide, but I'd gone too far down the creek and couldn't see him.
Finally, the tom gobbled. While I was moving toward him, he had been coming toward me. Quickly, I dropped back into the creek bottom and moved as fast as possible to get in front of the birds.
The gobbler saw me about the same time I saw him when I slithered up the creek bank. The longbeard spun and made his retreat. I didn't have time to range him. Years of bird hunting instinct took over, and I swung, acquired the red dot, and fingered the trigger. The bird only flopped once, and then all was silent.
When I ranged the bird, I saw 63.2 yards illuminate inside the Leupold reticle. That's a poke for sure, but to do it with a 2 3/4-inch Reduced Recoil load of No. 9s made me smile.
As my wife and kids prepare for spring 2024, the only ammo in my range bag when we pattern our shotguns is Hevi-Shot's Hevi-18 12 Gauge No. 9 Reduced Recoil . They all love shooting a 12 gauge and not suffering from the recoil. Hevi-Shot hit a home run with this load, that's for certain!
