We will continue with our series on basic patterning by taking a look at Federal's Premium High Velocity Mag Shok Heavy Weight Turkey loads. With the introduction of HEVI-SHOT by Remington a couple years ago turkey hunters added a deadly new tool to their arsenal, this revolutionary new shot displayed higher energy levels than traditional lead pellets on longer shots.

The unique nature of this new shot meant that a HEVI-SHOT shell filled with #6 shot could deliver as much, if not more, knock down power than a shell comparably loaded with #5 or even #4 regular lead pellets. Consequently the higher pellet count increased down range hit probability accordingly. Though the non-uniform nature of the HEVI-SHOT meant that there was room for improvement on pattern tightness, many turkey hunters recognized the potential benefits and a new turkey load market was launched.


With the other major manufactures looking to compete with Remington's HEVI-SHOT, a whole new generation of "High Density" shot was spawned. These new heavier than lead pellets are not inconsistent in size and shape like their predecessor, instead they are precisely spherical and uniform in size, this leads to tigher patterns, and extended lethal ranges.


Federal's High Velocity Heavy Weight Mag-Shok is one of these next generation "High Density" loads. Featuring a density 35% greater than that of lead and Federal's new Flite Control wad, I could hardly wait to hammer a target with one of these high performance loads.


Results
In the photos to the upper right we see a comparision of Federal's Premium High Velocity Turkey Load Heavy Weight Mag-Shok
3.5” shell, 17/8 ounces of # 6 shot, 1300 FPS (Fig. 1) and Federal's Premium High Velocity Turkey Load 3.5” shell, 2 ounces of # 4 shot (lead) 1300FPS (Reference load)(Fig. 2). both at 15 yards. In Fig.1 the bulk of the pattern falls inside a circle 7 inches in diameter whereas Fig. 2 shows the bulk of the reference load falling within an 11 inch diameter circle. The obvious difference in pattern density clearly indicates the superior nature of the "High Density" load at close range.


Now it was time to see how the loads would perform down range a little further. The photos below; Figures 3 & 4 show a comparison of the same two loads at 35 yards. Fig. 3 is the pattern for the Federal Premium High Velocity Turkey Load Heavy Weight Mag-Shok and the bulk of which falls within a 19 inch diameter circle, while fig.4 shows the pattern for the lead reference load. The bulk of the reference load fell within a 27 inch diameter circle. A direct comparison of figures 3 & 4 does not fully show the scope of the differences between the two targets because the photos of each are not to the same scale, however the outer circle in fig 4 is roughly 50% bigger than that in fig. 3.


The down range performance of the Federal "High Density" Mag-Shok was just what we might have predicted from the 15 yard comparison, a much tighter pattern. Combining this with the higher down range energy of the heavier pellets means a greater effective lethal range, with forty plus yard shots possible. At the same time the tighter patterns in close means that you need to be 100% sure exactly where your pattern will be hitting, being off by even a few inches under fifteen yards could mean the difference between a full game bag or that empty feeling in the pit of your stomach as you realize you just blew the opportunity that you had worked so hard to make happen.