How many hard kicking turkey rounds does it take...

Ridgerunner665

Handloader
Oct 28, 2008
2,508
262
Curious question...

Quality over/under or semi auto....shoot them, with 2 oz. loads of #5 shot at 1175 fps (the hardest kicking 3" Remington makes) till one breaks something or wears to the point of needing repair.

Which one would last the longest?

I know O/U's routinely live for 200,000 - 300,000 rounds of target loads with just routine tune ups, even some of the more petite designs...

But Browning has the Cynergy in a 3.5" 12 gauge O/U...a vicious kicking SOB if I ever saw one (up around 70 ft. lbs.)...my Winchester 101 calculates to 62 ft. lbs. with the above mentioned Remington 3" load...I've shot 5 of those, they are the worst kicking rounds I've ever fired in anything.

I just got to wondering how an O/U would stand up to them over time...I do believe the O/U would likely outlast the semi auto (no moving parts, the only wear point is the lockup)...but thats just a hypothesis.
 
The O/U might last longer, but I know I'd break from shooting that many turkey rounds from any shotgun. I'd rather shoot my 340 Weatherby, or shoot Hornady SST slugs through my 12 gauge, than shoot a turkey load.
 
I have a Remington 1100 3" mag that I hunt with that bloodied my shoulder testing reloads for turkey hunting and they were only 1-1/2oz loads but running right around 1400fps. It would knock the snot out of a turkey while doing the same to me. I wouldn't want to shoot 2oz loads out of it and I sure wouldn't want to shoot that load out of a O/U it was bad enough out of a gas operated gun.
 
I shot some 3" turkey loads out of an OU I use to own. Brutal is the only word that comes to my mind lol. All I know is the two 375 H&H rifles my brothers owned were far more tolerable for me.


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Don't know about heavy turkey loads in an O/U but have shot about 250,000 thru an old 1960s Belguim Browning O/U trap gun and its still as tight as ever.

But it don't break as many clays as it did 30 years ago LOL!
 
I've decided I'm not gonna use turkey loads.

I've put a 45 ft. lb. limit on recoil... Not because I can't take it, just don't see the need to torture myself, or my shotgun.

I got a couple boxes of the Winchester Roster XR pheasant loads....3", 1.5 oz. of copper plated #5 at 1,300 fps.... I've got a complete set of Carlson chokes so surely I can find one that'll reach 40 yards with a good pattern.
 
I don't have an O/U, pretty sure they kick hard due to lightweight. I still have the Browning BPS 10 gauge 30 inch steel barrel with 3 1/2 inch magnums with 2 1/4 ounces of #4 or #6 I use for ducks and geese. After 10 rounds I am black and blue. I have fired 766 grain rifled slugs through it a few times and its not comforting. I have it up for sale at one of the gun dealers in my hometown. I'll stick with the 12 autoloaders instead.
 
I don't blame you one bit...

But I do really enjoy the O/U, I've never much liked the way semis and pumps carried, for me.... I'm not trying to knock anybody's favorite shotgun... I'm just speaking of what feels good to me (recoil not included).

Auto 5's are dreadfully heavy and I can never get used to the safety location.

Sweet 16's are nice, but still... The safety.

1100 and 11-87 are very nice too... But I don't much like that safety location either, lol.

I prefer a tang safety on a shotgun that has a safety...I grew up on cheap single shots, flipping a tang safety is as easy as cocking the hammer and feels much more natural to me.

One of those things, we all have our preference.... Or what we're used to


With shotguns I'm just the opposite of how I am with rifles.... I'm all for synthetic stocked, cerakoted rifles.

But for a shotgun its gotta be wood and blued steel....or camo.... As long as it doesn't have these new space age looking stocks on it, ala Browning Cynergy....I could really like that shotgun, in the camo version, if only it didn't have that funky stock.... It feels good, but looks terrible (to me).

The Winchester SX3.... Never had one in my hands, yet.
 
Man, I feel for you with the light O/U. I do have a SX3 and mainly shoot 3.5" stuff through it. Mainly Winchester Supreme 00 Buck or Hevi Shot Turkey loads. It does have some recoil but honestly the stock and operating system seem to tame it a bunch. It's actually fairly light as well. I don't do a lot of target shooting with it. Mostly just patterning for the above two loads and it gets hunted the rest of the time.
 
Well I have been shooting a Remington 1976 1100 3inch Mag and this will be the 40th season and I have used Winchester 3 inch Mag 1 7/8oz in Copper Platted 4 shot for my late season Pheasant load for more years than I can remember.
I use a lot of heavy Duck loads in lead shot till it was outlawed. It is still the gun In pull out of the case when I need the best. It will see Ducks and late season pheasants again this year in it's 40th season. How long will it last I don't know but I'm willing to try and find out.
 

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The 1100 is a fine shotgun for sure... Easily the best looking semi auto in existence, in my opinion... And certainly among the best in performance too.
 
I bought a Browning Maxus 12 ga. back around 2010. Back then it was called the Special Purpose model. 3 1/2" chamber, 4 chokes including an extra full, drilled and tapped receiver, fiber optic sights and Mossy Oak camo. I didn't buy it for looks but for the utility of a fully camo stock and gun metal mainly for Turkey hunting.
I've shot a lot of 3" duck loads over the years and the recoil has never been objectionable.
But after Turkey season I remove the fiber optics for regular hunting. That means I have to resight it in every spring. Depending on where I'm hunting I hunt with 3 1/2" 2 ounce
Magnum turkey loads. I sight it in off the hood of my truck mostly. I find the recoil manageable but you know when you set one off for sure. Pretty brutal is how I think of them and it takes at least 3 or 4 to get it sighted back in. Sometimes more as these fiber optics are 2 piece like rifle sights. And 90% of the time a 3 1/2" shell is totally overkill.
I wonder myself how much of this the Maxus can take.
 
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