Last year, I had the pleasure of travelling to the Yucatan peninsula in search of ocellated turkey. Equipped with a Mossberg 940 Pro Turkey—and still more importantly, a knowledgeable guide—the hunt came to a rapid and successful conclusion, the story of which you can read in our March 2024 issue. Over the course of the hunt, however, I also got to see Federal Heavyweight TSS at work in the field on not just turkey, but the elusive coatimundi (coati), which is a significantly tougher proposition. Read on for my experiences with this incredibly effective shotshell.
The adage used to be “nothing hits like lead.” While that’s still true, it doesn’t quite have the same meaning anymore. With a density of 18 g/cc, Heavyweight TSS is 56-percent denser than lead, and is even 22-percent denser than standard tungsten. Translation? It actually hits harder. Any bird within 15 yards of my fellow hunters on this trip was almost fully beheaded, while “longer” shots like my own saw the bird drop in place. This is down not only to the amazing density of the material, but also the smaller pellet size it enables Federal to use, meaning the cloud can be larger, yet the pellets will still hit as hard as lead or steel several times their size. We used 3-inch, 1 ¾-ounce loads of 9-shot for this trip, but the ammunition is available for 12-gauges in 7-shot; 9-shot; or a mix of both; as well as in 3- or 3 ½-inch shells. Twenty-gauge and .410-bore variants are also available.
Still more impressive than its performance on turkeys was the impact of Heavyweight TSS on my coati. I had my doubts about the situational efficacy of 9-shot, as I stood over 40 yards from the mammal, but the shotshells gave the lie to my skepticism. If I hadn’t had such a firm cheek-weld, my jaw would literally have dropped when I saw the tungsten’s impact, bowling over the low-slung, 11+ pound animal with ease. I think this is largely down to the Flitecontrol Flex wad, which is designed to hold patterns tight and dense through both standard and ported turkey chokes. For more information, check out federalpremium.com. MSRP: $48.99-$104.99
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