Description
Apex Waterfowl TSS Blend 20ga 2 Shot is the load that makes a twenty gauge a serious duck gun. A 3 inch shell carrying one and one eighth ounces of number 2 steel blended with number 7.5 tungsten super shot at 1,250 feet per second, twenty five rounds to the box.
Why Tungsten Changes What a 20 Gauge Can Do
For most of the non toxic era the twenty gauge was a compromise on waterfowl. Steel is light, a twenty carries less of it than a twelve, and the result was a gun that worked over decoys and ran out of authority quickly past that. Density is what fixes it.
Tungsten super shot runs around 18 grams per cubic centimetre against roughly 7.8 for steel. A small number 7.5 TSS pellet therefore carries more downrange energy than a much larger steel pellet, and a modest twenty gauge payload of it does work that a heavy steel load cannot. Apex Waterfowl TSS Blend 20ga 2 Shot uses that to put a light, pleasant gun back in the conversation on ducks and even geese at sensible range.
The blend is the clever part of Apex Waterfowl TSS Blend 20ga 2 Shot. Apex loads the tungsten first and the steel on top, so the wider steel pattern covers close decoying birds while the dense tungsten core carries the shots that stretch out. You are not choosing between a close load and a far one.
Apex Waterfowl TSS Blend 20ga 2 Shot Specifications
Figures for Apex Waterfowl TSS Blend 20ga 2 Shot are from Apex Ammunition, a Mississippi loader that hand loads its tungsten shotshells. One correction worth making: several retailers list this twenty gauge shell at 1,400 fps, which is the twelve gauge figure. The twenty gauge load runs 1,250 fps, and that is what Apex publishes.
The slower velocity is not a weakness. With tungsten, density does the work that speed does in a steel load, and a gentler launch keeps pattern quality high and recoil in a twenty gauge civilised. Our 12 gauge version of the same blend runs 1,400 fps with a heavier payload if you want the bigger gun.
Apex Waterfowl TSS Blend 20ga 2 Shot is a 3 inch shell. It will not chamber in a 2-3/4 inch only twenty gauge, and plenty of older and lighter twenties are chambered that way. Check before ordering.
- Gauge: 20 gauge
- Shell length: 3 inch
- Payload: 1-1/8 ounces
- Shot: number 2 S3 steel blended with number 7.5 tungsten super shot
- Velocity: 1,250 fps
- Shot type: lead free, non toxic
- UPC: 850010408613
- Packaging: 25 rounds per box
Choke, Pattern and Price
Check your choke rating before shooting Apex Waterfowl TSS Blend 20ga 2 Shot. Tungsten super shot is harder than steel and far harder than lead, and it belongs only in a choke rated for steel or specifically for TSS. Older fixed chokes and lead only aftermarket tubes can be damaged and will pattern poorly regardless. If you do not know what your tube is rated for, ask the maker before you shoot tungsten through it.
Pattern Apex Waterfowl TSS Blend 20ga 2 Shot before the season. The entire value of tungsten is reach, and reach is a claim you can only verify on paper. Shoot a pattern board at the distance you expect birds to present and count pellets inside a thirty inch circle. A twenty gauge patterns differently from a twelve and you should know what yours does.
Price is the honest drawback. Tungsten costs many times what steel does and this is not a shell you will burn through on clays. Buy a box, pattern a few, hunt the rest. For volume practice in the same gauge, a cheap target load such as our Fiocchi 20 gauge Premium Target Lite keeps your swing honest for a fraction of the cost.
Recoil in a light twenty is worth thinking about. A 3 inch magnum payload in a five and a half pound gun is a firmer push than the gauge is known for, and a young or recoil sensitive shooter may do better with a heavier gun or a 2-3/4 inch load.
Do not let extra range become an excuse. Tungsten extends the distance at which a well centred pattern kills cleanly. It does nothing for your lead, your swing, or your ability to judge range over open water, and those are what actually cripple birds.
If you want to drill gun handling and loading at home without ammunition, our A-Zoom 20 gauge snap caps cover that.
Apex Waterfowl TSS Blend 20ga 2 Shot is for the hunter who wants to carry a light twenty into the marsh without giving up the birds that hang out wide. Confirm your choke rating, pattern it honestly, and it will do things a steel twenty gauge load simply cannot. Ships from our licensed inventory in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, with adult signature required on delivery.
A practical note on weight. Tungsten shells are dense and a box of twenty five feels heavier than the gauge suggests. If you are walking a long way into a marsh, that adds up, and it is worth counting how many you actually need in the blind bag rather than carrying the whole box.
Store them dry. Non toxic shells are no more fragile than lead loads, but a season in a damp blind bag works on any crimp.
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