As mentioned previously I managed to get some of these locally for £169 per thou and have now nearly got through a full slab and thought I'd share my findings !
Hopefully the pictures have come through OK, they are as well made as anything else out there but obviously costs have been kept down using the very short metal bases but other than that the rest is nice and sensible. Well packaged with very clear shot markings and load data and no sign of mig welded individual packages or the slab carton like some other stupid designs.
Personally I like shells that have a semi transparent case, the writings are stamped nice and crisply and the ejection was flawless. I opened up an Eley Superb 8 as well for comparison reasons, the shot in the Evo appeared less dull and was true 2.2mm as well, the amount of powder appeared identical to the Superbs but obviously a different flake type/colour. The biggest difference visually speaking is the wads which in the Evo has 4 main upright struts as opposed to a more complex design on the Eley. The latter is nigh on impossible to compress by hand whereas the Evo is doable; I'm not privy to trade secrets but I would hazard a guess here that some of the sweet shooting qualities of the Evo are down to the wad.
Both test days were very windy, coupled to the fact I was trying out a new (to me) gun, 682EX no less with 32" barrels but mated to my old gun's PFS. The first time out I did a 99x 110 and today managed an 84 on a very testing layout.
On the whole I would rate these shells as very very good, especially if the price is kept below the £175 mark, the breaks are almost on a par with the Superbs, on close to medium targets you can pulverise things with anything of LM or over but strangely they continue to give excellent breaks even way out on quartering away edge on hard targets. I say strangely because they are slower than Eley Superbs but not so much so that it messes with your head. I straighted several hard birds and although I would have expected the odd bird to have been harder/better broken with my usual shell, they broke them all the same which just shows how good true 8's can be. On any bird showing face, even at range, these perform as well as I expect Superbs to but the recoil is sweeter without a shadow of a doubt. I broke and straighted a few very long, high birds and this was about the only time I could notice the time gap from bang to break. Interestingly this same time gap is harder to detect on teal or going away birds, partly I think because the bird is not as highly visible to you as a full crosser is at the moment of firing.
The other thing I did on the two separate days was use different makes of chokes, the first day LM/LF Comp-N-Chokes (slotted & extended) that came with the gun, and today LM & 3/4 flush Birleys from my other gun. The LM Comp-N-Chokes are fantastic close and far, they appear to throw more like a good half to me in reality but most of my misses were with the LF which is not at all forgiving. The flush Briley LM wasn't quite as awsome as the other make but I have a half anyway so no matter. In conclusion I would rate the Evo highly as a well made, light recoil mid speed shell that can be relied on for good scores, the 8's are very forgiving through a little choke, they would be on my shopping list if they were available locally on a regular basis.
In fact I would go as far as to say that if Gamebore were to simply load a 6.5 or 7 shot version of same with a suitably posh Spanish name, it could be marketed as a partridge shell for lighter game guns, then they could charge £245 for it, not that I for one minute think this kind of thing goes on you understand. Anywhoo I couldn't find a partridge for the feature shot so hope you like the organic chicken one I did instead.
Hopefully the pictures have come through OK, they are as well made as anything else out there but obviously costs have been kept down using the very short metal bases but other than that the rest is nice and sensible. Well packaged with very clear shot markings and load data and no sign of mig welded individual packages or the slab carton like some other stupid designs.
Personally I like shells that have a semi transparent case, the writings are stamped nice and crisply and the ejection was flawless. I opened up an Eley Superb 8 as well for comparison reasons, the shot in the Evo appeared less dull and was true 2.2mm as well, the amount of powder appeared identical to the Superbs but obviously a different flake type/colour. The biggest difference visually speaking is the wads which in the Evo has 4 main upright struts as opposed to a more complex design on the Eley. The latter is nigh on impossible to compress by hand whereas the Evo is doable; I'm not privy to trade secrets but I would hazard a guess here that some of the sweet shooting qualities of the Evo are down to the wad.
Both test days were very windy, coupled to the fact I was trying out a new (to me) gun, 682EX no less with 32" barrels but mated to my old gun's PFS. The first time out I did a 99x 110 and today managed an 84 on a very testing layout.
On the whole I would rate these shells as very very good, especially if the price is kept below the £175 mark, the breaks are almost on a par with the Superbs, on close to medium targets you can pulverise things with anything of LM or over but strangely they continue to give excellent breaks even way out on quartering away edge on hard targets. I say strangely because they are slower than Eley Superbs but not so much so that it messes with your head. I straighted several hard birds and although I would have expected the odd bird to have been harder/better broken with my usual shell, they broke them all the same which just shows how good true 8's can be. On any bird showing face, even at range, these perform as well as I expect Superbs to but the recoil is sweeter without a shadow of a doubt. I broke and straighted a few very long, high birds and this was about the only time I could notice the time gap from bang to break. Interestingly this same time gap is harder to detect on teal or going away birds, partly I think because the bird is not as highly visible to you as a full crosser is at the moment of firing.
The other thing I did on the two separate days was use different makes of chokes, the first day LM/LF Comp-N-Chokes (slotted & extended) that came with the gun, and today LM & 3/4 flush Birleys from my other gun. The LM Comp-N-Chokes are fantastic close and far, they appear to throw more like a good half to me in reality but most of my misses were with the LF which is not at all forgiving. The flush Briley LM wasn't quite as awsome as the other make but I have a half anyway so no matter. In conclusion I would rate the Evo highly as a well made, light recoil mid speed shell that can be relied on for good scores, the 8's are very forgiving through a little choke, they would be on my shopping list if they were available locally on a regular basis.
In fact I would go as far as to say that if Gamebore were to simply load a 6.5 or 7 shot version of same with a suitably posh Spanish name, it could be marketed as a partridge shell for lighter game guns, then they could charge £245 for it, not that I for one minute think this kind of thing goes on you understand. Anywhoo I couldn't find a partridge for the feature shot so hope you like the organic chicken one I did instead.
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