shotgun pattern size

[Greg S]

Until you pattern the shotgun with the loads your using, it is a crap shoot.

[rking22]

The thing about choke selection for distance isn’t what worked one day, but what will give the best chance of working Every Time. I shoot lots of vintage guns, most are mod or full. I started out with a fixed mod choke in my one and only shotgun around 1970. After going full circle with lots of choke tubes ect., I am again of the opinion that you can do most of the work a shotgun is needed for with a well pointed fixed modified. Changing loads like 9s for close, 6s for long and nontoxic for ducks is better than constantly gobbling with choke tubes. Sporting clays included, but at the top you are going to need IM or more for some of the really long stuff. In general, IC will get you a lot of broken targets if you stay focused on the target and not wondering about the choke. I find myself comfortable with a nice old gun in IC and Mod , or Mod and Full the way a lot of them were built.

[doghunter]

In my experience, shotgun patterns fall apart quickly. My full choked gun throws an 11" pattern at 40 yards, but it opens up to 16-18" at 50 and will put most of the pellets in 24" at 60.

[megasupermagnum]

In my experience, shotgun patterns fall apart quickly. My full choked gun throws an 11" pattern at 40 yards, but it opens up to 16-18" at 50 and will put most of the pellets in 24" at 60.

You must mean 40,50, and 60 feet.

[toallmy]

Thumb tac a white paper plate on a large piece of cardboard walk off your yardage , take a shot just 1 shot then go see what really happened . Do this several times with a new piece of cardboard and paper plate to confirm . Most will be surprised where the pattern really is on target or beside the target .

[6pt-sika]

surprizing how many shotgunner never pattern??
they would never put a scope on a rifle and not sight it in.
but not checking a were a shotgun shoots is ok

You said two seprate things here .

Shooting patterns is just for supposedly seeing which quadrants get the greater percentage of shot , but it's really only good for the target shot . To do a definitive study on a gun-load you need to shoot a series of targets with the same load at the same distance yadda yadda yadda .

Checking where your shotgun shoots IE: POI is a totally different thing . I'll confess I usually checked my skeet and trap guns for POI but I very rarely patterned them . I tell people DO NOT pattern your 410 skeet gun or tubes especially if you are a new shooter . It'll do nothing more than cut into your confidence when you see all the clay bird sized holes . The whole concept of patterning on paper is of course one dimensional and shot versus a clay target just doesn't work that way . A shot cluster as it goes thru the air is in no shape or form ONE DIMENSIONAL but rather a sausage shape so even though your one dimensional paper pattern looks awesome there's still the possibility that the target somehow makes it's way thru the multi dimensional sausage pattern .

And no I know nothing about what I speak I've only shot the clay target games competitively and for fun for the last 40 years .

[turtlezx]

think there was a test done years ago i would like to find??
guy shot at a carboard target moving at 40mph to see what the pattern looked like

[rking22]

You are talking about Bob Brister, I believe. (Corrected that when found it) here https://books.google.com/books?id=vl...20test&f=false
I remember reading that back in the 70s. He demonstrated the fact that shot strung out in a constantly changing teardrop shape. Some pellets drafting others like NASCAR drivers. On clay targets, the target travels about 6 inches as the shot cloud passes thru it. Blaser did some cool high speed photography for their F16 advertising. You can see the shot cloud. I will see if I can find and post a Link. Quick screenshot, best views are right at the start and toward the end.

https://youtu.be/jT46mZKf2cA
Quick screenshot

[rking22]

More info, screenshots with a bit of interest and detail of book, all from link above. Book wll have pictures that are missing from the online teaser.

[doghunter]

You must mean 40,50, and 60 feet.

No sir. Yards

I wouldn't hunt with one I had to pattern @ 40 feet

[doghunter]

I just realized yall weren't talking about buckshot patterns. I'm talking about buckshot patterns.

[6pt-sika]

I just realized yall weren't talking about buckshot patterns. I'm talking about buckshot patterns.

Shotgun patterns atleast for me open a different world . Everything you might read about chokes versus the size of buckshot ain’t necissarily so ! I’ve got some really tight choked 10 gauge doubles that pattern 00 , 000 , 0000 and 00000 size very well . But then my max yardage with them is 35ish yards . I’ve got an older Benelli Montefeltro 12 gauge 3” with a 22” barrel that does very well with Kicks screw in chokes in most all sizes and I keep all on hand starting with #3 up to and including home cast 0000 and 00000 . I did say before I don’t pattern just go by POI and that’s quite true with birdshot . But with buckshot I shoot quite a few patterns every year . At present I load buck and slugs for every gauge from 28 up to and including the 10 gauge 2 7/8” . It’s a hobby what can I say !

[AggieEE]

About game/target shot patterns. I remember reading somewhere that a famous shooter sometime in the 30's to 50's took a 55 gal. barrel wrapped paper around it spun the barrel and shot it. the paper gave a record of how the shot charge changed in time. Just because there is a clay target size hole in the pattern doesn't necessarily mean that the target will be unbroken. The shot and the target are both moving in space.

[rking22]

Yes, and the target moves around 6 inches(90deg crosser)while the 12 foot shot string pass the plane the target is flying in. Remember the shot is doing 1200 fps, the target only about 60fps. The entire shot string passes in .01 seconds, long enough for the target to move 6 inches. If it’s a straight away, like trap, it’s a total non issue. For myself, and I don’t count pellet holes either, the static pattern is fully useful. I am interested that my pattern prints where I’m looking, and that I have roughly what I expect for pattern density for the choke.