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Thread: shotgun pattern size

  1. #1
    Boolit Master
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    shotgun pattern size

    if cylinder choke throws 32" at 20 yds what size would the pattern be at 35yds and 40 yds ?????

  2. #2
    Boolit Grand Master Outpost75's Avatar
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    A cylinder choke will generally throw a 20-inch diameter pattern at 20 yards. One inch per yard is normally expected unless something else is going on.
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  3. #3
    Boolit Grand Master


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    Quote Originally Posted by Outpost75 View Post
    A cylinder choke will generally throw a 20-inch diameter pattern at 20 yards. One inch per yard is normally expected unless something else is going on.
    That rule of thumb is a waste of time. It was meant for old school buckshot, and still was anything but an absolute.

    To answer your question, my math says 64" at 40 yards. The chances of that playing out in reality is slim. Every load is going to have shot that is more round than others. If you look at a pattern, you will see a denser core, and a sparse outer. Generally bird hunters calculate the % inside of a 30" circle at 40 yards. Many turkey hunters, myself included, count the number of pellets inside of a 10" circle. The problem with pattern percentage is that the effectiveness is dependent on the pellet count. A 70% pattern of #3's is great on ducks. A 70% pattern of BBB is useless.

  4. #4
    Boolit Master
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    20 " pattern at 20 yds is modified choke

  5. #5
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  6. #6
    Boolit Grand Master


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    Quote Originally Posted by turtlezx View Post
    20 " pattern at 20 yds is modified choke
    Are you just pulling these number off of that chart?

  7. #7
    Boolit Grand Master Harter66's Avatar
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    Plain , chilled , copper wash , copper plated , nickle plated lead , bismuth , pick an iron based , pick a matrix type shot , wad cup shape , stiffness , thickness , and powder selection can alter the cone of expansion as well as the pellet count and charge weight .

    It should be 64"@40 yd but with large shot say B and up it may stay tighter with a smaller % outside and almost certainly with 1oz vs 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 oz . It's all physics and drafting or more appropriately bump drafting .

    I made my head hurt often understanding my results in the early steel shot days . Trying to graph the results didn't help .
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  8. #8
    Boolit Master
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    ??? i was lucky hit a clay at 35 yds on the skeet field with a 410 cylinder bore 1/2oz of #9

  9. #9
    Boolit Master
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    yes off chart go for cylinder bore on 410 20 12s for skeet field

  10. #10
    Boolit Grand Master


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    Quote Originally Posted by turtlezx View Post
    ??? i was lucky hit a clay at 35 yds on the skeet field with a 410 cylinder bore 1/2oz of #9
    I'm not sure if this is a question or not, but the pellet count on such a load is around 292 pellets. In your standard issue 12 gauge load, 1 1/8 oz of #8, you have about 461 pellets. Even the 12 gauge load is iffy at 35 yards with no choke. I am not a hard core clay shooter, so cannot give you much help there. I would think you would need a pretty tight pattern when only working with 1/2 of shot to hit the edge of a clay with any regularity.

  11. #11
    Boolit Master
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    normal shot is 20 yds on skeet i like no tighter than improved choke

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by turtlezx View Post
    normal shot is 20 yds on skeet i like no tighter than improved choke
    I've read this thread over a few times now, but your lack of punctuation is making it tough to understand. Is there a question here?

  13. #13
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    The only way to know for sure...heck, to have any better idea than a guess is to pattern the gun on paper with different shells at different ranges. I learned this the hard way. After a few boxes of shells and a pocket full of choke tubes at the pattern board at my local trap club, I found out that my "trap gun" with its interchangeable chokes just straight up hates target loads, and $100 spent on choke tubes would have been better used for two flats of shells instead. I now shoot sporting clays with my smoothbore slug gun. Just by changing from 7s to 9s in that cylinder barrel, I get useful enough pattern changes that the lack of choke doesn't matter. 7s for the long shots, 9s for the real close stuff, and 8s for everything else. Sure beats screwing choke tubes in and out. Now my trap gun wears a rifled barrel. I wouldn't have believed It if I hadn't seen it myself. My scores went up considerably too...from 55% to nearly 70% hits just by abandoning conventional wisdom and giving the gun what it actually wants.

  14. #14
    Boolit Master
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    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

  15. #15
    Boolit Grand Master


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    Quote Originally Posted by turtlezx View Post
    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
    A sickening percentage of hunters never sight in a rifle either. "I was told it was bore sighted." I think some people justify being lazy just on the fact that everybody gets cripples eventually. Those same people seem to overlook that I'm going 6/6 dead on the water, while every other bird they shoot is a 20 minute expedition to try and swat them, usually blowing half a dozen shells or more. Don't take those kinds of people on diver duck hunts.

  16. #16
    Boolit Master
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    i have no faith in bore sighting at all
    i use the 3 shot sight in method could be off 3 foot on 1st shot and in the black by the 3rd

  17. #17
    Boolit Master
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    The labels on choke tubes mean little. I have a Briley “full” 410 tube that throws a very patchy cylinder type pattern from either of my sub gage tubes, full length and made by Briley as well. Measures ok, patterns more open than the IC. If you don’t check, you don’t know.
    My Cutts spreader tube on my 20ga M12 throws a IM pattern with modern plastic shot cups. That thing will smoke 40 yard sporting targets, a bit challenging on 20 yard skeet at gets.
    Guess now that I chimed in, for me, a cyl pattern at 40 yards is useless, not enough density for sure kills. I want Mod for that distance, if I miss I do not want to wonder if the pattern density was inadequate. I prefer over choked to under choked, not interested in a lucky break on a badly pointed bird.
    Last edited by rking22; 12-30-2019 at 11:11 PM.
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  18. #18
    Boolit Master
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    agree on choke lables gotta pattern them i had the opposite happen. Skeet and improved marked chokes threw improved modified

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by rking22 View Post
    The labels on choke tubes mean little. I have a Briley “full” 410 tube that throws a very patchy cylinder type pattern from either of my sub gage tubes, full length and made by Briley as well. Measures ok, patterns more open than the IC. If you don’t check, you don’t know.
    My Cutts spreader tube on my 20ga M12 throws a IM pattern with modern plastic shot cups. That thing will smoke 40 yard sporting targets, a bit challenging on 20 yard skeet at gets.
    Guess now that I chimed in, for me, a cyl pattern at 40 yards is useless, not enough density for sure kills. I want Mod for that distance, if I miss I do not want to wonder if the pattern density was inadequate. I prefer over choked to under choked, not interested in a lucky break on a badly pointed bird.
    Shotgun patterns can vary widely with different loads, but you are almost certainly never going to get an adequate pattern for anything at 40 yards with a cylinder bore. I also like to err on the side of tight chokes. If you aren't going to pattern your gun, at the very least use a full choke (modified for steel). Now that I think of it, my turkey gun is a Knight TK2000 with an extra full jug choke. My duck gun, I'm shooting with a full choke. My goose gun is a fixed full, .040" constriction. Buckshot, I usually find best with a full choke. About the only thing I don't use a full choke on is rabbits and squirrels.

  20. #20
    Boolit Master Blood Trail's Avatar
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    I got a video of me dropping a pheasant at over 50 yards with a skeet choke. Balled it up. This was with hand loaded 1 1/4 oz #6’s. Not sure how that Brileys skeet choke patterned, but the pheasant didn’t know the difference.


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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check