20 GA shot I need some info

[LeePeterson]

You should be able to kill ducks and geese easily at 40 yards, if your using the kent fast steel 1560FPS and BB's with a Mod or tighter choke.

 

[straightshooter]

You should be able to kill ducks and geese easily at 40 yards, if your using the kent fast steel 1560FPS and BB's with a Mod or tighter choke.

As Lee correctly points out, (given a suitable shot size) most average or heavy loads are deadly out to at least 40 yards. And, your patterning efforts reveal the whole benefit to the exercise.

As you've now discovered, your pattern is fairly even at medium distances, but gaps develop at some point between 25 and 50 yards. Your next exercise should be to try a few different brands of shells and shot sizes to see if you can find one that retains an even pattern out to 50 yards. Almost any shot size from 4 or 5 shot or larger will retain enough energy to kill even the tougher species out to 50 yards, if you get several pellets in the bird. Sometimes hunters who are dealing with patterns riddled with gaps mistakenly think that the powder load or the shot size are the issue.

Shot size and weight (7/8, 1, 1 1/4 oz. etc) combine to dictate how many pellets you've got to work with. Powder load (volume, burn rate, etc), barrel guage, length, type of shot, and a host of other factors will affect muzzle velocity (and by extension, the energy at any given distance). Shot size, type of shot, barrel guage, type of shot cup, choke selection, distance, etc, etc, will all affect shot pattern.

For all of the above reasons, many experienced hunters prefer O/U and SXS shotguns because they will typically have different chokes in the two barrels and can be loaded with different shells. When you've characterized different combinations of shells and barrels, you can optimize the shell and barrel combination to get the most effective load for near shots and for far shots. Then, all you need to worry about in the field is which trigger to pull (or which fires first, in the case of single-trigger double guns).

What many people don't realize, though, is that the same kind of flexibility (or close to it) can be had with an auto-loader or a pump gun. The trick is to learn the characteristics of your shells at various distances and then manage the order that the shells will be cycled into the chamber. No matter what you do, it's still possible to have the wrong shell in the chamber for the shot that presents itself, but at least you aren't shooting with shells that consistently leave great gaps in your pattern and you can make informed decisions, such as deliberately letting the bird put a little more distance between you, before pulling the trigger.

SS