Turkey shotgun patterns

glang1

glang1

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How does your turkey gun pattern? Here's what my Mossberg 500 12ga does with Winchester supreme turkey 3", 1 3/4 oz, copperplated #6 shot @ 20 yrds. Choke is a Carlson Extended Turkey, ported, super full .660". I will take a bird at longer range but feel most comfortable at this range, + it's nice to see the birds close up :). Anyone else have any patterns they want to share with the group? Do you have a favorite choke?

George

Turkeytarget1992120dpi.jpg
 
Here's another one, but @ 30 yards. Still definitely a dead turkey.

Turkeytarget30yrds120dpi994.jpg


Here's one @ 40 yards. Only 4 hits in the vitals, but still would have been a dead turkey. As you can see the pattern is really spread out. I personally don't like shooting at this distance as I think it is a low probability shot IMHO.

George

turkeytarget40yrds.jpg
 
It's obvious that your turkey loads are not stabilizing in the barrel before they constrict passing through the choke. You've got flyers at 20 yards and at 30 yards the pattern looks like it's been bumped. I suggest you get some shotgun and choke cleaner and a 12g jag and clean that barrel extremely well. Get all the plastic residue out and carbon fouling then run some JB bore compound inside the bore for about 50 times then clean out with fresh patches and finish with JB bore shine. You bore should look likea mirror when your done. Also do this with the choke while its out of the barrel. See how that will hlp the long range patterns.

Cheers
 
blargon said:
Or try a different load or shot size.
Click to expand...

agreed. That pattern shows a lot of clumping and lots of holes at 30 yds. The 40 yard pattern is extremely uneven. Try differnet loads or at least shot sizes.Some of these turkey choke tubes .660 rate of constriction, some with more, throw some real iffy patterns , because of the super tight rate of constriction.As mentioned above , clean your barrell until it shines like a mirror.
 
The Winchester turkey loads are about as good as it gets for the $$ so I really don't think that is the issue here. CLEAN the hell out of the barrel, then polish with JB and see how much improvement you get!!! The next thing I'd look into in a choke with less constriction like a .665 or even a .670. The .660 is a very tight constriction but I've used a .655 before in a Kick's GT and had great results with #6 shot. Choke taper and forcing cone play a big factor in patterning.
 
blargon said:
Or try a different load or shot size.
Click to expand...

So far all the different manufactures shells I have used have been #6 shot. I have tried 2 kinds of Winchester Turkey loads; Double X Magnum 2 oz & HV Magnum 1 3/4 oz, Remington's HD Turkey shells, & Federal Flite-control turkey loads. The Winchester shells seem to pattern best in my gun. All have been 3".

George
 
that load and/or choke is definitely NOT good for your gun and you need to try different loads as that 40 yard pattern looks like you shot at it with a .410. it looks like you are using a cylinder choke, not an x-full turkey choke. youd be lucky to kill a bird at 40 yards with that current load.

as for cleaning the barrel...

get a cleaning rod and put on a brass brush. wrap it with the finest steel wool and soak it with oil. you want it to be a nice tight fit. attach a drill to the cleaning rod and slowly push it through the barrel on medium speed. the barrel will get warm but make sure you use lots of oil so it doesnt get hot.

takes 10 minutes to do and the bore will be super shiny, a lot easier to clean in the future, and produce slightly tighter patterns.
 
This is a pattern I shot at 38 yards with a 3'' federal #5 and a browning X-full choke. I shot my first bird of the season yesterday at 39 yards with this combination and he dropped like a stone.
turkey.jpg
 
now thats as dandy pattern @ 38 yards! Nice and balanced. I figure due to the Browning X-full turkey choke it must be and invector plus and the barrel back bored? Try #6 for open terrain such as field edges with more pellets. I use Winchester Xtended range 3 1/2" #6 for such applications.
 
my 30 yard pattern (11/87, 24 inch barrel, Undertaker full choke, using winchester Supreme 3 inch #5s) looks almost identical to the G;ang's first pattern on this thread ( including hitting left)- as does my 40 yard one to the 40 yard pattern on the 2nd post. guess I'd better clean the barrel out just in case- although the gun has only seen maybe 75 rounds since new...
 
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Doubleman,

Nice pattern for nearly 40 yrds. Was that just standard Federal #5's or special turkey load? Which target is that? It looks like the vital hits are a different color that the non-vital.

George
 
I could not get any of the WW stuff to pattern from my Mossy 535 with the factory turkey choke, tried the Remy duplex 3" 4/6 shot and it was crazy good - damn near tore the head right off my jake at 37 yds...

Geoff
 
glang1
Thats the 3'' federal premium #5 copper plated with the "flite control wad". The target is just a photo copy of an H.S Strut, I think it looks different because the light fixture is touching it in the pic.

chilly willy
I have tried #6 with invector plus chokes from .050" to .105" of constriction and just can't get the same results as the #5 shot. That pattern was shot with my Browning BPS turkey but my Super x2 is just the same and both are back bored barrels. The reason I shoot 38 yards is because thats the distance from the fence to my patterning board. Next time I would like to try one from 50 yards to see if that load would reach that far. On saturday I shot my bird at 39 yards which was kind of ironic as thats my patterning distance +1 yard. The 2nd bird I shot last year was only 18 yards and was almost decapatated with this combination which made me think about how easy it would be to miss a turkey's head totaly if it moved a little at that distance, so now I try to shoot around 25 yards to allow the pattern to open up a bit.
Regards
 
I really don't think it matters the load you use, more so the choke you use. It limits the pattern to a smaller area. I shot a turkey last year from about 100 feet using a choke. In contrast to the year before without the choke, the pattern was a lot more spread out and it took two shots to drop it as opposed to one shot with the choke.
 
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pro2A said:
I really don't think it matters the load you use, more so the choke you use. It limits the pattern to a smaller area. I shot a turkey last year from about 100 yards using a choke. In contrast to the year before without the choke, the pattern was a lot more spread out and it took two shots to drop it as opposed to one shot with the choke.
Click to expand...

100 yards?!?! The choke tubes certainly do vary from one tube and one load to the next. Here in Ontario, we're only allowed to use shot sizes 4,5 or 6. 100 yards? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
 
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