Patterning Your Turkey Gun & Loads

[Lawdwaz]

Please tell me your methods in patterning your guns and loads for turkey.  Target, distance, rest, amount of shots PER load and any other variables that contribute to your choices.......thank you.

[Engraver99]

I set a target at 40 yards. Target has a life sized turkey head/neck on it backed by a large piece of cardboard. I use my gun vice as a rest, aim with a red dot sight, shoot. Then check out the pellet pattern. Adjust sight to highest concentration of pellets and repeat until am comfortable that the highest concentration of pellets is on the target area I am aiming at. I use winchester long beard #5's and a choke designed for those loads out of my mossberg 835 3.5" shotgun w/ 26" barrel.

[G-Man]

Sight in at 20 yards.its a slug hole. Go back to 40 on a 20 in circle double check center of pattern.. same gun and load for 26 years. Early.season #4 Winchester xx, 3.5 in later season #5 or #6 xx 3.5 in

[Nomad]

Posted this awhile back in a similar thread .

Toss can on ground walk back 20 yards or so fire one round , good To go.

Cant tell you the load or brand .

[Pygmy]

K.I.S.S......I set the target at about 20 yards so that it is easy to tell the center of the pattern...I shoot light field loads since I believe all shot loads will pattern in about the same place with the same barrel/choke tube and sight setting..

I adjust my sights to point of aim, and then switch to turkey loads and move the target to 40 yards, being sure I have a fairly big piece of cardboard...I adjust  the sights to POA at forty yards..Center of pattern may be off a couple of inches, but usually it is very close....   I use  12 gauge 3" loads, either Win XX or Federal Premium  buffered copper  plated shot....Both shoot dense enough patterns with either #4 or #6 shot  for sure kill patterns out to 45 yards in my gun..If I can't get them that close. I don't shoot..

[Buckmaster7600]

I love to shoot and tinker with guns so my process is way more tedious than is needed but here is what I went through when I bough my new 20ga this year. Before I had the gun I bought 3 different chokes for it.

Sight in my rmr with game loads at 20yds.

Set a target at 20 and 40 yds and shoot 1 shot at each range with the various loads and chokes. I had 11 different types of shells to shoot when I patterned.

I shoot from a lead sled on my shooting bench.

At the end compare the targets and pick the most even pattern.

[Pygmy]

8 minutes ago, Stay at home Nomad said:

Posted this awhile back in a similar thread .

Toss can on ground walk back 20 yards or so fire one round , good To go.

Cant tell you the load or brand .

Larry...I hope that can was EMPTY when you shot it....

[Dinsdale]

51 minutes ago, Lawdwaz said:

Please tell me your methods in patterning your guns and loads for turkey.  Target, distance, rest, amount of shots PER load and any other variables that contribute to your choices.......thank you.

Who "patterns" a rifle?

Varmint loads are a good choice.

[Nomad]

Truth in hunting forums , that was my daughters shot, a few years back . Although I may use her gun this week ,for my first time out in years , I sold off my 835 turkey gun and a few other shotguns , so I have to use her 20 ga 870.

I just went downstairs and looked for some tags ( got ‘Em ) and found a handful of 20ga nitro something . I’ll head out Thursday around 9 AM, no way I’m getting up, before day light to kill a turkey .

I’ll post the pics by 11:00

[Lawdwaz]

2 hours ago, Dinsdale said:

Who "patterns" a rifle?

Varmint loads are a good choice.

No no no..........shotguns are used for turkey here in NYS

[The_Real_TCIII]

Its pretty simple really:

-Meet @sodfather and @turkeyfeathers at the Academy.

-Setup big piece of cardboard at 35 yards

-Draw big circle on cardboard with sharpie

-Walk back to shooting position

-Cardboard blows over, re-situate and walk back to shooting position

- @turkeyfeathers opens case to find scoped .22 rifle. Weaves a web of profanity that still hovers above Clarence to this day

-Cardboard blows over, re-situate and walk back to shooting position

-Remove and load my gun, fire at cardboard

-Walk down and observe; not terrible, bit high left, almost certainly shooter error

Make new circle on cardboard

-Fire again, better

-Change cardboard, draw circle

-Walk back to shooting position

-Cardboard blows over, re-situate and walk back to shooting position

- @sodfather Fires a shot. Walk down and observe, walk back

-Cardboard blows over, re-situate and walk back to shooting position

-Another shot, better

-Setup beautiful splatter turkey targets provided by @turkeyfeathers (Who brought a .22)

- @sodfather Fires again. Dialing in, fires 7 more times

-Setup new target

-Target blows over, re-situate and walk back to shooting position

-My turn again: too late. @sodfather mistakenly fired my entire box of shells

-Wait three weeks; Hunt.

[ATbuckhunter]

Shoot once ant 20 and once at 40. I havent changed my load since i started seriously turkey hunting so I just shoot at 20 a couple times to make sure its hitting where Im aiming 

[rachunter]

11 hours ago, Engraver99 said:

I set a target at 40 yards. Target has a life sized turkey head/neck on it backed by a large piece of cardboard. I use my gun vice as a rest, aim with a red dot sight, shoot. Then check out the pellet pattern. Adjust sight to highest concentration of pellets and repeat until am comfortable that the highest concentration of pellets is on the target area I am aiming at. I use winchester long beard #5's and a choke designed for those loads out of my mossberg 835 3.5" shotgun w/ 26" barrel.

When you shoot the 31/2" shells does your pump slide back? I have the same gun it always open the action after I took a shot.just wondering if it's common for that to happen.

[2012_taco]

Lawd, what do you do to pattern your turkey gun? I know you must have done it several times. If you really need help I think Tacks is on the right course! I'm sure a night at the Academy will fix you right up! I will be there just to hold up that damn target!

[Rattler]

1 hour ago, rachunter said:

When you shoot the 31/2" shells does your pump slide back? I have the same gun it always open the action after I took a shot.just wondering if it's common for that to happen.

This is common for the Mossberg 835, but a little forward pressure on the forearm when the gun is fired will usually prevent it from happening.

[LET EM GROW]

I start with a cheap turkey load(like a double x or hornady load) that id never take to the woods @ 15-20 yards to get the poi close. From there I go right back to 40yards. 

@40 yards ill take the shells i intend to use afield and see what they will do out of any turkey choke i have fitted for that particular gun. All guns shoot differently stands true here as well like it does with rifles. I shoot 20 gauges with handloads of Tungsten 8 shot(1-5/8, 1-7/8 and 2oz loads). and 12 gauge handloads of 7s or 8s of Tungsten(2oz and 2-1/4oz). When the pattern starts having gaps of 2inches or more between pellet strikes on paper.. its a good deciding point to call that combo at its max effective range.. will it kill 5,10 or 15 yards  yards farther.. probably.. but its owed to the animal we peruse. As for a target I use 2ft or 3ft square cardboard to see the entire pattern. Because each load can change POI some here or there. I then take a 10" circle and find the most dense part of the pattern and circle it with the 10".. I do count the pellet hits to determine if the pattern is too choked or can be choked more. Ill then compare the percentage of hits in the 10" circle compared to the # of pellets in the entire shell. For my handloads. When i find the load i want to hunt with, Ill then move my POI to where i need it.  

1st pic is my 535 with 2 dif chokes and handload 8s @40yrd

2nd pic is one of my 20s with handload 8s @40yrd

[Lawdwaz]

22 minutes ago, 2012_taco said:

Lawd, what do you do to pattern your turkey gun? I know you must have done it several times. If you really need help I think Tacks is on the right course! I'm sure a night at the Academy will fix you right up! I will be there just to hold up that damn target!

Anything at the Academy is a good thing, we just have to remember to bring our gun. (Yes TF, we are both guilty of a similar mistake, forgetting my ML'r last year on the last day Doh)

I've done it plenty, always at 40 yards and ALWAYS from a bench with adequate rest.

My method is a 30" circle drawn on a bigger piece of cardboard with an X or dot in the center.  Years ago I used the old 8.5"x11" paper targets from the NWTF that Dr Pelham drew up back in the 70's IIRC.  There was an X I believe in the center of the noggin and I'd put that in the center of the 30" circle.  (some people choose to target the center of the head, some the lower neck)

One shot only obviously per cardboard.  You can draw four quarters on the target to give you a better idea of your bulk of your patterns impact position.  Now you can take a Sharpie and put a slight slash through each hole and count your holes as you go. Knowing your pellet count per ounce can help you come up with the percentage of loads in the 30" circle.  (that might not be real important these days as chokes, wads and shot types make for what I'd guess is mostly 100% of modern loads inside that 30" circle)

One shot per load type wouldn't tell me anything......3 shots minimum on THREE targets is starting to give me and idea.  Look for your concentration of shot and see if it is indeed centered where you want it.  "Holes" in the pattern or concentration of pellets in the wrong spot?  Don't tell your self that you'll remember to hold low or to the left/right.  It ain't happening in the moment of truth, LOL.

The odd thing is that you're using a shotgun more like a rifle.  Typically a shotgun is used for flying objects and an open pattern depending on the choke is a good thing but hunting turkey,  a tightly centered pattern is a better thing.

You can draw a 10" circle in the center of the target too if you'd like but I like to see the entire pattern as that tells me more.

I had a bunch of targets ready to go for an Academy shoot 'em up but schedules and weather didn't jive late in April.  I'd still love to do it maybe some night in June if the guys want to.

Shooting "in" your turkey guns isn't a fun time as the pounding is serious but it is worth the effort IMO.

[mowin]

1.  Shoot one round of Winchester longbeard #5 at 20yrds. Sitting with back against a tree

2. Shoot 1 round of longbeard #5 at 40 yrds. Sitting with back against a tree.

3. Go hunt.