Originally Posted by
Adrian J Hare
Listen, You asked and I will be honest with my opinion,
That is just an average pattern at that range. You can do way better and most of the error is your combo. I have seen above average patterns and if your going to shoot the Heavy loads, drop the 4-5 and use the #6 that will increase your patterns dencity more.
The choke that you are using is to tight and what is happening to the pattern is you are getting a large amount of fliers as most call it. Your losing a high % of shot because of deformation of that tight choke. Find a .665 -.670 and us it with the Heavy shot like Winchester HD or better yet Hevi 13 in the 2 oz loads #6 and your going to see around 200 shot in a 10 inch at 40 yards.
Hope that helps and I am not bashing you at all here,
AJH
What is a Winchester HV - lead?? I know the supreme Extended Range HD is hevishot but I'm not familiar with HV.
I agree with Adrian - you very well might kill a turkey with that pattern, but it is far short of what it can and should be. I counted 88 hits in the 10" ring and that is giving you credit for hits outside the line that may have been included had you drawn the circle better. 88 hits, honestly, is not very special and falls short of what you can achieve.
I would advise you to forget about the 5 shot and go with 6 or 7 hevishot (I shoot hevishot 7s or triplex loads that are mostly 7s). With hevishot I really don't see any reason to use shot larger than 6. Hevishot 6 hits hard and penetrates at least as good as lead 5s, probably better. You can get straight 7s in federal ammo. The Nitro Company makes a load of straight 7s and they pattern like nothing you've ever seen, but they are really expensive. The Hevishot company is producing a straight 7 hevi-13 load this year in both 3"/2 oz and 3.5"/2.25oz. I am really anxious to give it a try.
Adrain is exactly right in thay you are overchoked - 650" is super tight and your pattern appears to be somewhat blown with large gaps in it. You are loosing a large majority of your pellets outside the 10 ring. Most of the guys I shoot with use .665 - .675 (primarily .670) chokes with hevishot, both 2.0 and 2.25oz loads.
For comparison below is a 40 yard pattern I shot a couple years ago with my current setup. It is a Nitro 3.5", 2.25 oz of 4X5X7 hevishot shot from a Mossberg 835 (overbored ported barrel) with a Star dot .676 ported choke. There are many more pellets in this load than yours, but that is not the point I wish to make. Notice how dense the core of that pattern is inside the 10" circle. That is what you are looking for, a much denser core pattern with far fewer "flyers" which pass harmlessly past the turkeys head and neck.
