Originally Posted by Todd1700

No offense taken and none intended to you. But I have seen shotguns that threw the center of their patterns 6 inches low and 6 inches right at 40 yards. Shooting at a large piece of paper with a bullseye of some sort on it will reveal such a fact imediately. Shooting at a small target ehhh, maybe not so much.

Lets say you carry a new choke and a few different types of shells out for a test drive. You fire at a can 40 yards away with shell 1 and approach it to see that there is only a few holes in it. So you think, "well that shell sucks." But maybe not. For all you know it threw a great pattern but to the left or right of the can.

As for the 100 pellets inside 10 inches, it's just sort of a general guideline for what many consider to be a good pattern. Obviously it doesn't mean if you are only getting 90 pellets in a 10 inch circle turkeys are going to laugh and walk off from you. And yes we know a turkeys head isn't 10 inches wide. Having a good dense pattern inside a 10 inch circle gives you a little wiggle room for not being perfect with your shot. Pull the shot a few inches? Matters not as long as you keep his head inside that 10 inch cone of death. It's about there not being anywhere his head can find a gap inside that circle. Let me show ya.

Draw a turkeys head anywhere in this circle that he could have survived.



And because I know exactly where the center of my pattern is going (adjusted perfectly to point of aim with a red dot scope) I can center Mr Toms head like this in that pattern.