Originally Posted by huntrfishr

My advice for those new to the sport and assuring a clean kill, is to pattern your gun and keep it simple.
When you pattern your gun at 40 yards draw a turkey size head and neck on paper.
If you can get 3 or more pellets consistently in that area at that distance then that is the distance you should be shooting or closer. To have a count on the head like this your pellets will be about 1 cm. apart on paper. Simple it's the pellets on the head and the neck that counts after all.
I should add that I have missed birds at 10-15 yards and I know they are a clean miss. Almost all the Turkeys I shoot are within 30 yards.
I would hesitate to shoot a Turkey at 60 yards although it shows in paper that I can do it, simply because if that Turkey walks away I have a feeling it won't be a clean miss as a 10 yard shot. I most likely would just be giving the Coyotes a taste of that bird.
Now if I plan to shoot at 55 yards then I will pattern my gun at 55 yards using the same method, using the heaviest shot allowed.