Well I am not new to it at all, just curious what others do... I use a Remington 870 Express Mag SPS 12 ga... I just patterned some new Federal Premium Mag Shok heavyweight and man that was a tight group at 20 yrds (and they kick like no other shell I've tried, ouchy)... Almost every pellet was within a 7" radius... That was with an undertaker choke tube... The pattern seemed to get quite open out to 40 yrds... Maybe a better choke tube would help or maybe that's normal... I've always stuck to under 30 yrds, but i see where people have shot farther and due to a no kill last year cause i couldn't get one closer than 40 yrds, I thought I would see how it shot.... So I guess what I want to know is how tight is your patern out to 40 yrds???