brick shark

I LIVE IN GA AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE GEORGIA OUTDOOR NEWS. IN LAST MONTHS ISSUE THEIR WAS AN ARTICLE ON SHOTGUN PATTERNS FOR TURKEYS . THE MAN THAT WROTE THE ARTICLE SHOT A WINCHESTER 1300 WITH WINCHESTER SUPREME # 6 SHOT AND A MAD 660 CHOKE; AT 40 YARDS HE HAD 330 OUT OF 390 PELLETS IN AN 18 INCH CIRCLE. I HAVE A WINCHESTER 1300 N.W.T.F. I BOUGHT AROUND 1990. I'M GOING TO TURKEY HUNT FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS YEAR, SO I PURCHASED A TRUE GLOW CHOKE AND AN H.S. STRUT CHOKE AND WENT TO TRY THEM OUT. I USED THE SAME AMMO AND GUN AS IN THE ARTICLE JUST DIFFERENT CHOKES. THE MOST PELLETS I HAD IN AN 18 INCH CIRCLE ON A TURKEY TARGET WAS 164 PELLETS; WHICH WAS A LOT LESS THAN THE ARTICLE. MY QUESTION IS CAN DIFFERENT BRANDS OF CHOKES MAKE THAT MUCH OF ADIFFERENCE ????

Coyotestalker

sure....whats with the caps???

Dr Andy

I'm really new to this since I'll be hunting turkeys for the first time this year. Right now I'm patterning my gun and trying to find an ammo match,as explained to me there can be a considerable difference. The diameter of the bore can be different as well as the length of the choke as this will dictate how quickly the shot chokes down. Hope this makes sense

wholelottagobble

hey bud...you are obviously new to the board because this is a popular topic, but its good to see a new turkey hunter. I wish you tons of luck. Not only will a choke make a difference, i may have the same gun as you with the same choke and it will shoot different. The ammo brand and shot size will make a difference as well.Most turkey guns and after-factory chokes will throw a lethal pattern at 30 yards. You can definetly hunt with a setup like that. Most guys want to tack on 15-20 yards of deadly pattern after that and thats when you start having to experiment with different chokes and ammo. You ought to befine with either of the chokes you bought, but obviously you could probably do better but it may not be worth the moneyor time to experiment.

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Barth

different chokes do shoot different

little indian

Yes, the same gun, choke, & ammo can vary from gun to gun. My buddy Steve Conover is the current World Champ in theHunter class,at the NWTF still target competition. He won with a Mossberg 935 & a Hastings 0.675 choke. The year prior, he won all 3 classes. It was the first time anyone had done so. He was using Hastings chokes that year also. Hastings makes a quality choke at an affordable price. Barrell length & temperature also make a difference in patterns. the cooler the worse the pattern.

OntElk

Well I can offer an example to illustrate what's been said. Before that I did kind of wonder about using an 18 inch circle as your reference. I believe a 10 inch circle is a more appropriate pattern to look at. A good amount of pellets in this area will generally give you enough in the kill zone of an average turkey. 18 inches is a pretty big area. You could fit a lot of pellets in that area and still not necessarily be hitting a lot of a turkey's vitals. Look at the patterning target below. Any pellets outside of this circle are not really gonna play into the equation and all I am really counting is the flyers that you see dotting the rest of the page.

Back to the choke question. I have just finished patterning my 1300 NWTF short. I shot the Winchester X-tended 3 inch #6 using the Win X-full, X-long turkey choke and a Briley Hevi Shot Turkey choke.

At 30 yds with the factory turkey choke I got this



218 hits in a 10 inch circle. Not bad BUT.........

when i moved out to 40 yds that pattern just was gone. I dropped to 54 pellets in a 10 inch circle. Tried the Federal Flight Control 3 inch #6 and I had 47 hits.

I was a little shocked but I had the hevi shot Briley and so I put that choke in and my pellet count went to 130 pellets in a 10 inch circle with the Winchester load. I added 10 yds of distance to the effective killing range by doing nothing more than changing the choke

Spent about $50-$75 in shells playing around with the combinations however[&:]

I would like to try the Undertaker (All loads) choke and also throw in the Federal high Density load and Rem Hevi shot as well. There very well could be some combination in there that gets my range out to 45 and 50 yds. That is for another day and more for fun since I have the preference to bring 'em inside 40 anyway.

My buddy shot the Federals but he tried my Winchester load in his Rem 870 26 inch with his rem factory full choke. He got 153 hits in a 10 inch circle at 40 yds. Even better than my set up!

You juts have to play around.

StrutnBPS

You can take two guns. Say take two 870s, put the same choke on them both, using the same load. One is going to pattern different from the other. Due to a lot of reasons.

If you want a great choke that doesn't cost as much as the RHINO, try a COMP-N-CHOKE. They are GREAT chokes. They aren't made for Hevi-shot, but they will handle the Winchester XR's.

From what I have been reading, the Jelly Head is also producing some good patterns with the XRs.

Its all trial and error. About only person that can even be CLOSE to knowing what a certain choke/load/gun combo will do, is someone that has shot 100s of them. And then b/c of MY FIRST STATMENT, even they will be off some.

Personally, as soon as I get the money, I will probably buy a RHINO for my 10ga.

dawei

This post I wrote on another board for Team 20ga may help:

http://www.primos.com/CabinChat/viewtopic.php?t=25744