I shoot a Remington 870 Express Mag. 12 gauge.(3 inch max.)Take a look at my patterns, not very good. I am trying the Hevi shot with a Hevi choke and a H.S. Undertaker choke.

I still have Rem. Hevi shot 1 5/8 #5 to shoot and have ordered the
Hevi 13 #6.

Any info on brands, oz. shot, shot size that work for you would be greatly appreciated! Please post your patterns.

I hope this helps other shooters!

Well, your right...that isn't the best pattern, but at 40 yards, it should get the job done...and you'll know your limit. One thing you could do is try a different choke. Try a fuller (is that a word?) choke...like a XXX full choke. The other thing is try 6 shot. Good Luck

well, some of hte best patterning loads formost gusn are, Hevi Shot's Hevi- 13, Remington Wingmaster HD, Federal Mag- Shok w/ Flitecontrol wad, and Winchester's Elite Supreme Extended Range loads. they all perform excellent in my gun. my gun will shoot 37" patterns at 65 yds w/ XX full choke, Remington Wingmaster HD loads, and i am getting 17 critical hits. you can also extend your range w/ these loads and some others loads if you have good enoguht patterns. but try and get at least 10 critcal hits. try those and if those aren't good enough try some different chokes or load combinations. every gun shoots differetn. good luck

We really can't tell you anything based on those pictures. You need to shoot at a bigger target. Turkey targets are at best, good for practice, but as far as truely being able to tell how your choke/load combo is going to shoot, you need to be shooting at least at a piece of posterboard. I got 20 piece at Target three weeks ago for $7.25. If you desire you can tape your turkey target to it and use it as a point of aim.

Reason for this is that you don't even know if its the true center of your pattern hitting the bird or not. You might be shooting a foot and a half to the right (and thats not an insult, I have two guns that don't shoot to POA, it happens), and at the dead center of your pattern you might have a dense enough spread to nearly clean a birds head off...but without a big enough piece of paper to capture that WHOLE PATTERN, you will never really know....

you may have to spend a little money on some diferent loads and chokes

I also shoot an 870 , in express magnum has a 21 inch barrell, hastings xtra full choke I shoot winchester extended range shells in 3 inch and get 12 pellets in the kill zone at 50 yds , dont shoot at birds that far but know it hits good at that distance i agree with the other guys shoot some diff shells try a diff choke it should have come with a x full choke thats all mine came with but its a turkey gun mossy oak camo 21 inch barrell good luck

here is my pattern at 40 yds 20 hits in the spine and neck only had 1 shell to shoot. The P.O.I is a little to the right I will fix that this weekend.

great post swampcollie....I would have never thought of that. I"m going to get some poster board myself!!!!

I always try to get boxes from Farmers furniture to pateren all the guns the guys bring to me.they will give you all the boxes that the refridgeraters com in. thats big enough to see all the pellet hits.as swampcollie said the POA is not always where your looking.
check that and different makes and size shot.then you will know just what that gun does.

I have a Rem 870 SPS-T 12 guage and all I heard was great things about the Hevi-shot Hevi 13's and so I went and bought some. They patterened the worst. I found that the Federal flight control and then the Winchester Supreme's patterned much, much better. I am getting between 8 to 12 hits in the brain / vertebrea with the Federals and the Winchesters performed just a tad bit worse than the Federals. I noticed that you are using 3" shells...my results were with 3.5" #5 shot using a Primos Jellyhead.

As stated earlier...make sure you are shooting dead on (sights accurate). Check this by taking cheaper target loads in 2 3/4" and stand about 15 yards away with your turkey choke and blow the center of the bulls-eye out. Stand really close will let you know if your pattern is off to the left / right / up / down. Make the needed adjustments and then try your turkey loads from 20 yards.