I have a rem 870 super mag its never patterned to what I thought it should --tried x full remington, tru-glo, and comp-choke.Tried every shot on gods green earth different sizes 4-5-6's. Maybe I'm expecting too much?At 40 yds w/ printable target found online (with vitals head and spine) I'm gettingabout 8-10 in spine and vital head area around eye. In entire head about 30pelletsfrom base of neck up I normally don't shoot over 40 so i don't pattern any further back. Am I being crazy to expect more,oh by the way i haven't noticed any major holes in pattern whats your opinion????

1...That's plenty of pellets...

2...Excuse my ignorance, but isn't that a 3 1/2 mag???
If so...try 3 inch shells...I have seen it make a difference...
I have a buddy that has the same gun (if its a 3 1/2) and he
finally went to 3 inch Federal Premiums #5s and the Remington
x-Full choke...

never could figure out why guys pay any attention to counting numbers on a drawing of a head. That's not the pattern. Also patterns have consistency but are obviously never exactly the same.

The targest ultimately have a turkey head to make it something more interesting to shoot at but a piece of balnk paper with a bull in the centre is fine for patterning. You can't count hits to a head that isn't drawn there. Forget about that.

You want a good number of pellets in a nice even pattern across a given area. Usually the standard is a 10 inch circle. That's certainly bigger than a turkey's head so if you get a nice even pattern across this area then as long as his head is in there somewhere he dead.

This is my pattern at 40 yds. I don't need to draw a turkeys head to decide if it's good. I also don't need to count them either. Clearly you can see if these pellets pass by a turkeys head, he's dead.



Put the drawing away and look at your pattern on a plain piece of paper with a bull for aiming purposes.

I should have also said I shoot 3 inch shells not 3-1/2 I have also checked my 10 inch pattern as you can see by picit would appear pretty good I guess i am just wondering if this is pattern density is similar to others out there.

ONTELK I don't just worry about shooting at the turkey target. I still like to know if sitting in a hunting position what kind of pellet to vital ratio I'm getting.Even if my pattern in 10inch is awesome it doesn't do me a hill of beans if that portion of the pattern isn't situated over the head that is why I shoot at a turkey target, you may use just a roundblob on a piece of paper whatever I think we both agree if themost dense part of the pattern isnt on turkey head target or on your round dot, adjustments are in orderSo just counting pellets in turkey target is not my sole patterning method just part of it. I guess rereading my post thats how it sounded. Hopefully this picture will download first try on here with pic says file too big will work on it

I know what you're saying and my apologies if you think I was attacking you. You asked how many is enough in the vital area. Technically 1 pellet hitting that pea sized brain will kill him.

Never heard of that one and all I'm saying is that is not an issue. If you look at that pattern the dense part IS the paper. If you have a high number of pellets more or less evenly sprayed across a 10 inch circle you are good. With my pattern if I miss vitals it's because I can't aim or shoot, not because of the pattern. There is no holes in this area. No turkey head is sneaking through this barrage of pellets. Sometimes looking at a pic of turkey takes away from what you're looking at. First thing I do is turn the target around and look at the pattern.

Just food for thought. You do not need a tukey head to count vital hits.

Yeah. Getting that many in the spine and brain at 40 is great! No worries!
BTW. If your pattern is ultra tight, what happens when you need to shoot one at 10yds? If yor aim is off at all, a wad of pellets resembling a slug will miss his head completely!

Here is the pic of my pattern i was trying to download b4

that should do it

ya that is enough bbs in the head a 40 yards. i wouldnt take anything farther then that anyway.