tealboy

what is considered the standard for spring turkey? I've never taken a 45 yrd shot until this yr. After patterning my gun and a friends, my factory benelli full choke with 3 inch #5 put 16 pellets in 10 inch plate. The pattern looked very poor. My friends Rem 1100 with short rifled barrel and super full turkey choke put 40 pellets in the target and had good dense coverage.

I wonder if that tight pattern would be a disadvantage for the 25-35 yrd shots I usually take. I like the range for the rare times when i might need it but that might be at the expense of the more common short shots. Your thoughts?

MichiganBowbender

Definitely Super Full of those choices, if you are shooting the smaller size shot, 5 or 6's. I would only use the full if I were using size 4shot or larger in lead or copper plated lead shot. Try the Super Full at 20 or so yards in your gun, and then you will know what to expect.

Centaur 1

Don't use a rifled barrel, the rotation will make your pellets spread like crazy. Most people here seem to agree that 100 pellets in a 10 inch circle is the minimum. Try an aftermarket choke like the jellyhead with some shells that have 2oz of #6 shot.

Hurricanespg

Yeah don't use a rifled barrel, you wont get very good patterns that way.
The standard for an acceptable pattern is 100 pellets in a 10" circle at any given range, although some people would say it is 80. Either way, you and your friends falls very much below the standard.
Personally, I would go with an Indian Creek choke tube, and Hevi-13 3" 2oz #6's and see what kind of pattern it gives you.

tealboy

Ok, good feedback. Actually, i went out and looked at my friends barrel and it is a rem short slug barrel, it is not rifled as he told me. It has rifle sights which was probably what made him think the barrel was rifled. Also, the 40 pellets I got with him gun was with duplex shot, 2x6, so I'm not sure how that changes the 80-100 pellet rule, maybe not at all. Mine was shot with #5 3 inch shells.

IL-Cornfed

That's actually excellent advice!!! A Black Diamond Strike choke from Indian Creek is simply awesome..... especially when used with that exact mentioned load of Hevi-Shot! [:-]

As the original poster stated, his pattern will indeed be tight at very close range.... something like a fist sized pattern at 10 yards to paper plate sized at 30 yards. I personally find that adding a red dot to my firearm for precise aiming has all but eliminated close range misses due to misalignment of iron (or fiber optic) sights.

This is your typical pattern with the above mentioned choke, @ 30 yards, using 3", 2oz, #6 Hevi-13... over 200 pellets in the head and neck



Good luck and good shootin'

mouthcaller

You didn't tell us the distance the targets were shot, but if you are only getting that many pellets in the circle then your pattern would be considered somewhat poor (unless you are shooting at 50-60 yards or further).

FYI - you mentioned something about #2 shot. Note that it is illegal in most states for turkey hunting.

Most top chokes are designated by internal diameter, not full or super full. Look on Indian Creeks website for more on that.Typical constrictions for 12 ga start at about .680 and go down from there all the way to .655. In general good results are had with .670 and .665. Mossburg 835 and 935 barrels are overboared and chokes for them are a bit larger.

The standard of pattern comparison is the number of hits inside a 10" circle at a measured 40 yards (not steps - use a laser rangefinder). The pattern needs to be uniform. Thedenser thebetter in my book as long as the pattern is uniform.Using hevishot will increase pellet denisity significantly over lead.

With tighter patterns comes the need for more precise aiming. Most people I know who try to achieve optimal pattern denisity use aiming devices more advanced then a single bead on the end of a gunbarrel. I use a low-power variable scope. Next year I might try a holographic weapons sight (HWS) by EOTech. Red dot sights are also popular as are conventional iron rifle sights.

I get nearly 250 hits in the 10" circle. That is considered pretty good, though most of the pellets are #7 hevishot with the Nirto Triplex 4X5X7 load. Those #7s will flat hammer a turkey out to distances you won't believe.

Remfire

I had to add the Primos Super Full Choke.The patterns I was getting with the regular full choke just didn't cut it.I settled on the Win. Supreme #4 shot in 3 inch mag.Funny thing is the 3 inch shells patterned better than the 3 1/2 inch shells of the same shell.

shottyhunter24

my full with 2 3/4 shot put 32 pellets in a 40 yard 10in paper

turkeyslayer15

thats a heck of a patterni shoot the 3 1/2 hevi shot #5 out of a pure gold choke tube .670and its got a good pattern too mine has somewhere around 75 pellets or so in head and neck at 40yds i shot a turkey at 65 yds the year before last and that was startin to stretch it i think i counted like 19 pellets in the head a neck might have been more but thats just what i could tell . i prolly wouldnt have shot if i would have known it was that far.