Benelli Nova setup help!!!
 

I recently just purchased a Benelli Nova with the 28” barrel. I decided to try out the factory full choke with 3 inch Winchester longbeard xr’s in #6 shot. I made two shots with a good rest and both were around 3-4 inches to the right. I then purchased a Carlson choke in .650 for the Winchester longbeards and shot it today. The size of the groups decreased drastically but each shot was 4 to 5 inches apart. It’s now shooting all over the place. I’m pretty confident that it was a very well squeezed off shot. Is there something I’m missing as to why it’s shooting so weird? Is it the sights? Thanks!

What type of sites?


JW

at what distance are you shooting things at
are you shooting off a bench and a rest, or free handing things?

and like asked, what sights do you have on this gun
just a bead on end of barrel, or do you have a real set of sights?

if not you can always maybe add some to what you have, or add a scope to the set up and make adjustments as needed then!

I was shooting at 20 yards, while sitting down and taking a rest off of my knee. It doesn’t have actual sights just the bead that aligns with the red piece on the end of the barrel

well bead sights are not perfect for aiming, they can be off center a little and thus have things hit off where your aiming,
SO< options tend to be , learn to self adjust(free)
buy some add on sights, like I stated(truhlo makes many tha attach to the rib on the gun barrel if it has one)
like these
http://www.truglo.com/firearms/turkey.asp

or again, adding a scope or like sight system, B square makes a mount for your gun, rather cheap and easy to intall, not damage to gun, can be removed when wanted!


or your other options can be, from getting a different barrel(shorter one's gets my vote with sights or again a scope)

I also shoot the Nova and I’ve had good luck with the Hevi shot Magblend through a Jellyhead choke... can’t recall the actual dimensions on it. As already stated, do your sighting in using bags of some sort. I had to drill and tap mine for a red dot due to my aging eyes. Lol.

If it is hitting in different locations from shot to shot, I suspect the shooter is the problem not the gun. If you are right handed and the gun generally shoots to the right, then you are pulling the gun off target with your trigger pull.

I am in the camp where shooting errors especially ones that indicate no particular pattern are the indian and not the bow.

Clamp on SITES (not magnetic you'll loose them pronto) Tru Glo sites that are adjustable for windage and elevation are available to fit your Nova.
Just measure the thickness of your rib.

I used them on my Black Eagle for years.

Then as I always suggest use cheapy trap loads to fix your Point of Aim.
When you have your POI where you want then use a Turkey load.
1. As others said - being off from one shot to the next is because of "Flich".
You pulled the trigger rather than a gentle squeeze. You inadvertently jerked the gun pulling the trigger.

2. Why? Turkey loads are a magnum mixture of powder and shot and the resulting recoil hurts with multiple shots. This causes flinch.

3. Using trap loads is far cheaper on the wallet than expensive Turkey loads.

Before I dedicated a shotgun just for turkeys I'd take my sights off after season. I didnt like them for waterfowl or upland. There I used the Eagle as a shotgun and not a rifle.
We point a shotgun but aim a rifle.

For turkeys because of trying to hit a small target. That is the head, we aim! So it's more like a rifle as we use such a tight pattern.

Lift your head up off the stock just a fraction and you have a woofer and possibly a wounded bird you eont recover.
Using a good set of back and front sites forces you to keep your head down. Thus a better shot!



JW

I have a Nova as well and have taken it turkey hunting with success. My suggestion would be to add a truglow sight as well, but also: 1) to sight in with trap loads at a shorter distance than 20 yards (it is cheaper than turkey loads) and check the impact center point. If okay then increase the distance.. If not you have a problem beyond operator error., it may be the sights or the barrel.2) If okay at a shorter distance (say ten yards) go to 15 and then 20, 25, 40. to check if the aim point off-center increases. If nothing else this will tell you your maximum distance to shoot. 3) You must have a study rest when sighting in for accuracy and not just your knee, try a shooting bench and sand sandbags to hold steady and eliminate/reduce operator error.

also, something I didn;t mention, is MAKE sure the barrel is seated correctly?
next, you do NOT have to drill and tap this gun to add a scope, they make a simple and fast on.off removal mount, that effects nothing to remove and replace if wanted
so, you can add a scope, and leave rib as is, NOT adding sights, and then be able to go from turkey gun to regular shotgun like set up FAST<
you WILL most likely have to RE ZERO things when you go back to the scope, but it should be darn close so, not a big deal to fine tune!

drilling and tapping, is more costly and modifies the gun , not a huge deal, but will deter some, and could void any warranty the gun HAD< as you now altered the gun!

the B square mount I am talking about is like 30 bucks only?
so again, NOT costly at all, as to hiring a smith to drill and tap things!
and when shooting for accuracy, you should be using a rest, and not your knee;'s or like ways, too much human side effects can alter things!

get to a REAL range and use a real rest to get things where they need to be!, save you time and money in ammo, due to slight human errors !

Good advice.

The density and overall width of your pattern will change from shell to shell and choke to choke. Finding the best combination is the search and the fun! The location of the center mass of your shot should not change much from right to left and up and down. This is the human element. A shooting rest of some sort will eliminate the people issue. I have one of these https://www.cabelas.com/product/shoo...7.uts?slotId=2 It's not very expensive but does the job.

Some form of dependable sights is a good idea. I have used the tape on style with reasonable success. I agree the magnet ones are a bad idea.

Zach, I've been running a Benelli Nova pump for turkeys for 5+ years now with the factory full choke and factory sights. Lead shells worked okay but CA outlawed them. Steel shot sucked for me so I started using Hevishot #'s 2's which work pretty well out to about 52 yards or so. I got all my toms this Spring and the factory combo has been pretty successful for me. But I wanted to do better. And will.

After this season, I decided to check the pattern with lead, steel and Hevishot just to fine tune things. Crap! Now I'm not happy with the pattern for any of them! And this stock buttpad sucks. I am slowly testing different turkey chokes, a different buttpad (Benelli pads suck for patterning), different shells (TSS looks really intriguing) and am now considering some of the other sights these guys are suggesting. I tried one of the magnetic sights before and it promptly fell off like JW mentioned. I also noticed the magnetic sight had me shooting high and missing. Once the magnetic sight fell off, I stopped missing toms and started nailing them again. I'm more of a traditionalist when it comes to shotgun sights. The Truglo's look intriguing but I am honestly willing to try out one of these red dot sights if that makes a bigger difference. I suspect using a turkey choke with a Limbsaver buttpad will likely make the biggest difference but recognize that I will probably try everything recommended just to wring out that last few yards of performance. :D

ported chokes can help tame recoil too and still get you good patterns too, if your not liking the recoil on this gun!

I've read that about the turkey chokes designed for lead and steel shot. The chokes designed specifically for TSS don't seem to be ported but they're usually using a 3" shell instead of a 3.5. For hunting purposes, it wouldn't be an issue and performance would be my top requirement. I hope to read more posts about TSS because that stuff sounds pretty impressive so far.

You didn't mention wind. I have found that a crosswind when you're shooting will affect the pattern. That's the only thing that I can think of that's variable enough to do that.

I know a lot of very die hard turkey hunters that spend a LOT of money on special made ammo and custom chokes using 3.5 inch 12 ga. or some using 10 gauges, to get MAX range and patterns
I can understand getting caught up in things and feeling a desire to MAX all one can
but to be honest, again, I never had any problems killing a turkey with a plain Jane stock choke and calling them in to under 40 yards
YES some birds will hang up and some will never come closer, but to me that's just hunting, and allowed me more chances to be outdoors and learn more about turkey and hunting them

so, I again am just saying, its not really needed to go over board here, unless you just want to play more than hunt
as you will use up a lot of money on ammo, and choke combo's trying to find a perfect pattern at LONG range, and then your having very small patterns at closer ranges, increasing your odds at missing a bird in close?
this is where them guys above get into having very good optic's on there shotguns, to be very precise in aiming up close(more $$ to the game LOL)

as really, in hunting its normally a 1 shot deal on a turkey
so all that money spent on ammo, chokes, optic's mounts, time at ranges, (some of the 3.5's recoil too LOL)
shoulder pains
to gain an extra +++% of hits in a circle, and gain them extra yards
ME< I just learned to call better and set up better, and if need be, go home some days without one and , get to come back again till one comes in closer(for me that's under 40 yards and my gun shoots nice pattern at 50 and still don;t go there, NO bash here, just giving my 2 cents)
and I won't even go into teh costs my friends have spent on decoys and HOW many of them they have now, as better one's come out and they HAVE to HAVE one or 2 every spring

Good thing they have good jobs and make lots of $$$ to buy all this stuff, Turkeys at local grocery store were like 0.59 cents a lb when I was there last < HAHA!
they could buy a whole life time of supply of store bought turkey' , for what they spent on decoys I know that , HAHA!
OH< how hobbies get crazy some times, , and how us hunters are such suckers for marketing of things to try! (and I am more than guilty of spending $$ on things this way too over my yrs)

and I also, didn;t even mention the cost of ALL the different guns they have tried , trying to find best what they have every pother yr!
some turkey hunters get WAY deep in the game !
all over a little feathered bird that talks to them SOME times,.~~! Haha !!

That is some wise advice. :D I will freely admit that I'm addicted to turkey hunting. Just like a lot of other people on here. :poke:

From what I've seen, most of the guys on here call in turkeys and often use toms. I know that's the prevalent method for turkey hunting and don't disparage or knock it. In some situations, it might be the only way a guy can get a shot at a turkey on a smaller piece of hunting property. I've turkey hunted in a blind, sitting in front of a tree with decoys while calling and my favorite, run and gun. I'm lucky in that I hunt on about a half square mile home ranch surrounded by other ranches with little to no hunting pressure other than coyotes, lions, etc. I've had luck with all of these hunting methods but have found run and gun is an absolute rush. Sometimes you get busted but those are learning experiences where you replay it in your head numerous times and then talk it over with your buddy to fine tune a stalk.

Most of my turkeys have been taken at 30 yards or less. There's a few longer ones I've taken at 50-60 yards. I rarely miss and it's always 1-shot. I was happy with lead and then CA outlawed lead. I tried steel and absolutely hated it. Admittedly, I didn't try different chokes and didn't pattern it. I tried Hevishot and it was effective out to 50-60 yards. I was back to my 1-shot stops and that works for me. After this season, however, I decided to pattern my shotgun from 20- 60 yards and was disappointed in the patterns. A few pellets at each yardage were kill shots and would have worked but none of them had those nice big patterns like you see in people's posts, etc.

I started researching and reading blogs, reviews, articles, HuntingNet posts, etc. Other people have fine tuned their shotguns to get better performance so I know it's possible. Now it's just a challenge. Like putting a different scope on my coyote rifle and hand lapping it for that nth degree of extra fit and performance. I don't need those 70-100 yard shots some people brag about with TSS although I'm still going to try TSS because their patterns look amazing. I'm still going to sneak up on the toms and try to get within 30 yards for a shot because it's the toms (usually there's more than 1 in a group) skill against mine and it's so much fun. I'll try different equipment on my Benelli Nova because I am a gear junky and it's fun to see how much I can improve the platform. When I saw the title of this topic, I read all of the posts and was wishing for more because I'm working out similar things with my Nova.

For the OP, post away and ask all the questions you want. There's a lot of experience, expertise, knowledge and wisdom in this forum. Hopefully all of the responses are getting you thinking about other things to try and do because that's half the fun. Good luck on figuring our your patterning and let us know how the patterning works and also your hunts.