Grappler

I am having trouble patterning my 835. Nothing I have been doing seems to satisfy me. It's now to the point that I'm not even sure what a good pattern looks like. Does anyone have a picture of a good pattern?
I have also been looking at the rhino/nitro combo. These look very impressive at forty yards, however I'm worried that the pattern may get to tight at close range. Can anyone tell me what their patterns look like at closer ranges.
Sorry for all the questions. I'm a new member and I'm very excited about all the great information available here.

Grappler

JW

Well the closer the bird to you the tighter your pattern will be and thus the reason for the Extra Full choke tubes.

Designed to keep your pattern tight.

Think of it this way - You are shooting a Slug of Pellets at close range the shotgun charge should be considered as such.

that is why people put on open Tru-Glow sights or even a scope!

I suggest you use a Turkey Patterning target and count the number of pellet holes in the vital areas of the neck. Not neck holes but pellets that penetrate the Eye, the Brain, the Neck vertebrae are the only ones I count. I want at least 10 pellets to fall somewhere within these areas and then I mark that distance as teh farthest I will shoot. End of story.

You hear all the time fo 50 to 60 and beyond shots. Go ahead and take them but I will not! I wil not wound a bird - they are just to Grand to loose.

To me that is what Turkey hunting is - getting Mr. Tom up close and personal.

Sorry - sorta kinda - got a soapbox here and it ain't directed at you!

So your gun is working correctly. Closer is tighter - and in this case longer is not better!

JW

Martin Cougar

Close distances- My patterns look basically like a softball. Too many pellets in the kill zone to even count.

Farther distances - the previous poster made a good suggestion that you should look to have approx 10 pellets in the kill zone at the farther distances.

By the way, i am shooting a Mossberg 835 w/ comp-n-choke w/ winchester 3 1/2 #'6s

Tail Feathers

I shoot the same gun you do. Here's my Mossy 835 with Rhino/Nitro combo at 15 yards.

and at 25 yards...

and at 40 yards on a 15"X15" piece of paper. For reference, the blue dot is about 1 1/4" diameter and there are 268 pellets in a 10" circle around the densest part of the pattern. I did shoot a bit low on this one.

Grappler

Thanks for the help guys. Looks like I have some work to do, my 25 yard pattern looks like Tail Feather's 40 yard and my forty yard would be completely unacceptable. I'm sure,a t this point I've spent enough on different loads and chokes, now it's just a matter of putting the right combination together.

Grappler

leftmehangin

All though they do produce a nice pattern they are not needed and are a waste of money any gun with quality lead and a decent choke will cleanly take a tom at 40+ yards.

strut

Heres my pattern from last year, with an 870 SM, shooting Nitro Hevi Shot #5's 2 1/4 oz load at 42 yards, 232 hits.


Here it is from the back side.

Tail Feathers

Strut, can you say "dead bird"? LOL

MrLongbeard

Out of those 268 hits. I wounder if there is anyway you can tell how many #7 1/2 pellets are in that 10in circle?

strut

I shot the 4X5X7's one year and the pattern is awesome, but I did'nt like all the 7's that was in the load, seemed to me there was very few 4's and 5's, I decided to go with the straight Hevi-Shot 5's , maybe not quite as many in the paper but alot more energy from whats there and there are plenty.