Patterning a Shotgun?

[Full-choke]

So I've never patterned a shotgun before, and I would like to do my Franchi. I bought it for a good waterfowl gun, but I haven't really shot it a whole lot. I know what lead loads shoot well through it and have a few steel shells that I want to try, but I want to see how the spread is.

How do I go about doing this? What range/s should I shoot at? Should I change up shells and see if some do better then others?

Thanks,
F-C

[rantingredneck]

Lotsa folks use butcher paper as a target. I use big pieces of cardboard because I get it free from work. I stick a little orange stickon dot as an aiming point or just draw one with a magic marker. Set up the target at various ranges you reasonably expect to shoot for your intended purpose. I don't goose hunt so you know more about that part than I do.

I'd try several different types of shells because typically there will be differences, sometimes big ones, in performance. I went through several types of buckshot before I settled on my chosen HD load.

Best of luck.

[ebutler462]

Jack O'Connor, the great gun guru, used the 10 yard method that Ken Masters utilized. I have used it extensively for many decades and find that it gives me a good indication of what a choke will do on down range. It ain't perfect, but it saves a lot of walking and counting.

[BigJimP]

I pattern all my shotguns at 30 yards - with whatever loads I intend to use and with whatever chokes I intend to use.

Cardboard or paper work ok - but some clubs have a steel patterning board where you can grease up the board / make a mark and then keep shooting. The biggest thing I look for is the distribution of pellet hits in a 30" circle and if there are any holes I could put my fist into without a pellet striking it. I also look for the pattern pecentage high and low of the dot ( I cover the dot when I pull the trigger ) and it's better to do this from sandbags or somekind of a rest if you can.

You can drive yourself crazy with this exercise - but different loads perform differently and different chokes, even if they are marked the same, can perform very differently. The biggest thing is - does the gun hit where you are looking with a 50% high and 50% low pattern - with good density - and if shooting an O/U do both barrels hit at the same point (some guns don't ...).

[K80Geoff]

A metal patterning board is great if it is maintained properly.

I patterned my guns with a roll of brown kraft paper and a wooden pallet!Drive two snow fence stakes and slide the pallet over it standing vertically. Or you can stand the pallet vertically against a berm or bank or some other support. Staple the kraft paper over it and use an orange sticky to aim. Helps to have a good supply of pallets They do get shot up. This method allows you to keep a record of your patterns and compare them later.

Also you can fashion a 30" circle or draw it on the paper using a makeshift compass to check pattern density.

[TexasFats]

The standard method of patterning a shotgun is at exactly 40 yards from the muzzle of the gun. The only exception is for the .410 bore, which is patterned at 30 yards. After the shot is fired at a patterning board, you draw a circle that is exactly 30 inches in diameter and that encloses the maximum number of pellets on the target. The pellets are counted, and the degree of choke is determined by the percentage of pellets contained within that 30 inch circle. For example, if the circle contains 70% of the pellets from the load, then the gun is full choke. If 55% fall within the circle, then the gun is about improved cylinder.

The real advantage of patterning is that shotgun barrels are all different in what patterns well. It is just like a rifle that gets its best accuracy with a specific brand and weight of bullet or a specific load. My experience is that the same barrel will pattern differently with different brands of shell or sizes of shot. Just as a rifleman needs to sight in his rifle and work up some loads, so also, shotgunners need to pattern their guns.

[Brad Clodfelter]

I test pattern for density tightness from a certain choke on a barrel at 25yds shooting into the center of a piece of copy paper. I want my pattern to hit almost exactly where I aim in the center of the paper. Then I test it at 40yds to see how well it does. 40yds pretty well tells you the facts about how well your shotgun choke and barrel is shooting. I shoot at huge pieces of cardboard and aim at the center dot that I draw on it. On turkey chokes and turkey loads, I want 90% patterns or very close to it at 40yds in a 30" circle. I like shooting 4's for turkeys, so I stick with those since I get 90% patterns at 40yds with my Mossberg 835 with a .695 HS Undertaker choke tube and Win 3.5" 2 and 1/4oz Supreme turkey loads.

You want to be able to throw the tightest pattern down range at 40yds so you can take ducks or geese out at these yardages or farther to effectively kill them. Now there may be instances and game you hunt up close that you would want a more open pattern, but for all around effective killing power from a shotgun at 30yds or beyond, you want a barrel and choke combination that is gonna put the largest amount of shot into the smallest area. And you want the shot to go where you aim it.

Brad