Everyone talks about "patterning" shotguns...but........

Each time you change loads or brands of shot-shells for hunting with your shotgun(s), whether it is for dove, quail, pheasant, ducks, rabbits, squirrels, turkey, grouse, ect., do you always pattern your gun with this "new", and/or different load, or do you just load it up and go on ?

Well, I patterned mama's 12-bore riot gun once, but that wasn't very educating with the .50 cal sabot slugs she keeps in it.

I have a 20 ga double (coach gun) that I patterned once when it "got dropped somehow" to see if ironing the ding out of the right muzzle was worth doing (it wasn't).

But generally, as I am not in the wingshooting business, out-of-the-box is good enough for the pests and Cowboy shooting.

Outstanding topic for sure!!!!!!



For small game hunting I never worry about patterning.

However once you start hunting predators at night the shotgun should be patterned.

I have notice that my Ithaca model 37 center of the pattern point of impact is 6 inches below the bead. However you use turkey loads and the center of the pattern is dead on.


However my BPS has a Holosight red dot scope. I do not have to compensate 6 inches below. I can aim right at the fox.

I wish I had a dollar for every fox I have missed at night because I just did not know where the center of the pattern was hitting at 35 yards.

UB, I'm about like you are... I always patterned a shotgun that I was taking predator calling, with the load or loads I planned or wanted to use...and if going turkey hunting I always patterned it with a few different loads before choosing which I would use... However, for small game or birds I never bothered patterning it. I just loaded with the shell I wanted to use, and went on.

Now, I suppose that if I had hunted ducks or geese regularly, or if I had used buckshot for deer, I'd have patterned it as well, with loads for these animals.

It wasn't until just recently in my hunting career that I patterned my shotguns for each and every different type of shell I might feed into them. However, once I started doing so, it got sort of addictive. As of yet, however, although there does appear to be some differences from manufacturer to manufacturer, I haven't found any drastic deviations (at least not with my limited comparisons.) But, of course, I did end up preferring a particular shot shell for a particular gun. However, and once again, everything that I fed into my guns pretty much could do the deed without having to compensate for the different shells employed. I guess the bottom line is that now I know with certainty what patterned my guns throw when I pull the trigger.

LOL! I have to re-think my cavalier attitude on this subject!

Yesterday I spied a tree rat damaging one of my florals and sent a load of shot his way. Weh ist mir, I had stuffed the old single 20 with 20-pellet #3 buck and not the 7 1/2's that I usually leave up the spout. The bushytail gave me this very P.O.'d look and scrambled off into the woods. Upon examining the area of the shot, I discovered that he had been in the exact center of a rat-sized hole in the center of the pattern!

Kinda funny you mention that about holes in the center of the pattern with your old 20 gag... I have an old 20 gag. myself, a SEARS pump, that I have have had for over 40 years. It was before the popularity of screw-in chokes, so is choked modified.... It throws a perfect pattern of an "O" with several shot inside the "circle", with any shot size I use from 9 to 2(not counting buckshot), and with any factory shells I have tried... It was always a favorite for quail or dove hunting.

I only pattern my turkey gun.If I use the same choke and shell/shot there's not a problem.
I got the turkey 500 moss because my 835 moss stank.I tried different chokes and shot but it still aint right.Only way I could get it right was with a scope which I don't like to use.My 500 shoots great out of the box with the factory choke.