Patterning Results

Tried 4 different shells out of my Beretta with Carlson Turkey choke .673 and the Winchester Long Beard XR 3" 1.75 oz #5 shot gave me 35 hits at 40 yards and 20 hits at 60 yards.

Is this sufficient?

It will kill

Hits in bone is critical but I believe it would have killed a turkey in both distant.It only takes 1 hit in neck bone or skull to kill it but I would like to put at least 10 shot in bone!

It'll be one heck of a tracking job. You'll probably recover it if you let it lay for 24 hours or so. You may want to check the legality of shooting a deer with 5-shot.

I'm not much of a turkey hunter. Is the result at 60 good? I feel like 60 yds is a heck of a long way to try to kill a turkey with a shotgun. Excuse my ignorance if this is a dumb statement/question.

Pilchard said:

I'm not much of a turkey hunter. Is the result at 60 good? I feel like 60 yds is a heck of a long way to try to kill a turkey with a shotgun. Excuse my ignorance if this is a dumb statement/question.

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It's a looong way. I shot at 60 just to get an idea how much it's spreading. I'm confident 50 yards in now.

No, that's not sufficient. I'd be surprised if 50 was either based off that pic.

I wouldn't shoot at a turkey at 50 yards at all, I would suggest 35- 40 at the most and in. Good luck this season.

You need to shoot at a bigger target to see where your pattern is hitting. I'd suggest a 36"x36" paper or cardboard. That combo should shoot much better than that. Might need a tighter choke for those shells.

If you're shooting a 20 ga it is well worth the money to shot tss #9 it makes that led pattern look like a joke. This pattern was at 40 yards with a 20ga it is with out a doubt dense enough to kill at 50 yards

Buzzard Breath said:

It'll be one heck of a tracking job. You'll probably recover it if you let it lay for 24 hours or so. You may want to check the legality of shooting a deer with 5-shot.

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If you let him get really close and you are sitting on the ground, you might be able to put the whole load into his genitalia.

Probably won't kill him, but he'll wish he was dead.

No
That is not even close to a good nuff pattern
You need to but different shells and or a different choke . Do your research on the various forums ,google your setup and see what other people are using . You will be sorry if you use that setup .
Good luck
You will get it right

Chickenrig said:

No
That is not even close to a good nuff pattern
You need to but different shells and or a different choke . Do your research on the various forums ,google your setup and see what other people are using . You will be sorry if you use that setup .
Good luck
You will get it right

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That pic is from 60 yards pattern and still had 20 hits. I'm not shooting anything at 60 yards anyways.

Let me try this again. I posted the 60 yard sheet.

Here is pattern at 40

My concern if I get it much tighter at 40 yards groups are going to be tighter than my liking at close ranges.

That wil definitely kill, but a 665 with those shells and a deep cleaned barrel would give you a better over all pattern and keep shot out of the breast with a eyeball aim point, good luck this spring

UTGrad said:

My concern if I get it much tighter at 40 yards groups are going to be tighter than my liking at close ranges.

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That's just the disadvantage of the longbeard shotshells. The resin the shot column is suspended in keeps it together much longer out of the bore, producing the best shot density pattern at 40y of any lead shell, but the tradeoff is an almost unhuntable pattern at 20y.

For me personally that isn't a good pattern. I want a hot core and that means tight up close. Thats where optics come into play. I run a red dot on most all my turkey guns. If it doesn't have a dot, I tailor my pattern and limit my shot distance. If thats your 40 yard pattern, I'd see what it looks like at 30 and keep your distance to that.

Also like others have said, you need to shoot a larger piece of paper and see what the overall pattern looks like. You could be on the fringe of your pattern and not even notice it. Believe it or not a good bit of shotguns won't shoot poa/poi. Thats another area optics come into play.

This is a 20ga at 40 yards thats still a little too open to me if that tells you what size I like my patterns.

I'd like to see the 20 and 30 yard pattern. I rarely kill at 40 hence why I quit shooting the longbeards

Charlton, my pattern looks like that at 40 I try to keep em under 30 yards. If I misjudge I should still be alright. I've missed so many birds I decided I wanted a forgiving pattern. And I like to call them in close. So it made sense to have a pattern that is far from impressive at 40. I don't want to be shooting bullet holes at 15.

The only thing I could do different is shoot tungsten 9s. In fact if I can find a box of TSS 9s in 20 gauge, I might carry the 870 express with the dove choke just for giggles a couple times.