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Pattern Checking

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Yesterday was garage clean up day. Found a couple of dozen brown paper grocery bags to cut open. And a big cardboard box to tape them to. Problem solved.

Want to do more load work ups for the half inch flinter as well as the 1816 (11/16" is a punch size I don't have so the 1970's circle template and scissors will have to do for card wads).
 
Sounds like a Foxworthy joke. "If you've ever patterned a shotgun on a road sign, you might be a redneck." 😄

I used to know a guy who owned a bicycle shop and he'd give me the boxes the bikes came in (large, flat cardboard boxes) for free. What I didn't take he had picked up by the city for recycling. The sides of those boxes made great patterning surfaces for the unmentionable shotguns I owned at the time. You might be able to strike up a deal with a local bike shop. Who knows?
 
If you really want to be honest about your patterning, the best thing is a 36"x36" or so target. Red rosin paper is the best easily available choice that is inexpensive. Then shoot 5 patterns of each single load, count the holes, and average them over the 5 targets. True shotgun patterning is a very laborious task. I've tried a few different boards. A simple 4'x4' sheet of plywood propped up by something is about as simple and easy as it gets that works well.

Patterning for turkey is a whole other matter, and there is more than one way to do it. Sighting in for turkey might be a more accurate way to describe it, rather than patterning. There's more than one way to do anything really, but the purpose of patterning a 30" circle at 40 yards is that it has become a standardized test bed to compare different loads. I personally rarely calculate pattern %, as it is mostly a pointless statistic. Really pellet count is the only one a hunter needs to concern themselves with, that and making sure your POA and POI are where you want.
 
Best post I've read in a long time!!! I do believe you have some Redneck somewhere in you!!! Do you commonly say things like: "Here hold my beer and watch this"? !!!

🤣
Lol, yeah.
I've been wanting to do a little testing with some #4buck from my new to me 10g but illness has stopped me for now. Leaning out of the car window would of been handy right now but the local authority has not replaced my patterning boards yet 😄
 
Are those two officers kinfolks?

Part of the joke in my posting of those two is that they are British Police Officers, actually characters in a British sitcom, and Britsmoothy lives across-the-pond, so it was a slightly "inside" joke, as I was pretty sure he'd recognize them 😁

LD
 
Part of the joke in my posting of those two is that they are British Police Officers, actually characters in a British sitcom, and Britsmoothy lives across-the-pond, so it was a slightly "inside" joke, as I was pretty sure he'd recognize them 😁

LD
Their facial features are amazingly close. Thanks for the laugh!
 
I go to the local 'Pennysaver' and get end roll's of news print. I use it for many things, patterning fowlers is one of them.
Robby
 
Use to shoot trap with a guy and he would put up an empty black powder can at his set yardage and shoot it. He would wander down and count the holes in it. There was a metal pattern board at the range and I asked him why he did not use it.

He said only thing that will break a bird will be holes in the can, out side the can breaks nothing. Made sense to me.
 
I use 3ft x 3 foot rolls of heavy paper I get at the local box store in the painting section.

Here are a couple targets from my Pedersoli 12 gauge, cylinder choke. load was 68 grains of 2f and an ounce of 8 shot. Load used 2 - 1/4 inch felt wads over the powder and 1 - 1/4 felt was over the shot. Pattern 1 was topped off with a .125 thick over powder wad; pattern 2 was topped off with a standard over shot wad

Pattern 1

target1.jpg


Pattern 2
target2.jpg
 
I use 3ft x 3 foot rolls of heavy paper I get at the local box store in the painting section.

Here are a couple targets from my Pedersoli 12 gauge, cylinder choke. load was 68 grains of 2f and an ounce of 8 shot. Load used 2 - 1/4 inch felt wads over the powder and 1 - 1/4 felt was over the shot. Pattern 1 was topped off with a .125 thick over powder wad; pattern 2 was topped off with a standard over shot wad

Pattern 1

View attachment 80247

Pattern 2
View attachment 80248
Good looking pattern. What distance?
 
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