Information on Patterning and Shot materials

[HogBiologist]

First welcome to this site.  You have made the first step to recovery by admitting you have a problem.  My Name is LaBiologist and I am a turkey hunter.  My addiction started in 2001.

Now for the meat of this post. 

1:  Before you ever hit the woods, you NEED to take your gun and your shells and pattern-pattern-pattern.  You don't have to shoot the most expensive shells, or think lead is inferior.  What you do need to do is know the limits of your weapon.  You will hear about patterning a lot on here.  What is refered to as patterning here is this.

A.   Take a 30 inch by 30 inch piece of paper and draw a 3 inch circle in the middle.
B.   Set it up at 20 yards; shoot an inexpensive load at the center dot (this dot is what is referred to as Point Of Aim, POA).
C.   Look for the densest portion of the pattern. 
D.   Draw a 10 inch circle around the densest portion of the pattern.  This is what is referred to as your Point of Impact (POI).
E.   Repeat 2 or 3 times to insure that your pattern is hitting in the same spot consistently.
F.   This will help you to see if your pattern is actually hitting where you are aiming (POA = POI)
G.   If POA is not = to POI then you may need to look at some other type of sight to correct this.  There are many types of sights that are adjustable for shotguns (scopes, red dots, iron sights, etc)
H.   Now switch to your hunting shells and shoot a few times (shooting each target only one time).
I.   At this point you can count the number of hits inside the 10 circles.  A standard reference is 100 pellet holes in the 10" circle.  80 pellets in a 10" circle average out to 1 pellet per square inch.
j.   You can repeat this process with another shell brand or size or choke.  Remember that changing any component in this process may change your POI

2:  Now that you have a reference (20 yards), you can start to back the target up and repeat this process.  Back up to 30 yards and repeat.  Move back to 40 yards, repeat.  When you stop getting 100 pellets in the densest portion of your pattern (10" circle) you have surpassed your effective yardage.  It does not matter if you shoot lead or Heavier Than Lead (HTL).   DO NOT FORGET THAT THE GUN MAY BE CAPABLE OF KILLING TO LONG DISTANCES, BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN THE SHOOTER IS CAPABLE.  If you have the best car in the world, but you drive it in the ditch, it was not the cars fault.  It was the drivers fault.  In the same way, shooting a turkey with a weapon that is capable of killing out to extremely long yardages does not mean you can shoot out this far in reality.  There are environmental factors you should consider before any shot.

3:  You will hear about many different types of shot material on this web site.  The two main types are Lead and Heavier Than Lead (HTL)

A.   Lead includes all forms of lead, i.e. pure lead, copper coated, nickel plated, etc.  Standard lead is around 11 grams per Cubic Centimeter (g/cc)

B.   HTL includes these different types
a.   HeviShot & H-13– Produced by Environmetal, alloy material, 12 g/cc
b.   Federal Heavy Weight – Available from Federal in their HW shells only, 15 g/cc
c.   Tungsten shot (various brands) that range around 14 – 15 g/cc
d.   Tungsten Super Shot (TSS) – specialty item that is best discussed with the more knowledgeable members of this site.  It is 18 g/cc.
e.   Winchester XR - somewhere in density between lead and Hevishot.

C.   You may also here about "Nitro Shells".  These are not Remington Nitro Shells.  They are specialty loads produced by the Nitro Ammunition Company. 

D.   HTL pellets allow for a reduction in pellet size while retaining energy and effectiveness.  What I mean is that: a smaller, harder, and denser pellet can penetrate materials better than a larger, softer, less dense material.  Also a smaller, denser material will be less affected by wind drift increasing core pattern density (the pellets in the 10" circle).  While these HTL materials may increase the distance of lethal range, IT DOES NOT NECESSESSARILY INCREASE EFFECTIVE RANGE.  Do not count on that "Magic pellet".  You must have the pattern density to consistently harvest a bird.  That range is determined by your equipment. 

BOTTOM LINE:
If your gun/shell/choke combination will only pattern out to 35 yards that is your ethical limit.  If your combination holds a consistent pattern (100% of the time) farther than that, that is your ethical limit.   

It is unethical to pick up a gun and a random shell and head straight to the woods to hunt.

[BOFF]

Great info!!

Thanks for your time and effort in the post!!

God Bless,
David B.

[mrlongbeard]

First welcome to this site.  You have made the first step to recovery by admitting you have a problem.  My Name is LaBiologist and I am a turkey hunter.  My addiction started in 2001.

Now for the meat of this post. 

1:  Before you ever hit the woods, you NEED to take your gun and your shells and pattern-pattern-pattern.  You don't have to shoot the most expensive shells, or think lead is inferior.  What you do need to do is know the limits of your weapon.  You will hear about patterning a lot on here.  What is refered to as patterning here is this.

A.   Take a 30 inch by 30 inch piece of paper and draw a 3 inch circle in the middle.
B.   Set it up at 20 yards; shoot an inexpensive load at the center dot (this dot is what is referred to as Point Of Aim, POA).
C.   Look for the densest portion of the pattern. 
D.   Draw a 10 inch circle around the densest portion of the pattern.  This is what is referred to as your Point of Impact (POI).
E.   Repeat 2 or 3 times to insure that your pattern is hitting in the same spot consistently.
F.   This will help you to see if your pattern is actually hitting where you are aiming (POA = POI)
G.   If POA is not = to POI then you may need to look at some other type of sight to correct this.  There are many types of sights that are adjustable for shotguns (scopes, red dots, iron sights, etc)
H.   Now switch to your hunting shells and shoot a few times (shooting each target only one time).
I.   At this point you can count the number of hits inside the 10 circles.  A standard reference is 100 pellet holes in the 10" circle.  80 pellets in a 10" circle average out to 1 pellet per square inch.
j.   You can repeat this process with another shell brand or size or choke.  Remember that changing any component in this process may change your POI

2:  Now that you have a reference (20 yards), you can start to back the target up and repeat this process.  Back up to 30 yards and repeat.  Move back to 40 yards, repeat.  When you stop getting 100 pellets in the densest portion of your pattern (10" circle) you have surpassed your effective yardage.  It does not matter if you shoot lead or Heavier Than Lead (HTL).   DO NOT FORGET THAT THE GUN MAY BE CAPABLE OF KILLING TO LONG DISTANCES, BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN THE SHOOTER IS CAPABLE.  If you have the best car in the world, but you drive it in the ditch, it was not the cars fault.  It was the drivers fault.  In the same way, shooting a turkey with a weapon that is capable of killing out to extremely long yardages does not mean you can shoot out this far in reality.  There are environmental factors you should consider before any shot.

3:  You will hear about many different types of shot material on this web site.  The two main types are Lead and Heavier Than Lead (HTL)

A.   Lead includes all forms of lead, i.e. pure lead, copper coated, nickel plated, etc.  Standard lead is around 11 grams per Cubic Centimeter (g/cc)

B.   HTL includes these different types
a.   HeviShot & H-13– Produced by Environmetal, alloy material, 12 g/cc
b.   Federal Heavy Weight – Available from Federal in their HW shells only, 15 g/cc
c.   Tungsten shot (various brands) that range around 14 – 15 g/cc
d.   Tungsten Super Shot (TSS) – specialty item that is best discussed with the more knowledgeable members of this site.  It is 18 g/cc.
e.   Winchester XR - somewhere in density between lead and Hevishot.

C.   You may also here about "Nitro Shells".  These are not Remington Nitro Shells.  They are specialty loads produced by the Nitro Ammunition Company. 

D.   HTL pellets allow for a reduction in pellet size while retaining energy and effectiveness.  What I mean is that: a smaller, harder, and denser pellet can penetrate materials better than a larger, softer, less dense material.  Also a smaller, denser material will be less affected by wind drift increasing core pattern density (the pellets in the 10" circle).  While these HTL materials may increase the distance of lethal range, IT DOES NOT NECESSESSARILY INCREASE EFFECTIVE RANGE.  Do not count on that "Magic pellet".  You must have the pattern density to consistently harvest a bird.  That range is determined by your equipment. 

BOTTOM LINE:
If your gun/shell/choke combination will only pattern out to 35 yards that is your ethical limit.  If your combination holds a consistent pattern (100% of the time) farther than that, that is your ethical limit.   

It is unethical to pick up a gun and a random shell and head straight to the woods to hunt.

Very well said !!!!!!

[ceejay]

Very good info with some good advice mixed in.

[chatterbox]

Great post!