patterning project so far....

[Mild Bill]

Yesterday I had a chance to conduct some testing with my Winchester 1300 with the 22" rifle sited, win-choked barrel.

I tried the following results at 40 measured yards, barrel cleaned between each shot.

shells were the Winchester 1 3/4 oz high velocity lead #5 shot

HS strut undertaker for lead .665  ---- 81 in 10 inch circle

Trulock .665---- 90 in a 10" circle

Trulock .660 --- 77 in a 10 inch circle with lots of open spots and clusters

I am going to do some testing with the old school 870 special purpose matte finished walnut stocked gun with the 26" barrel to see if better can be obtained.

[trkehunr93]

I think you would do better with the 2oz. XX 5's

[surehuntsalot]

I think you would do better with the 2oz. XX 5's

agreed

[albrubacker]

The .665 #'s are about the same as I got with Ben. SN 26" Carlson Ported .665 with the same load. I got better #'s with the #4 shot, not much about 10 pellets more.

[Mild Bill]

Last night I was able to do a little with the 870 and a trulock 665.  That was not too encouraging.  Getting between 70 and 80 out of that.  Same procedure as above.

Will give the 660 a try soon with the 870.

At least if I don't find a better combination I know to get them in closer before pulling the trigger

[mcgruff1533]

Try getting your hands on some lead #6 shotshells.    Either HV 1.75 oz, or magnum 2 ounce loads.

You'll get more pellets per ounce and they should better fill out your pattern.     Lead #5's hit hard, but the pattern thins out long before they lack the energy to put a bird down.

At 70-80 pellets in a 10" circle at 40 yards, you might get lucky and kill a bird, but I wouldn't count on them to consistently kill.    There's just too many holes in the pattern to be effective.

[Mild Bill]

At 70-80 pellets in a 10" circle at 40 yards, you might get lucky and kill a bird, but I wouldn't count on them to consistently kill.    There's just too many holes in the pattern to be effective.

Agreed!!

[Mild Bill]

I had no luck today finding any of the XX 2 oz loads.  I did find a box of the winchester gray box       1 7/8 oz loads on sale at Farm and Fleet to try and a box of strut shock 1 7/8 oz

I also found a box of federal flight control wad ones to try, but I am not holding my breath on them...

I have a couple more places to check, hopefully tomorrow, but the places to get shells around here is becoming dismal.

[Mild Bill]

Well...

I patterned a little more this weekend with what shells I had found.

Used the trulock 665 in the Winchester 1300.  I have determined the geometry and they way I have the kick eez pad on the 1300 makes it much more comfortable to shoot compared to the 870.

Anyway here is what I found for 10" circle at 40 yards

Federal mag shok 1 3/4 oz of 5's,  46 hits , terrible patchy, going to cut them up and reuse the shot

Federal strut shock  3" with 1 7/8 of 5's,  70 hits, uniform pattern across sheet

Winchester gray box 3" 1 7/8 of # 5's 63 hits, uniform across sheet

Winchester 3" HV 1 3/4 of #6 shot, 82 hits, uniform across the sheet, actually is about 10 less than the same load with #5 shot.... go figure

Winchester 3" Xtended Range 1 3/4oz of #6 shot (found this box in my ammo stash) 145 hits in 10" circle and almost all the rest in the 20" circle.

Next step is to shoot these at 30 yards and perhaps 20 to 25 yards to see how tight they are closer up....

I wonder what an Extended range load in #5 shot would do...?