Turkey hunting forum for turkey hunting tips

Good Afternoon Gentlemen,

Ive had a Stevens 410 for 3 seasons now and shoot factory choke w/ federal 9s.
My issue is, its not a 40 yard gun and I would like it to be.

I've read most posts in this section, and see some patterns that ppl say they would hunt with, i personally would not.

Im hear bc I dont like my patterns and would like to know what the best provem 40 yard pattern is.

Im leaning towards nitro 390 chock and viper ammo 10s.

Anyone have 180+ in a 10" @ 40 yards?

What about the salt creek 9.5s?  Help!

or maybe ninja 9.5s?  idk... stressed!

Did you polish the barrel? There barrels definitely need to be polished and squeaky clean.  You will be surprised by how much this will help your patterns.

Have a good one and May God bless, Bo

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

180s seems like a big ask.  I have factory choke, Apex Ninja 9.5 and I think I got high 130s at 40 yards.  I will look for pattern pics at the house.

I too thought that, but after reading many many posts on here in this 410 section, and seeing some in the patterning section I see plenty past 180, even 200 with this exact gun.

Quote from: runngun on April 25, 2023, 01:42:41 PM
Did you polish the barrel? There barrels definitely need to be polished and squeaky clean.  You will be surprised by how much this will help your patterns.

Have a good one and May God bless, Bo

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

Yes, im familiar with deep cleaning and polishing but Im more looking for proven choke/tss combos with the 301 410.

Quote from: g8rvet on April 25, 2023, 01:52:30 PM
180s seems like a big ask.  I have factory choke, Apex Ninja 9.5 and I think I got high 130s at 40 yards.  I will look for pattern pics at the house.

also, can you tell me what to buy for a deep clean 410 bore?  and is there a thread with the correct procedure?

im getting mixed results in the search on here.... thansk

http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,182.0.html

Quote from: DumpTruckTurkey on April 25, 2023, 03:32:26 PM
I too thought that, but after reading many many posts on here in this 410 section, and seeing some in the patterning section I see plenty past 180, even 200 with this exact gun.

I am sure you can do it-if you are willing to buy and try a ton of chokes and load combos.  I saw the Apex Ninja 9.5s and the factory choke were a good match.  Saw nice even pattern pushing 140 and said "good enough".  Plus it will be my grandson's one day and I did not want too tight of a pattern.

I purchased one of the Stevens myself this season and did some testing with the Federal #9's and the Salt Creek #10's. Bought a Patternmaster Code Black Choke but it didn't perform as good as the factory choke for me with the Salt Creek Ammo. I will say I didn't use a paper backing when I shot the Salt Creek with the Patternmaster so the core pattern could've been off from the zero for the Federals. I did polish the barrel before I ever shot it so don't know if it helped or not.

But my best pattern is a long ways off from the 180+ your looking for. The Salt Creek #10's put 130 in the 10 with the factory choke at 40 yards and that was good enough for me to hunt with. I did take a bird at 45 yards using that setup and it did the job. Each gun will react different than what other will with the same ammo/choke setup.

apex 9.5s were best factory load I have tried. 7/8oz of #10 hand loaded has produced best pattern ive had but I dont think its 180+

I never really counted the pellets, I just look for most uniform pattern at 35-40yard. I wish I could get some load data from someone to make a 1oz load myself but no luck yet

Alrighty, Im going to deep clean and try apex 9.5s.  Thanks,.

To the OP, did the deep barrel cleaning and/or polishing make a noticeable difference in your patterns?

Quote from: Bigfootwolff on February 25, 2024, 11:07:05 AM
To the OP, did the deep barrel cleaning and/or polishing make a noticeable difference in your patterns?

I have always been a fan of barrel polishing. I have done a lot of them and I have percent always got positive results.  I have read on here that some folks say that they didn't see a difference. But it has not been my experience. I also polish chrome lined barrels.
I use a flex hone and oil that Brownell's sells.
Also have read about folks who say that their guns shoot better with a dirty barrel, this also has not been my experience.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

All 3 of the ones we have shoot 30 to 40 more bbs In 10@40  deep cleaned each shot with apex 9.5s