Heading out this afternoon to pattern my Rem. 870 SM and my son's Browning Gold Hunter. I will be using a Ventilator .655 choke with an unpolished 23" barrel in the 870 and a Jellyhead .670 choke with an unpolished 26" barrel for the Gold. All shots will be at a laser ranged 40 yards using a lead sled for consistency. Here is a list of the shells we will be checking. I will update this thread tonight with the results.
Federal Mag Shok 3" 2oz 6 shot
Remington Nitro Turkey 3" 1-7/8oz 6 shot
Remington Nitro Turkey 3.5" 2oz 6 shot
Winchester HV 3.5"2oz 6 shot
Winchester XX 3.5" 2.25oz 4 shot
Good luck and be thankful for the lead sled! That would hurt otherwise!!!
Well here are the results. The Winchester HV 3.5" 2oz 6 shot patterned the best from my Rem. 870 SM and Ventilator .655 and the Remington Nitro Turkey 3" 1-7/8oz 6 shot patterned the best out of my sons Browning Gold with the Jellyhead .670. All shots were 40 yards checked with a laser range finder, temperature was 70°. The results are posted below. I will try to follow up tomorrow with a few pictures.
Remington 870 SM:
Federal Mag Shok
3" 2oz 6 shot
Shot 1 - 82
Shot 2 - 86
Remington Nitro Turkey
3" 1-7/8oz 6 shot
Shot 1 - 75
Shot 2 - 98
Remington Nitro Turkey
3.5" 2oz 6 shot
Shot 1 - 88
Shot 2 - 70
Winchester XX
3.5" 2.25oz 4 shot
Shot 1 - 60
Winchester HV
3.5" 2oz 6 shot
Shot 1 - 120
Shot 2 - 99
Shot 3 - 108
Browning Gold:
Remington Nitro Turkey
3" 1-7/8oz 6 shot
Shot 1 - 120
Shot 2 - 96
Shot 3 - 104
Federal Mag Shok
3" 2oz 6 shot
Shot 1 - 82
Shot 2 - 86
It's rare that someone finds a good combo for the Rem Nitro Turkey shells. Congratulations.
That's the first time I've ever heard anyone getting good patterns out of those nitros. I have buddies that I've seen pattern their guns with them and never been too impressed and always stuck with Winchesters. I'd stock up if I were you
A few pictures from yesterday.
A few more.
Did you not pattern the Winchester #6's in the Browning?? I would have thought with the Jellyhead .670 they would have been the clear winner???
The Browning is a 3" gun and all we had were 3.5" shells in the Winchesters. We did pattern it with the 3" Winchester HV #6 last year and it was shooting just above 100 but all we had was a 12" X 12" target at the time so it may have been better depending on poa/poi. Next time out we will shoot it again using the 36" X 36" paper to see how it does.
good data. Thanks for posting