i have gotten really frustrated with my go to gun....
i have several dedicated turkey guns all of which shoot good so im not turkey gunless by any means, but something has happend to my "baby".
i have a H and R pardner pump 12ga 3" turkey with 22" barrell that for 4 seasons was absolutely lethal. i found that a 675 non ported Undertaker and Extended range #5s were devestating out of this gun, pattern was awesome.
last year before season i decided to shoot it a couple times while pattering some other guns just to show what "ol besty" would do and i couldnt belive what happended. i blew a cloud of dirt up about 20 yards in front of me and about 20 pellets hit the target, shot it again and did the roughly the same thing. i thought i had bent my choke or something so i orderd a new undertaker and a pure gold .670. they came in a couple weeks before season but i had already decided to hunt last year with a 20ga and didnt want to explore choke and shell combos before season. this past weekend i got it out again polished the barrell and old choke thinking that could have been my problem. i had a dead calm day sunday after church to get it "shooting" again. i shot extended range 5s and 6s, hevi shot 6s, and winchester supreme #5s all three inch through all three chokes and ran a patch through between shots and il just say that my patterns were not good, the best was out of the pure gold and the lead fives. i know some some will look at this and say well H and R theres the problem, but it has been a GREAT gun for me over the last several years and i never thought twice about leaving my remington or winchesters at home. ive got another pardner pump 20ga that is a excellent shooting turkey gun.
have i done something to this barrel by shooting "heavier shot" the last several years? Has this ever happend to anyone else? ive just never had a gun loose its pattern. thanks for any imput guys.