First I would like to thank all you guys on here for posting pics of your patterns so I knew what I was missing out on. Last year I was using a Remington 870 with a 28" bbl and a JH .665. I shot and killed 3 gobblers with Winchester Supreme 3", 2oz, #5 shot. I never really patterned it, just made sure it hit close to POA.
After seeing some of your results with the Hevi-13 #7's I decided to try some. I also bought a JH .660 to try out as well. Here are the results.
Temperature was 51 degrees, winds were light.
Gun is a Remington 870 Express, with a 28" barrel.
Distances were confirmed with my laser range finder.
First I decided to shoot a couple rounds of the ammo I used last year.
First was a 3"-2oz-#5 Win. Supreme @ 40 yards with the JH .665 and clean bore. The result was 100 in a 10" circle:
Next I tried the same load with the JH .660, I did not clean the bore. Only 76 in the 10" circle.
O.K. enough of the lead already. I cleaned the bore and got the following patterns with the Hevi-13 #7's.
40 yards, Hevi-13 3"-2oz-#7, with JH .660 clean bore. 257 hits in the 10" circle:
I then fired another without cleaning the bore. Still got 228 in the 10" circle:
Next I cleaned the bore and tried the #7's with the .665 JH. It was good, but not as good as the .660, 242 in 10"
Finally, for good measure I shot one round at
50 yards. It was a hevi-13 #7 with the JH .660. I did not clean the bore before this shot. I was unsure where to draw the circle on this one. That's why there are 2 circles. I counted 138 in the upper circle, and 165 in the lower:
Obviously I have a slight POI vs. POA issue, but it is not severe enough for me to worry about. I'm just using the bead on the gun so I will have to compensate a little bit. Not a big deal to me.
So, are these the kind of numbers I should be expecting from my setup? I'm very happy with the results but if there is something I can do to get better, let me know.
