Quote from: antitactical on January 09, 2013, 10:00:53 PM
Hey everyone! I've got an old Browning A5 mag that I recently bought a 32" invector plus barrel for. I've been playing with some reloads (I know the handloading section is gone so I'm not giving any info). I am getting an avg. of 90 pellets in a 10" circle @ 40 yds with copper coated lead #4s out of my Indian creek choke. There is roughly 219 pellets in 1 5/8oz so I guess I'm doing ok. I am new to this forum and I've grown up with the old school #4 and #2s are what you need but I am really excited to try some of the HTL #7s. I know 32" is a longer than most but I've always loved a long barreled gun (I guess old turkey shooting habits ). Im just checking to see if I am on the right track. Thanks.
30+ years ago I shot #4 shot for turkeys. Back then I did not know anyone who patterned a gun. Most of us just went out and hunted. I shot a number of birds and did not think much about it until I became more interested in what was actually going on when we pulled trigger.
As far as I could determine, I was the first person in our part of the world to shoot some perfectly good shells at large pieces of paper. The results were eye-opening. I saw large gaps and holes in my patterns, some plenty large enough for a turkey to escape but more alarming was the fact that I could have easily hit a bird but not immediately killed him. That meant that he might die several days later from a wound that I'd inflicted.
It turned out that was not just theory. I started to go out days after the season and found what was left of birds that hunters in our group were certain they'd hit but could not find them. Coyotes or some other predator had sometimes pretty much destroyed them but it became apparent that we needed to do better.
Many of us started to pattern our guns and that led to most of us using smaller shot like #6 or #5. We "wasted" a lot of shells in the off season but we noticed that our percentage of shots fired vs. turkeys picked-up greatly improved.
It was kind of a small movement in the grand scheme of things but you won't find many turkey hunters in south and south central Illinois shooting shot larger than #5 these days.
Now, I'm not saying that you can't kill turkey with #4 shot. Many of us, and I'm one of those, killed a bunch with them. The percentages just go way up with #6 or #5 shot, whether it's lead or tungsten-based shot like Hevi-Shot.
It's really all about the energy transferred to the target, the turkey's head/neck area and a swarm of #5 or #6 shot is more likely to do that than a few #4 shot.
By the way, I really agree with you on those long-barrelled guns.
Thanks,
Clark
