Another turkey scope question

[bowmike]

Sighted my BSA Boss scope in at 15 yards with target load on my 870. I shot a 30 yard shot with high brass and got 70 hits in a 7.75" diameter circle.

Well on the 4th I got a break from momma and the little guy and decided to try and shoot this at a turkey target. I set up a turkey target on a pizza box and shot at it at 40 yards. I only got 5-6 pellets in the head. I set up the target at 30 and got a much more pronounced pattern and put up 34 hits in the head an neck at that distance. This was all just playing around with a few shells from this season. But i am thinking i need to adjust the scope for sure.

When you guys sight in at the farther distance, what is your preferred method? I was thinking of getting some poster board and setting it upon two posts. I was going to just draw a 3" circle in the center and shoot at the circle. Do you shoot 3 shots at a given distance before you make adjustments ( i mean if the patter is way low and left, an adjustment could be justified after shot one, if i feel i did not pull the shot). I am assuming from the pattern i saw on the turkey targets I am hitting low and left. I was just surprised in the drop from 30 to 40 I guess.

I had 2 shots on birds this year one was at 40, only because he was going to go into a thicket and then walk the tram I was sitting on and not give me a shot. This bird hit the ground but got up and flew right at me. The bird i harvested was roughly 35 and I put about 5 or 6 in his head and about 10 or 12 in his neck. This was with a modified choke.

Seeing a drop from 30-40, my question is, Is it ideal to get the center of your pattern to be a tad higher at 30 yards, or will this throw off my close range pattern. At 15 yards my pattern was pretty much a hole about 1.5-2" in diameter.

My goal is to let the turkeys get into the 25-30 yard relm this year, but with weary high pressure public land birds that is not always the case. A good friend and turkey hunting mentor, who is way better at calling was within kill range of 15 birds and he said roughly 8-10 of them were beyond 30 yards.

Just looking to get an idea on what you guys sight your gun in at. If you sight it in at 40 how much higher is your densest part of your pattern at 30 and 25 yards.

How many hits in a turkey target head is what your are striving for.

I have read that you need 12 - 15 and i doubled that at 30 yards with the cheap remington duplex 4-6 shells in 3". I want to be effective at 40 yards but do not want to become obsessed with numbers.

[Skeeterbait]

Turkey head targets may be fun to shoot at but they give deceptive results and are not a good indication of what your shotgun/choke/shell combination are doing.  Get paper at least 30x30 inches (I use 36 inch wide rolls of brown wrapping paper).  Shoot at a aiming point in the center of the paper.  Look at the shot pattern on the paper and determine where the center of the pattern is.  Make adjustments that will move that pattern center to your aim point.

Once your pattern is centered, draw a 10 inch circle around the center of your pattern and count the number of pellets inside that circle.  Generally accepted numbers are that you need at least 100 evenly spaced pellets inside that circle from a given distance to be able to cleanly kill turkeys at that distance.  More is always better, this is a minimum figure.  So if your combination yields 80 pellets inside that circle at 40 yards then most of us do not see that as a good 40 yard combination of gun/choke/shell.  If you get 150, you are well over the minimum.  There are numerous combinations that will get over 200 pellets in that circle at 40 yards.

Always sight your gun for the furthest distance youu expect to shoot.  Most of the time a pattern centered at 40 yards will also be centered at any distance inside that range.  There are however exceptions and you should test your gun at closer distances to be sure.  The height of your sighting device over the center of the barrel bore can effect this.

Now... if you want to see what you would have gotten on the turkey head target, take your turkey target and cut the turkey head and neck out of it.  Use the hollow template that remains of the target and lay it down on your pattern paper and move it around.  You can easily see how many pellets would have been in the turkey head and neck if that part of the pattern had struck the turkey.  Gives you a lot better understanding of the performance of your overall pattern, especially what would have happened if your aim were off. See if there are holes in the pattern large enough to miss the vitals of the turkey. 

[allaboutshooting]

You've been given some good advice and answers to your questions. I find that when using turkey loads, I can perform an initial sighting-in at 25 yards making it easier to see exactly where the most dense part of the core pattern is, and then once it's properly sighted-in, move out to 40 yards, without having to adjust the point of aim.

As has been said, numbers are only one part of a good pattern. The most important factor, in my experience, is the evenness of the pattern. I look for a pattern with no large (2" or more) gaps in it.

For example, I'd rather see a 10" core pattern with 100 hits that are evenly spaced with no large gaps, than a 10" core pattern with many more hits that has gaps and spaces in it.

I also like to see a fringe pattern, out to maybe 20" that has a pretty even halo of hits. If you are off just a bit in your aim, this halo will ensure a clean kill.

Lastly, I buy rolls of butcher paper at the local Sam's Club. It's tough and white so that your sticker (I get them from Kroger) that you use to mark your aim point shows up very well. I buy the 18" wide rolls and use 2 pieces together (36" x 36") for initial sighting-in and then an 18" x 18" for further shooting.

Good luck and please let us know how it goes.

Thanks,
Clark