Lead #6 40 yd max vs #5 pellet energy - minimum pellet energy

[foxred1962]

Article by Randy Wakeman addressing pellet energy for a clean kill.

It has been estimated, which is about as close as you can really get, that it takes about 2.5 foot lbs. of energy to penetrate a turkey's head and neck with your pellet reliably. Looking at lead shotshell ballistics, a 1315 fps load of No. 6 shot has 2.5 foot lbs. of energy at 40 yards. Beyond that, it drops of to 1.7 foot pounds at 60 yards.

Number 5 shot, on the other hand, launched at the same velocity (1315 fps) retains 3.5 foot pounds of energy at 40 yards, and still retains the "needed" 2.5 foot lbs. of energy at 60 yards. Common sense suggests that #5 shot is a more reliably lethal pellet past 40 yards.

Naturally, the lethality of a pellet moots itself if we don't have enough pattern density to insure a 100% chance of three pellets in the turkey head. To insure that, we'd like to need to see around 20 pellets in a turkey target head along with good pellet density above, below, to the left, and to the right of the turkey target to address head movement, wind drift, and movement of the turkey head as the shot is fired. We also want density above and below, to cover the turkeys that are not at the range we are patterning at. So far, so what?

Well, finding a suitable turkey load should not be particularly esoteric. Ad-brags suggest that 18,000,000 holes are better than twenty in a turkey head, but that is only wishful thinking. It only takes one pellet in the right place to kill a turkey, and our 20 pellet approximate goal insures more than that. 100% lethality is as good as it gets, and no turkey can get much deader than completely dead. It reads like a boring concept constructed to sell nothing, and it is. It is the spectacularly boring concept of "adequacy." Either a load and pattern is perfectly adequate for our application, or it is not, it's as simple as that.

The basics of patterning for a more or less stationary target like a turkey (more stationary than a mallard, certainly) is to pattern at the distances we intent to hunt at, using a very large sheet of butcher paper to capture enough of our shot cloud. If our gun is not shooting to point of aim, we need to make some stock or sighting adjustments so that it does.

Next is a little choke and shotshell experimentation, using hard shot at a minimum, nickel plated shot being better yet (Fiocchi), and plated and buffered loads (Federal) sometimes being noticeably better. Testing a few Carlson's choke tubes (they are as good as the best, and better than the rest) starting at least a .040 in. constriction and going incrementally tighter until patterns cease to improve is a reasonable approach.

Our patterns automatically tend to look better at 40 yards using #6 shot vs. #5 shot, assuming the same payload just because we have quite a few more pellets to work with. No. 6 shot has about 222 pellets to the ounce while No. 5 shot has about 171 pellets to the ounce.

Out to 40 yards, #6 shot is "perfectly adequate." Beyond that, #5 shot is "perfectly adequate" until our pattern density decays to the point where we are no longer convinced of a 100% chance of lethality. That's about all there is to it. "Happy Thanksgiving!" - Randy Wakeman

[Ihuntoldschool]

Nice article.  Randy is a little more concerned with energy and foot pounds at 60 yards than myself or any responsible, ethical turkey hunter should be in my opinion.

I just try to limit my shots to 40 yards or less and stick with #6 lead. Pattern density is what I look for. I just try to shoot my birds dead by delivering multiple pellet strikes to the brain/vertebrae area.

I will admit that if I was trying to stomp them to death, then I would be more concerned about how many foot pounds I was able to produce.

[foxred1962]

Haha those are definitely the ft/lbs all of us are most concerned with !!!! I posted it only because of a previous thread talking about the pellet energy to disrupt the central nervous system.

[Longshanks]

  That seems to be why I have ended up with trying to stay inside 40yds. 6's pattern great at 40yds and have the ft lbs for lethality. 5's have the ft lbs past 40yds. The problem with 5's is getting 100 in a 10 @ 40 is no easy task. As a matter of fact I have tryed every production Pb 5 available out of numerous chokes, 20"-28" bbl's, deep cleaned, polished, and reached that 100 in a 10 @ 40 yds once after years of patterning turkey guns. Shot a 103 but never was able to stay consistent.  I reached it with LB 5's at 160's in a 10 @ 40 and thought I was there until after further testing I started getting patterns cut in half, mis-shaped patterns, gaps in patterns, etc. Back to 6's and Hevi 7's. I stay inside 40 and limit out every year.

[deerbasshunter3]

Is it safe to say that most companies are living by the 40 yard "rule"?

I ask that because, why would anybody make #6 shot, and expect it to kill past 40 yards, if it did not have the killing power of #5 or #4? I guess, in a way, I am referring to the Win LBs.

I am getting 200+ in a 10" circle at 40 yards with the LB 3" #6s. I got 96 in a 10" circle at 60 yards with the LB 3" #6s. Even though I would probably average 100 in a 10" circle at 60 yards if I shot enough times, I am under the impression that it would not have enough energy to kill the turkey, just wound it at best.

What I take from the article is that #6 is good to 40, #5 is good to 60, and #4 possibly good to 70?

Would the size of the pellet actually effect its energy more than the velocity? Obviously, if I hit you with a golf ball sized rock at 1300 fps, it would most likely kill you, but if I hit you with a pebble at 1300 fps, is it not going to kill you as well, assuming that it hit you in the right spot (#6 pellets hitting brain and spine at 50 yards, for example.)?