Patterning weather

[kdsberman]

Hey guys, avid turkey hunter here but would like to get into the patterning "art" that a lot of you are so good at.  I do a ton of reading on here, not a lot of posting.  I see a lot of people talk about temperature/humidity when patterning, but wondered if someone could explain how those conditions affect it.

Also, when patterning, do you guys clean/swab between shots?

Thanks fellas.

[ThunderChickenGetter]

From what i understand, colder air is more dense which means it has more resistance to the shot and causes the pattern to spread out more. I like to pattern my guns in the high 50's to low 60's so i know what my gun will do on those cool mornings while hunting. Not sure about the effect that humidity has, im sure someone else on here can chime in and answer that for you. And if i shoot more than 3 or 4 shots then i will swab my barrel.

[allaboutshooting]

Hey guys, avid turkey hunter here but would like to get into the patterning "art" that a lot of you are so good at.  I do a ton of reading on here, not a lot of posting.  I see a lot of people talk about temperature/humidity when patterning, but wondered if someone could explain how those conditions affect it.

Also, when patterning, do you guys clean/swab between shots?

Thanks fellas.

There are many factors that can affect how your gun patterns but the one that has the most effect for most of us is air temperature. It has more effect than may be realized. Very cold air is much more dense than very hot air but 10 degree changes, either way, can make quite a difference in pattern density.

Cold temperatures also  turkey shotshells. If your shotshells are really cold, they not perform at peak levels. Leaving your gun and shotshells out in  a vehicle over night and then going on a fairly cold morning hunt may reduce the effectiveness of your shotshells.

I recommend patterning at temperatures that you may encounter when you hunt. If for example, you normally start a hunt when it's in the upper 40s or lower 50s, it's a good idea to pattern your gun in those same temperatures so that you know how your gun/choke patterns in those conditions.

If you pattern your gun when it's in the high 60s or 70s, it may perform quite differently when it's in the 50s.

It is about air density and it can also be about the temperature of your gun and shells. If you're shooting with a cold gun, cold shells and the air temperature is cold, performance will be lower than if everything is warm.

Humidity, barometric pressure and altitude can also affect patterns but the one that we can monitor most easily is temperature.

Thanks,
Clark

[Phire Phite]

It's tough.  I only get about 4 days to pattern my gun at the temps I'm going to see hunting up here in the northeast.  Makes it hard to "get ahead of the game" and get your testing done before the season.  Last year I woke up to around 39 degrees and by the end of the day at noon, it was 65.