Patterning experience on 04/02/14

[Gooserbat]

I'll not lie, I hate to pattern turkey loads.  I don't enjoy the extreme recoil, but I did shoot a Longbeard up against a Win HV and as expected the Longbeard out shot it by like 70+ hits in the 10".  Now this is where things get interesting.  MY poi was a bit high so I bit the bullet or "shot" and started resetting my sights.  as my gun barrel got dirtier it shot tighter.  Shot #4 was the best pattern.  and I shot 8 rounds and all where better than the first round from a deep cleaned barrel.

I pm'ed Clark and he said this was a very common experience and you should really try your gun for several shots to find where it dose best. 

He had some pointers for keeping your barrel to it's best level of cleanliness but I'm not going to get into that now. 

Just thought I would pass this along, and btw my shoulder still is sore!

[alclark2]

I have a few buddies that think they are tough guy expert shooters. I like to hand them a 3.5" shell with a few ounces of shot in my 20" 835. They usually only take one shot.

I'll have to see if mine shoots better dirty too! Thanks for passing that info along.

[memert116]

Thanks for the information.  I will be patterning my gun this weekend with those same shells but with #5's.  Will be interesting to see the result on paper but not looking forward to the results on my shoulder.....

[Skeeterbait]

I think what y'all are seeing is the result of shooting the oil and solvent out of the barrel.  It's pretty common for patterns to have fallen off a bit for the first 2 or 3 shots after cleaning.  Even if you run dry patches thru it there is still a film on the metal and in the pores of the metal.  A clean and DRY barrel usually shoots best.

[Grunt-N-Gobble]

Yep......... I made that mistake last weekend during a last minute chance to do a little patterning and I forgot to wipe out the barrel before I fired the 1st shot.

After I got home, i ran a few rags with alcohol down the barrel to get rid of the plastic and fowling.  She's clean again for next time.

[Gooserbat]

I think what y'all are seeing is the result of shooting the oil and solvent out of the barrel.  It's pretty common for patterns to have fallen off a bit for the first 2 or 3 shots after cleaning.  Even if you run dry patches thru it there is still a film on the metal and in the pores of the metal.  A clean and DRY barrel usually shoots best.

Again I don't know, but I think it was pretty well wiped out.  I clean with Boreslick foaming bore cleaner and  and a copper brush.  I dry patch it until it's dry and then I repeat the process until I think it's clean and then one more time for good measure?  Who knows but all I can say is anything around a 200 pellet count is more than I need so I'm a happy camper...

BTW skeeter you called anything up with those calls yet?

[Skeeterbait]

Only thing I have called into range have been jakes.  Gobblers have been real henned up round here so far.

[Longshanks]

What I am seeing out of my 870's and LB's is that if I don't clean barrel (tico tool) in between shots my patterns drop off big time. That's with kicks chokes 21"bbl, 28"bbl, LB 5's and 6's. After polishing I see that first few patterns drop off but deep cleaning, as long as the barrel is dry they shoot fine. New chokes I see this allot.( patterns improving shot after shot)  I run a box of cheap shells through the choke, clean, and then pattern the turkey loads.