What IS a good pattern?

[steinea286]

I have been doing some thinking and some tinkering with my Beretta AL391 with and undertaker (.665) and a jelly head (.655) with a mixed bag of results. I keep wishing I could find Longbeard XR somewhere but I think everyone on this site bought them, and from what I have seen, I don't blame you! I had some older Winchester super X #6, 3" and was able to shoot them a couple weeks ago at 40 yards. The undertaker shot 112 pellets in a 10 inch circle with 16 pellets in the inner cirlce. The pattern did not have many gaps and was pretty well distributed. I then shot the same load with the jelly head and had 152 pellets in a 10 inch circle, but 1 large gap that could have easily had a turkey head within it.

I picked up some federal turkey thugs (3" #6, 1 7/8oz) and got to shoot them last night. The undertaker had 76 pellets in the 10" circle and the jellyhead pattern consisted of 107 pellets but perfectly distributed.

My question is, what is considered "the better" pattern? More pellets down range with a gap, or less pellets down range but more evenly distributed?

[TauntoHawk]

trying shooting a few more of the jellyhead and super X and see if they continue to have holes in the pattern or if it was just that one shot.

you can find the longbeards online easily, $18 for 3" at Macks, they have great service and fast shipping.

[Grunt-N-Gobble]

I agree with TauntoHawk, you need to shoot that jellyhead a little more to see if the gap was a fluke or if it happens consistently.

The standard "rule of thumb" is your max distance is when you can maintain at least 100 pellets in a 10" circle. Most of us pattern @ 40yds. So your jellyhead is throwing the petter patterns from the sounds of it, but it also sounds like you need to keep your shots to 40 and under @ this point.

Get those long beards or some HEvishot to try as well.