Looking for a new turkey gun...

[10gaugemag]

Holy smoke. 50 in 10 inches is awful. Remember to draw your circle around the core of your pattern AFTER you shoot.

Wow, thanks for the advice. After moving the circle, it's just shy of 100 inside 10 inches. Looks like POI is a little left of POA at 40 yards, rookie move by me. Even with that, I'm still not thrilled with the consistency of the pattern. More range time needed.

Shot size and air temp?

[rkm456]

Holy smoke. 50 in 10 inches is awful. Remember to draw your circle around the core of your pattern AFTER you shoot.

Wow, thanks for the advice. After moving the circle, it's just shy of 100 inside 10 inches. Looks like POI is a little left of POA at 40 yards, rookie move by me. Even with that, I'm still not thrilled with the consistency of the pattern. More range time needed.

Shot size and air temp?

#6's, right around 35 degrees.

[10gaugemag]

Try it around 60 degrees or above and you will be surprised. I shot at 73 the other day and my numbers were a fair bit better than todays 62. I lost 15-30 in the 10 depending on choke/load.

[rkm456]

Try it around 60 degrees or above and you will be surprised. I shot at 73 the other day and my numbers were a fair bit better than todays 62. I lost 15-30 in the 10 depending on choke/load.

Hadn't given air temp a lot of thought. Good point though. It should be warmer next weekend so I'm hoping to get back to the range then.

[turkey_slayer]

Shoot at the temps that is normally what you encounter during the season in the mornings. Shooting on 80 degree days with high humidity may look good on paper but it doesn't tell you what it does during hunting. I shoot mine around 40 degrees. It was 28 this morning

[rkm456]

That's tough to do around these parts even though it's sound advice. In the a little over a month our season lasts we'll go from 45 degrees - 80 by then end of it, lol. I certainly wouldn't hunt as cold as it was last weekend, but we regularly get huge temperature swings.

[turkey_slayer]

Yeah but if you pattern in the coldest temps you will see it will only get better the warmer it gets. Getting 200 in a 10 at 80 degrees does no good when you pull the trigger on a gobbler at 45 degrees and it's half that. I do recommend shooting in both extremes though just as a confidence booster.

[10gaugemag]

Yeah but if you pattern in the coldest temps you will see it will only get better the warmer it gets. Getting 200 in a 10 at 80 degrees does no good when you pull the trigger on a gobbler at 45 degrees and it's half that. I do recommend shooting in both extremes though just as a confidence booster.

Kind of where I am at. Normal 50-60 mornings here then getting to 75+ throughout the morning. Try mit through several temp ranges to make sure all is well.

[ridgerunner]

Super Black Eagle II.

I agree...Can't beat a Benelli SBE2 or Benelli Super Vinci.

[rkm456]

Got out to the range today with some Winchester Long Beard XR's. Weather was right around 60 degrees, beautifully sunny, and just a slight breeze. I honestly didn't think I'd be as impressed by the LB's as I was.

After doing a bunch of patterning with some old #2 lead shells I had, to make sure that my gun was shooting point of aim, it was time to get down to business. I was using some of the larger Quaker Boy turkey targets, which means that circle is 12 inches as oppose to the 10 that appears to be the standard. Anyways, at 35 yards inside the 12 inch circle I had 275 pellet hits, and after measuring a 10 inch circle from the densest section of the pattern, unless I miscounted, I was still about 250. As for the head and neck of the bird pictured on the target, well I stopped counting at 50 something. I did have a dud round in the box which left me a little disappointed, but overall I'm pretty excited to get out into the turkey woods when season opens up in a few weeks.