Like the title says, I did some pattern testing today and came up with some very unexpected results.
I've been meaning to test my new Indian Creek BDS .660" choke that I picked up back in February, and also to see if polishing/ deep cleaning was able to tighten my patterns.
For all tests, I used my Mossberg 535 Tactical Turkey shotgun. It's a 3.5" chambered gun with a 20" barrel and is tuned in for POI using Federal Mag Shok loads with my SSX .643" choke. Sighting is handled by a Tru Glo green/red dot sight using the dot reticle.
Test #1:
Federal Mag Shok 3.5"-2oz-#6 lead with the Flite Control Wad. Choke was my SSX .643" and the distance was tape measured at 30 yards from the muzzle of the gun. The barrel was swabbed between shots and the choke was cleaned with a bronze brush soaked in Acetone.
1st round: 233 pellets in a 10" circle at 30 yards. I'm impressed at this number since this gun shot it's best ever 245 with the same choke and load in August 2010 with temps at 80+ degrees. It was 38 degrees today, so I'm hoping the polish/ deep clean helped elevate my numbers a bit.
2nd round: 220 pellets in a 10" circle at 30 yards.
I moved the pattern board out to a tape-measured 40 yards and took a third shot with the same load and SSX choke. I figured that even if I lost 100 pellets between 30 and 40 yards, I'd still have a killing pattern of 100+ pellets.... boy was I wrong!
3rd round: Fired at 40 yards- 77 pellets in a 10" circle. The entire 36"x36" pattern paper was covered in pellets. There was no such thing as a defined pattern core. I drew 3 circles on the paper and counted pellets which resulted in 77, 78 and 70 pellets respectively. The 77 pellets I'm going with were right at POA which was marked with a piece of blue painters tape in the center of the target.
I'm not sure how, or why I lost 150 pellets in a space of 10 yards, but it happened.
Summary: This choke and load is capable of a devastating pattern at 30 yards, but can't be trusted any further. 35 yards would probably be it's ethical maximum.
Condensed version: Federal 3.5-2-6 FCW with SSX .643"
1. 233 in 10"@30 yards
2. 220 in 10" @30 yards
3. 77 in 10" @40 yards
Indian Creek BDS .660" test with Federal 3.5-2-6 FCW loads.
1. 253 in 10" @30 yards
2. 261 in 10" @30 yards
The Indian Creek BDS choke has lots of potential since it beat my SSX results from both today's testing, and the best ever 245 pellets that the SSX put up in 80+ degree temps last year. I need to do some more testing tomorrow!
Undertaker .665" non-ported test using 3.5-2-6 FCW loads.
1. 190 in 10" @30 yards
2. 188 in 10" @30 yards.
The Undertaker was a big surprise to me. It put up a pretty decent number of 188 and 190, but the pattern was quite "clumpy". There were at least 6 holes the size of a half dollar that were devoid of pellets. There were also 3-4 holes about the size of a quarter with no pellets. The Undertaker choke would almost certainly kill any Turkey at 30 yards, but I wouldn't want to go any further.
