Charlie

Have been working on new turkey load and waiting on custom choke to be cut but I have my turkey gun up to 318 pellets in 10" circle at 40 yds using a blend of 4x5x6x7 mix of Hevi shot and Mega weight. Going to open up choke another .005 to see what happens. Haven't shot it long range yet.

Best, Ray

Sounds like a turkeyburger-maker load to me! How many pounds of shot in the load to get that pattern Ray??!!

Richard

It will waylay them for sure. It's 2 7/16 oz. A lot goes into it besides the shot. Primer, powder, hull, etc all makes difference but the move from 280-290 to 310-320 was as result of a modification to the wad and choke.

Best, Ray

ray ive still not beat your long range record of 70 shot at 70 yards in a 10 inch circle...thats some load youve come up with as richard said should make hamburger out of a turkey at 40 yards...you will have to watch it a person could easily miss a turkey up close with that load.ha ive never really patterned my guns for pellet count at 40 yards ive always fooled around with the longe range loads but you have got me interested. please give us the report on the new choke and load... charlie

One of the things that manufacturers do, is they talk to regulating agencies when they want to introduce a new product to the market. I'm sure the 3 1/2" 12 gauge shell was no exception.

I was in business 30 years ago and had to get ATF blessing before I could market a patented product I invented. The approval process was, go to D.C. with an appointment with a representative of the agency, show him the product and got verbal approval during the 10 minute meet. A letter came about 2 weeks later confirming the legality of the product. Case closed.

Charlie

Have been hampered the the weather down here but finally got to do more testing. With tweaked ammo and choke, I got 141 at 60 yds in 10" circle. Will try 70 yds this weekend. I'm hoping for 90-100 pellets at that distance. The new round is a combo of 4, 5, and 6 Mega weight and #7 Hevi-shot all equal weight. Wad modified with fewer cuts and choke tightened .015. I was surprised I could tighten the choke that much without blowing out the center of the pattern.

Best, Ray

ray i hope you get that 100 in the 10 inch circle...ive not got to do any testing lately its my time of the year to bush hog the grass and bushes that have grown in the past year. i too would have expected you to have a blown pattern with that much tighting up of the choke..i too have fooled around with the slitting of the wads one time i did not cut the wads on some 10 ga loads and all the shot stayed in the wad like a slug...wooda made a good deer round for sure...seen a hen turkey today... charlie

I was at a friends house this morning helping him with his PW 800 and happened to notice a recent addition of "Shooting Sportsman" I believe it was .

Anyway they had an article about Westley Richards and in the article they made emntion of something the company put out recently . A seven gun boxlock set . 410 , 28 , 20 , 16 , 12 , 10 and 8 gauge !

Thought that was kinda cool , would just hate to be the one picking up the tab for those 7 !

7 gun set
 

uh oh Charlie Cleveland is gonna sell the farm now.

farm probably would not bring what them 7 guns would cost...i mite tradem a good stevans for the 7 naw think i ll keep my old stevens aint another 3 1/2 inch chambered stevens out there in 12 ga...plus its got one of them slip on limb savers i bet them fancy guns aint got... charlie

Charlie

I finally had to time to shoot at 70 yards. Results not what I had hoped but not bad. I did order one more custom choke about .005 tighter but I don't think it will make much difference. the final results in a 10' circle are:

40 yds 300-320
60 yds 130-140
70 yds 55-75

At 70 yds I'm getting 20-25 pellets in the trukeys head and neck. If the shot has the energy at that range, it is more than enough to kill him. The pattern drops about 5.5" between 40 and 70 yds so it is surely running out of stream.

The State of the Art has sure changed over the past 20 years. I have heard folks say that those old 8 ga guns killed ducks at 90 yds but I doubt it. I just don't see enough shot getting down range that far. The constriction on my 12 ga turkey gun is .070. Tighter than any gun made in the old days. Even if I drop it to .075 I don't think it would do much at 90 yds.

Best, Ray

ray that is sure good patterning.. i think my old 8 ga is too open choked to ever achieve the guns pattern it is shooting...maybe destry old 8 ga has tight chokes or bills maybe they would pattern them for us...how about it fellows...but i will continue to try and equal your patterns...thanks ray... charlie

Charlie

There is nothing like giving your gun a good cleaning. I did and my pellet count at 70 yds increase from 56 to 88 in 10" circle. Now we're cooking with peanut oil!!!!!! I hoped to be in the 80-100 range. Cleaning also increased 40 yd pattern to 320-330 with highest at 332.

The barrel looked clean but there must have been a build up of plastic from the wads.

Best, Ray

If it looked clean to start with I can assume that you used a new or different cleaning method than previously used? If so, what was your new and improved method for this "good cleaning"?

Robin, clean to a hunter is different from clean to a shooter. I usually just hose it down to get the mud off....lol!

Actually, I just let the solvent soak in for about a half hour. Then all the copper/bronze/plastic wad junk broke up and came out. Things I couldn't see after running a dry patch through it between shots.

Another interesting thing was the first pattern after super clean was terrible. it likes to be a little dirty-just like my rifles.

Best, Ray

The good ol' fouling shot! I wonder why that works, but it is true nevertheless.

will try the cleaning method.hope it works as well as yours did... charlie

I only recall making one tremendously long shot with an 8 gauge, a duck that fell dead around 80 yards. I never had the opportunity to try it at long range that many times though. I once saw my friend Captain Barry kill a pair of greylag geese (a clean right and left) at 80 yards minimum with his Tolley 8 bore shooting AAA size shot.

I killed a duck with a double 4 gauge at over 80 yards on a driven shoot once. I walked it off and it was something like 82 big steps plus the bird was up in the air as well so no telling the true yardage. It wasn't graveyard dead but it certainly wasn't going anywhere.

These shots were luck, not skill I assure you. If you put enough shot on the fly you're bound to hit something once in awhile. I don't try shots like that with anything but heavy artillery, of that you can be certain. Even with a magnum 10 gauge I usually stick to 50 yards and under.


Destry