Shotgun Patterning Protocol

[tommyzDad]

Hi, Guys.

I'm looking to pattern my Remington 870 for HD, and I'm hoping to get some input as to how I should go about doing it.

1) I will probably be doing it at an indoor range, Blue Ridge Arsenal.
2) I will be trying loads of 00 and #1 buck from Federal, Remington, Winchester, in both low recoil and full power.

But I'm stumped at the exact protocol I should be following:

At what range do I begin the process? Start with the farthest out I can get the target, which at Blue Ridge Arsenal I believe is 25 yards? Or do I work from close range (5 yards) out?

What distances do I move the targets to afterward?

How many rounds of each brand do I fire?

Other questions I've not considered?

[skeeterss0]

this is for home defense, so I would figure the longest distance you would be shooting for that purpose. Use that as your patterning distance. I would only shoot 1 or 2 shots per target. per load.

[jdonovan]

lots of questions...

so do you know WHY you are patterning a shotgun?

You need to determine a few things
Where do your sights line up vs where the point of impact is
What is the shot dispersion from a given load at a given distance.

Take a look at your intended place of use, and measure your max range.

buy a hand full of ammo, LOTS of targets and head to the range.

Start at 5 yards, fire one round, bring the target back measure the group, mark the holes, record in your note book, send it back to 5 yards. Fire another shot, bring it back in.

Is the point of impact (poi) consistent with the point of aim (POA) from shot 1 to 2? Is the center of the pattern consistent? is the dispersion of shot consistent? Repeat for 5 shells.

At very close range you may need to move your POA around the target because the pattern may be as small as 1-2".

Select load candidate #2 repeat.

At 5 yds you're likely not to learn too much. Most loads should group < 4". You may discover some of the higher energy loadings are more than you want to use. And a few low quality loads might already be showing uneven patterns, or inconsistency between shots that might have you remove some from the testing.

Then move targets to 10 yds and then 15.

BTW change targets out when you have enough holes that your next shot is hard to find. Paper is waaaay cheaper than shells. Change out paper often.

By the time you get to 15 yds you are going to see some real difference between loads.

By now you are probably getting some loads with groupings in the 12-18" range, and perhaps some loads that are now putting 1-2 pellets off the target.

Take your stuff and head home. Grab a few tylenol for your poor shoulder, and sit down with your note book and crunch the data.

An adult male torso presented at a 90 degree angle is about 18" wide. If your pattern is more than 18" that means at least some of your shot is going to miss... that's bad for lots of reasons.

I prefer my loads of choice to group 9" or less at the range I intend to use them at. This gives me some latitude to have a non-perfect target presentation, and a little degrade of aiming ability under stress and still have a chance to get all my pellets on the target.

When I setup my HD shotgun I ran through 20 different loads, and learned quite a bit about my beneli and what ammo it likes. My short list of ammo:

federal flitecontrol #00 buckshot 9 pellet 2.75
held a 3" pattern at 10 yds, 8" at 20 yds.
- they now have a #4 buck load, I've not tested, but want to.

winchester #00 buckshot 15-pellet 3"
ok to 15 yds, not ok at 20.
- I do not reccomend for non-semi auto's... it kicks a LOT!

Winchester's Segmented Slug load. Neat product shoots accurately in my gun. Nice tool for when the range starts to exceed what my buck shot will do. Easily a 50-yd capable load.

This is probably enough to chew on for now. If I've generated more questions ask away.

[tommyzDad]

so do you know WHY you are patterning a shotgun?

I'm patterning to determine how particular loads perform at specific ranges when fired from MY Rem 870, correct?

Thank you both for your thoughts, esp. how I should go about it. I didn't want to just go to the range, put holes in paper, but yet not know how to read the results.

I'm sure I'll have more questions after I actually get out to the range.

Cheers!

[jdonovan]

I ask the why question because far to many times people hear they should do something, and they go do it, without knowing why. And that makes it harder to get good data out of whatever they are doing.

Oh another tip, save the targets and write down on the target load, distance and # of shots. If you are doing multiple shots per target, rather than just mark the holes, put a 1,2,3 etc... next to the hole so you know which holes go with which shot.

[tommyzDad]

Oh another tip, save the targets and write down on the target load, distance and # of shots. If you are doing multiple shots per target, rather than just mark the holes, put a 1,2,3 etc... next to the hole so you know which holes go with which shot.

Thanks. .... I was thinking of a format like "1-F-00" for shot 1 of Federal 00 Buck, but yeah, I get the gist.