Our own STRIKER1300 spends a lot of time at the range.  I asked Brian to give us his thoughts on how he goes about getting his gun/shell combo setup. 

How to Pattern your turkey gun

I like to use paper that measures 36"x36" square Paper e-z size and can be found locally at lowes. With the season coming now is the time to start.

The reason for the large paper is that if your gun does not shoot to the "POA" point of aim part of your pattern could be off of the target with a small paper and you could confuse this with a bad pattern. It helps you if you mark the target center for use as an aiming point. I prefer to use a rest when shooting. The reason for using a rest is that it helps remove some of the variables of human error.

You will need to start at 30 and then go to 40 yards. I like to do this a minimum of 3-5 times on different targets with each shell or choke that is being tested. You will need to draw a 10-inch & 20-inch circle around the most dense portion of the pattern on each target. Count the pellets inside of the circle. Divide this number by the total number of shot contained in the shell and you will have your percentage. Average your percentage by the total number of shots fired with the particular shell or choke to obtain your overall average.  From there you can determine the best combo. 

After you have finished look carefully at each pattern for holes that are big enough to let a turkey head slip through. You want a dense enough pattern to ensure multiple hits and as a rule you will need 100 hits in a 10" at 30 and 40 yards.

From our man on the range...

Brian