NEW Shotgun Pattern Test Results - Detail & Pic' heavy...

GC... First of all I can finally see the pics. Nice job and very informative. May I inquire as to the shot you were going to try out of the new Kick's GT choke you got. I e-mailed them and they told me they wouldn't shoot any of the "heavier" shot through it. I accidently shot one shot of Buckshot through mine today. Was in a hurry and forgot to change. At 25yds it was good but I don't need an accident if you know what I mean.

I'm just getting started with my testing and need some more sheels for comparison. I'm going to try and get some pictures up soon. I'm by no means happy with my first test loads. I think they would kill a yote at 50 but not sold. It was Federal #04 buckshot.
 
I have patterned a lot of custom and factory loads in various shot guns.

For goodness sakes guys, pattern your shot guns at 40 and 50 yards!

25 yard patterns don't tell you jack Sxxt! Most of the coyotes that I have shot with a shot gun have been 30-60 yards with only a small percentage in the 20-25 yard range.

If you are a shot gunner, then by all means get a Brownell's catalog, try some differnt chokes.

I have found the tightest patterns in my 1100 and 11/87 with the Hastings turkey choke. 20" patterns at 40 yards are common, and with this choke 15" with 000 buck, not that I would EVER use ooo buck on yote, foxes, or bobcats....just not enough pellets.
 
I went out today and shot some more coyote loads at paper and shot at three catalogs taped together for a penetration test. I have always liked the Federal Premium 3" 1-7/8 oz of copper coated BB's for shooting coyotes, they have worked great at 40 yards and less. The Hevi-Shot Dead Coyote and the Remington Wingmaster HD out perform the Federal Premium BB's by a long ways on paper and for penetration.
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The Federal Premium lead 1-7/8 oz of BB load I counted had 98 pellets in it. Only 57 pellets hit the 22" X 28" paper and 15 pellets hit in the 12" circle at 40 yards.
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The Remington Wingmaster HD 3" BB load I counted had 73 pellets in it. The HD BB load put 62 pellets on the 22" X 28" paper and 32 pellets in the 12" circle at 40 yards.
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The Remington Wingmaster HD T shot Predator load has around 50 pellets in it? The HD 3" T load put 45 pellets on the 22" X 28" paper and 23 pellets in the 12" circle at 40 yards. All of these loads were shot through a Rem 11-87 with a Carlson's Dead Coyote Choke in it. Now for the penetration test. I taped three catalogs together, the first catalog had 355 pages in it and the second catalog had 600 pages in it.

The copper coated lead BB's from the Federal Premium shells were found between pages 89 and 127 of the first catalog, they were all torn up. Most of the Rem HD BB's were found between the first and second catalog, 355 pages. Three of the HD BB's were found at pages 27, 44 and 62 of the second catalog. The Rem HD T shot was found between the first and second catalog "355 pages" and as far as 230 pages deep into the second catalog. The Rem HD pellets looked brand new and round after digging them out of the catalogs.
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I got my a$$ chewed out for using my wife's china plate in the pellets picture.
Don't forget about the $15.00 cash back offer per box from Remington for the HD loads through January of 2008!
 
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Bob,
That is some good stuff, thanks for doing that! Those Remington HD-BB's look mighty impressive to me and I have high hopes for them. Those should be the cat's a$$ on called predators... literally. I gotta get this deer season done before I head back to the range. I killed a nice doe on a bonus tag today and am on the lookout for a respectable buck through this next week and next weekend. At any rate, good job again and thanks for the pictures.
 
GC, I was very impressed with the Rem HD BB's penetrating 228 to 290 pages more than the Federal Premium lead copper coated BB's did at 40 yards. The deepest penetrating Rem HD T pellet went through a total of 585 pages or 458 pages deeper than the Federal copper coated lead BB's did.
 
OK, we need some more input for Remington 870 shooters. Here's my addition. 870 Express, 26" barrel, 3" chamber. This is using a Cabelas (for Hevi-Shot)Turkey Super Full tube (.665)
This is with Remington Magnum 4BK. (41 pellet load) 8 hits on the 8 inch circle, 37 on the cardboard.
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And here's with the best coyote load available, so what if it costs 3 bucks a pop. It's aptly named. 17 hits on the 8" circle, 55 on the cardboard.

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My gun shoots high. I held the pin at the bottom of the circle on both shots, and they still are about 3-4 inches high. So it shoots about 7-8 inches high.
I'm loving the Dead Coyote load, look at how dense that pattern is. I will try both at 50 yards sometime this week.
Does anyone know how many pellets are in a 3" DC load? I know 4 pellets on the #4 buck are missing but I don't know how many are missing on the DC load. I'm guessing a few went over the cardboard.
 
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Bob,
Those should be the cat's a$$ on called predators... literally.



Its really lookin that way isnt it? I honestly think this can and does open the door for a lot of things.
 
It may not pattern as well as it does through a slightly more open choke, is all. You never really know how it will do until you try it.

And, patterning a shotgun at 20 or 25 yards, says virtually nothing about how well it will do at the longer ranges. It is normal to get tight patterns at the short ranges, but only a very few choke/lead load combinations can hold the shot together to be effective at 50 or 60 yards.

The guys using Hevishot, or similar products have a lot more leeway insofar as what chokes they can use and still get dense long range patterns, but if you may take a shot at 50 yards, or further, you need to shoot a few patterns at that range to see how dense or how thin your patterns may be at the longer range.
 
Randy,
Thanks, but there are a lot of good contributions to that thread. The penetration test of Bob's is a great example of that. The old saying "Two heads are better than one..." is in play on the shotgun thread with good contributions from a bunch of guys. Hopefully we'll see some real definitive results and be able to arrive at some solid conclusions as we keep the thread alive with ongoing and up to date info.
 
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BTW guys Here's some food for thought. A Giant Canada weighs about 15-17 lbs. When we shot them with lead we used BB's. When we started shooting Hevi-Shot thats where we started. Crippled everything over 40 yds. Went to 1's same problem. Went to 2's Magic! 2's will shoot completely through one at 60-70yds with most of the pellets. I've cleaned hundreds of the durn things. Pattern density was the key. Guys, a 15-17lb goose is pretty dense and tough! I think you might be able to drop down a size or two and get your 100% kill at 50yds you're looking for. This stuff penetrates much differently than lead. The extra weight combined with less frontal area makes more difference than you think. I think your answer is BB's or 1's, not T's. to get your 100% kills. I also think in a 3" it will be a handload.


Cat_Slayer, after doing the penetration tests on the catalogs with the Remington Wingmaster HD BB 3" loads and reading your posts again, I am going to have to try some of the Rem HD's in #2's. I use to hunt geese quite a bit back in the 70's and 80's and I was very impressed with the Federal Premium 3" copper coated lead BB's. The Rem HD BB's make my old favorite lead load look pretty bad. The heavier, harder and faster pellets that stay round when they hit something are great penetraters.
 
Rich,

That is one great pattern. What is the ID of that choke tube and what gun are you using it in? I would like to get #4 Buck to pattern like that. Let us all know. Thanks.
 
chuckhunter,
My shotgun is a Browning BPS "Game Gun" with 23" barrel, iron sights and takes the standard "Invector" tubes. The choke is a Kicks "Buckicker X-full" which is a .690 I.D.
 
That is a good pattern Rich. Thanks for sharing that.

Chuckhunter, one thing to remember is that different firearms may require different internal diameters based on the interior dimensions of the makers barrels. As an example, because Benelli barrels are tighter bore than Remington, an X-Full BuckKicker for Benelli is .680". That will provide the same constriction of the shot for the Benelli as Rich's .690 does for his Remington. Kick's has a chart on their website with interior dimensions and if you e-mail Chuck @ Kick's he is a super helpful resource and will give you solid info.
 
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