Shotgun help

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lycokayaker

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I know this may have been beat to death. I’m running a 1301 which is an 18 inch barrel? I’m using dead coyote t shot ammo and have tried the gamut of chokes. It works great 20 yds and in after that my pattern goes super wide. Would moving to a 26 or 28 inch barreled shotgun change that for me?
 
More information, please. What choke restrictions and what does a 40-yard pattern look like?
 
I get my best patterns with my 18” & 21” Benelli barrels. The 1301 is a larger bore than the Benelli though.
 
I have run a bunch of the different Carlson cremators, standard chokes from cylinder to improved modified. I have a briley in it now. I can’t recall what constriction it is. When I spoke to briley they told me it’s the smallest constriction I can run with dead coyote t shot I also got the next size bigger to try. 30yd pattern is 20% in a pie plate at best rest way all over. 40yd shot maybe a barn door.
 
I recently patterned my shotgun at 40 yards with Federal 3” #4 Buck. The shotgun is a Benelli M2 clone and I was using the factory full choke along with a Carlson Coyote tube. Relatively pleased with the patterns. Both chokes produced similar patterns at 40 yards. I would trust the load out to 50.

A friend suggested that I might be overchoked. The patterns with a modified choke were inferior. Have ordered an improved modified to see what that will do. Also going to pattern some TSS #4 shot. Hoping to get an effective range of 70 yards or so for Coyotes. Will update
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If the gun is older or has a lot of shots on it you can try polishing the barrel. I used to do this to my turkey guns and it helped some.
 
You really need to know the bore diameter of the chokes. The Carlson’s Dead Coyote for my Benelli is .675, but it has never patterned anything well. Have you tried any other brands of shells?
 
johral said:
You really need to know the bore diameter of the chokes. The Carlson’s Dead Coyote for my Benelli is .675, but it has never patterned anything well. Have you tried any other brands of shells?
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I have tried a bunch of different shells. I don’t have the dead coyote choke
 
A TSS #3 shot or TSS #4 shot 1-1/4 oz load should give way better patterns than lead #4 buck or Hevi-Shot Dead Coyote T shot loads. The TSS pellets are perfectly round and very hard so they pattern much tighter than other shot types.

1-7/8 oz loads of lead number 4 buck have 41 pellets per shell.
1-1/2 oz loads of Hevi-Shot Dead Coyote T shot loads have about 50 pellets per shell.
1-1/4 oz of TSS #3 shot has about 83 pellets per shell. " 66% more pellets than 1-1/2 oz of Hevi-Shot T shot loads."
1-1/4 oz of TSS #4 shot has about 104 pellets per shell. " 108% more pellets than 1-1/2 oz of Hevi-Shot T shot loads."

1350 fps Hevi-Shot Dead Coyote T shot 1-1/2 oz loads get 3.70" of gel penetration at 88 yards.
1350 fps TSS #3 shot 1-1/4 oz loads get 3.70" of gel penetration at 99.9 yards.
1350 fps TSS #4 shot 1-1/4 oz loads get 3.70" of gel penetration at 82.2 yards.

I have had great results using a Carlson's Blued Extended Sporting Clays Modified Choke for all of my TSS coyote loads.
 
I'll add two things. I never could get the Dead Coyote T's to pattern great. Certainly not as bad as you are experiencing, but they never compared well to other loads. And, when using a short barrel it seemed to need a bit more constriction than the longer barrels to pattern as well. This was with lead No. Four Buck and the Remington HD-BB load. An extra .005" of choke in my 18.5"barrel brought it to the same performance level as the 24" and 26" barrels.
 
lycokayaker said:
I have run a bunch of the different Carlson cremators, standard chokes from cylinder to improved modified. I have a briley in it now. I can’t recall what constriction it is. When I spoke to briley they told me it’s the smallest constriction I can run with dead coyote t shot I also got the next size bigger to try. 30yd pattern is 20% in a pie plate at best rest way all over. 40yd shot maybe a barn door.
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20% of 55 pellets is 11 pellets. 11 holes in a 9" circle is a dead coyote every time. Thats 11 .22cal holes through the vitals plus all the rest hitting wherever they do. I wouldn't want any tighter than that, and this is what you are calling poor/super wide...
 
I have to agree with GC, on the use of Dead Coyote loads, not knocking them at all, Just that they never patterned well in my Benneli M2, Stoeger, 1187, Mossburg 930 or my VR-80, I have boxes of chokes that I should sell. I settled on a Remington T shot load that has been discontinued, that I have 10 rounds left, they patterned good and put down the dogs if they were close, the season here is almost over so I am going to wait till spring and try some Winchester, Federal, and Apex coyote loads I have picked up.
I have not been on the forum for about four years but if my memory is correct, GC and some of the other Veteran shotgun hunters on here had some real good content regarding loads and patterning...
 
GC said:
I'll add two things. I never could get the Dead Coyote T's to pattern great. Certainly not as bad as you are experiencing, but they never compared well to other loads. And, when using a short barrel it seemed to need a bit more constriction than the longer barrels to pattern as well. This was with lead No. Four Buck and the Remington HD-BB load. An extra .005" of choke in my 18.5"barrel brought it to the same performance level as the 24" and 26" barrels.
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im limited by the great state of NJ for night hunting no shot larger than T. Which is not a great option for me.
 
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