Patterning A Turkey Gun

by Jay Longhauser
Zink Calls Staff
July 15, 2010

What's a turkey hunter to do when the spring season has closed and the summer drags on with the upcoming waterfowl season still months away? Now is the time to learn how your turkey gun shoots. The importance of patterning a turkey gun is often overlooked, and I can tell you from experience it shouldn't be.

I killed my first turkey several years ago, and a few years after that, just when I had killed enough gobblers that I was starting to feel like a real turkey hunter, I missed one. Talk about a low, it all finally comes together and after the gun goes bang, the bird runs and flies for the hills. I looked for 30 minutes around the spot the bird landed some 200 yards away even though I knew he flew too well to be hit much, if at all. What had I done wrong?

Motivated by not wanting to have this kind of disappointment again I went to pattern my turkey gun for the first time. The gun at this time I had no additional sights, just a front bead, and a full choke. I had killed quite a few turkeys with this same combo before although they were a little closer than this bird. I was shooting 3.5 inch # 5 shot. (Brand is not important here) At 25 yards my pattern was a little bit high, 2 inches, but not bad, and plenty good enough to hit his head if I aimed at the neck like I always had. The pattern was also pretty dense. I don't know the actual numbers as I was not informed on counting pellets at this time in my life. I backed up to 35 yards and shot the paper again. As I got to the target I became very aware of how the turkey flew away. My pattern was even higher at 35 yards and even less dense. There were holes big enough for a green winged teal to fly trough. If I aimed at the middle of the birds' neck, ¾ ths of my pattern would have flown over his head. Out of disbelief I tried again. This time was a little better but no where good enough to be confident in. From this point on I have religiously pattered my turkey guns and probably shot 15 times the turkey loads at paper as I have live turkeys. In my opinion it is well worth it in order to not go through the frustration of pulling the trigger and not carrying a bird out.

Patterning a turkey gun can become addictive and way, way too complicated and expensive. My hope is that I can give you a basic start and some things to consider in helping to jump start your patterning process.

The basic idea when trying to pattern your turkey hunting gun is to make sure that the combination of the gun, load or shell, and the choke tube, will consistently put a dense enough pattern where you aim it with enough energy to kill a turkey. Changing the choke tube, the ammo, and distance to the target, can affect the way the gun performs.

When I am searching for the right combination in a new turkey gun I like to start at 25 yards and put out a target with a bulls eye in the center on a sheet of plywood at least 3 feet by 3 feet. Sit in a position similar to the one you plan to shoot from when hunting and try to hit the bull's eye. At this range the pattern should be very dense and hopefully be right on the bull's eye. If it's not hitting on the bulls eye try a new target and the same ammo a few times. If the gun consistently hits in a spot different than where you are aiming it probably means that the point of aim is not the point of impact for that gun with that choke tube and or ammo. If that is the case I would try and shoot different ammo first and see if it hits in the same spot the last type of ammo did, or a new spot altogether. I have had a gun that shot two different brands of ammo through the same choke tube with the center of the pattern being different by 8 inches at 40 yards. 8 inches is a big deal when you are trying to hit a turkeys head and neck, especially if he's moving. Once you have done this at 25 yards, back up to 40 yards and repeat the process with the ammo, and choke tube you want to shoot and a clean sheet of paper on a clean 3 foot by 3 foot background. The reason I like 3 foot backgrounds is it allows you to see where the densest part of the pattern is really going at 35 and 40 yards, especially if you have point of aim / point of impact issues which are more common than most people realize.

Once you have the dense part of the pattern where you can see it on paper at 40 yards draw a 10 inch circle around the densest part of the pattern and count the holes in that 10 inch circle. The old rule of thumb was always 100 pellets in a 10 inch circle would be adequate to consistently kill a turkey if they hit the right spot, the head and neck. Once you reached a distance where your equipment could no longer do that you had reached the max range of that combo, assuming the pellets had enough energy to do the job when they reached the target. I personally don't like to have less than 150 pellets in a 10 inch circle at 40 yards for a gun I plan to hunt turkeys with. I don't expect to shoot any further than 35 yards and I like to shoot them at half that distance, but its nice to know that if I miss judge a 30 yard shot my gun is still capable. I know guys now who have guns that will shoot factory heavier than lead loads and reach numbers over 250 pellets in a 10 inch circle at 40 yards. Is it overkill? I don't think there is such a thing as long as the pattern is still open enough to be accurate at 15 yards. With a quality choke and a proper job of sighting the gun in that should not be a problem. I'm currently hunting with two different dedicated turkey guns and one will put 190 - 200 holes in 10 inches at 40 yards and the other will do 220 - 240, that's good enough for me. Again I think numbers around 150 are good enough but I don't like much less than that. It hurts too much to pull the trigger and not take a bird home. Once you have found a choke tube and ammo combo that produces good numbers at 40 yards you can correct any point of aim issues you might have. One option is to go to some type of aftermarket adjustable sights. My preference is a red dot. Mount some kind of adjustable sights on the gun and shoot the ammo and choke tube that gave you good numbers at 40 yards, but possibly not exactly where you aimed, this time shoot with the new sights from 20 yards and adjust the sights until they are dead on at 20 yards then again back up to 40 yards and make sure the point of impact now matches point of aim.

The choices in ammo and choke tubes are almost endless with tons of great options. Now the heavier than lead loads allow us to increase pattern density while still keeping pellet energy at ranges much further than we used to be able to with lead shot. Simply put, if the space inside a shot gun shell is limited, the smaller the pellets are the more will fit into the space. This means more chances for holes in your 10 inch circle and ultimately turkey's vitals. When lead was the shot of choice the concern was that pellet energy was lost by going to a smaller pellet and it does no good to hit the target with lots of small pellets if they did not penetrate adequately. That's why lead #4 and #5 shot was a popular choice. Now you can shoot heavier than lead pellets in a smaller size which gives the potential for more hits, while still retaining energy similar to that of larger lead pellet. If you are skeptical shoot some lead, # 5s, #6s, and #7s, at a piece of plywood and see how they penetrate, then shoot some heavier than lead #6s and #7s at the plywood from the same distance. My results lead me to believe that some of the heavier than lead loads will give you the best combination of pattern density and penetration from your turkey gun.

When you start out the choices to try are overwhelming so here are some of the loads I would try first when patterning a turkey gun. Lead #6 with 2 oz of shot in whatever brand you like. Lots of turkeys have and will be killed with this stuff. Winchester extended range #6 with 2 oz of shot. It's more expensive than lead, but man does it hit hard! I also would try heavy 13 # 6 and # 7 I've had some great patterns with these. Some of the consistent shooters in turkey choke tubes are brands like Indian Creek, Rhino, Pure Gold, Jelly head, and Carlson. I'm sure there are more, but I have some experience with these. My suggestion is to call the company and tell them what gun you are shooting and see what constriction they suggest, they will get you close in hurry.

Have fun this season and remember that if you do the work patterning your gun it should be all but a given that the bird goes down when he's at 30 and you pull the trigger.