doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com patterning distances

Half a century later, the late PA grouse and woodcock hunter Nick Sisley came up with the same average distance for grouse he killed.

You guys are going to think I'm crazy, but I bought a very expensive Ljutic trap gun several years ago. And someone mentioned that I should pattern it on the club's patterning board. So I took some paper out to the club and headed out to the patterning board. On the way out some old guy stopped me and told me that I should never pattern a gun on a patterning board. Because of I would regret it.

I couldn't understand what he meant, so I ignored him and went out and patterned the gun. After that I realized that he was right. After that I could never hit crap with that gun. Every single time I pulled the trigger at a target the thought of how that gun patterned flashed in my head and I tried to shoot that gun accordingly and I never could hit anything after that. I ended up trading a new $6,000.00 gun for another used mid rib Ljutic and never got near a patterning board again. The guy who sold me the gun went out with me the first time I shot it, told me how to shoot it and I immediately started breaking 23s, 24s, and 25 straights pretty consistently. I adapted to the way the gun was set up. Never touched the adjustable comb. Never moved the adjustable pad.

I'LL NEVER GO NEAR A PATTERNING BOARD AGAIN!! EVER!!

Oberfell and Thompson found a linear pattern expansion of 10% for every 5 yards between 20 and 40. One writer suggested patterning at 30 yards and extrapolating up to 40 by subtracting 20%. Plus, 30 yards tends to capture the whole shot pattern on a 4 x 4 piece of paper, giving you a better read on POI. Whatever works.

Maybe I should better ask, what do you quantify when evaluating patterns? My patience for counting pellets strikes in the blazing sun is limited.

I.patyern on a huge, greased steel plate. At least 4 x 8 ft, maybe 5 x 8.

Mostly how wide it gets before a bird might slip through.
Cylinder works great on forest grouse.
But not open country grouse.
They are fragile birds.

A zone of 24” to about 26” on the pattern plate at specific yardage where the target can’t get through a sure kill zone in a 30” circle. The outer fringe of the 30” circle may or may not result in a kill. That area often times results in chips with clays. Anyways, that’s what I look for when patterning. It’s pretty tough to get a complete 30” circle of pattern that will always result in a kill.

Reading all this stuff. It just isn't the kind of thing I don't want going through my head when that target kicks up. Good luck!!

Doesn't seem very hard to me, Jimmy. Do you not reload? Not much goes through my head except "Get 'em" when one flushes.

My 2" gave very nice patterns. I only loaded 7/8 and the much heavier 15/16 ounce loads. Be more interested in point of impact than counting pellets. All you want is a uniform pattern at 20 yards. If you have than you should be very good at 25 yards and decent at 30 yards. Past that you ought to take another gun. A 2" will kill birds past 30 yards but not consistently and birds deserve a clean death,. not to be hit but never recovered. In heavy cover, shots are mostly short and the chance for a followup shot on a second flush later, after the flush and escape, is almost none.

Yes, I do reload. I'm with you. See the bird-shoot the bird!! Patterning boards just mess me up. I'm probably just out of touch. Sorry that I messed up your guy's thread, gentlemen. I apologize for that. You had a nice thread going here. And I jumped in and sabotaged it.