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.

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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.

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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.

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