Originally Posted By: HomelessjOe
Originally Posted By: GLS
There's a rule of thumb that for effective and reliable hitting a vital portion of a turkey's head and neck, your pattern should be a minimum of a 100 hits in a 10" circle to establish the maximum range.


Ask yourself who wrote this rule of thumb ?

I suspect some out'e dOOr writer that might have shot a handful of turkeys.

I've shot enough turkey shotguns/patterns that I can look at a pattern at various yardages and tell if it's going to be effective.

I don't need to draw circles and count pellet holes to tell.


Maybe my 41 years of hunting turkeys and reloading for 45 years doesn't count as much as your experience, but if we are going to be objective and not a subjective "I don't need to draw circles and count...", the one thing drawing circles and counting does is allow someone other than you to decide effectiveness for themselves. No one is saying your pattern at 40 yards isn't devastating; after all, it is a 12 gauge shooting almost 2 oz. Do us a favor, shoot your pattern at 40 yards and draw a 10" circle around the most dense concentration, mark them so we can see, and count them for us. Here's what a 10" circle at 40 yards tells us drawn around the most dense part of your pattern: There are approximately 78 square inches in a 10" circle. A 100 pellets (evenly spread, and they never are) yields a theoretical 1.28 pellets per square inch. A thin pattern can miss vital regions in neck and head. It's not enough to hit a snood, wattle or blow a beak or beard off. Not only must the pattern be dense enough, but the delivery (aim) of the dense pattern must hit the target. You challenged me to show my .410 patterns and I did. Your turn. Show us your 12 gauge 1 7/8 oz. Longbeard #4 pattern at 40 yards and draw the 10" circle. Gil