NEW Shotgun Pattern Test Results - Detail & Pic' heavy...

Todays results, 3" Winchester Varmint-X 1 1/2oz. BB
Remington 870 Express with a 28" Carlson Barrel

40yds, .660" Carlson ext. turkey choke, 11 pettets in a 7" circle, 20 inside 10", I think its too tight
40yds, .670" (No Name choke), 14 inside 7" and 27 inside 10", looks pretty darn good
40yds, .665" Carlson Coyote choke, 21 inside 7" and 34 inside 10", looks very good, very even pattern

52yds, .665" Carlson Coyote choke, 7 inside 7" and 11 inside 10", kinda patchy pattern
52yds, .670" (No Name choke), 10 inside 7" and 11 inside 10", more even than previous shot

For grins and giggle......
60yds, .665" Carlson Coyote choke, 3 inside 7" and 6 in side 10". This shot is slightly left but I could have flinched a bit also. These 3" monsters hurt after a while! Lol
 
Id like to try/buy the 24" Carlson barrel to keep the gun a little more compact but Im pretty happy with the patterns of this 28".
Not sure what to do about this.
 
Sounds pretty good. I have a Carlson's Coyote choke at .690 and a Carlson's extended ported turkey choke at .675. I'm thinking the .675 is probably too tight though.
 
Originally Posted By: RossignolSounds pretty good. I have a Carlson's Coyote choke at .690 and a Carlson's extended ported turkey choke at .675. I'm thinking the .675 is probably too tight though.

What kind of shotgun?
 
Funny thing is, Im not sure why Im going down this shotgun path. We hunt a lot of pastures and open land. I guess I just have to have something to mess around with. Even though the 3" mags hurt, it is fun to see the patterns emerge.
 
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Originally Posted By: Lefty SRHOriginally Posted By: RossignolSounds pretty good. I have a Carlson's Coyote choke at .690 and a Carlson's extended ported turkey choke at .675. I'm thinking the .675 is probably too tight though.

What kind of shotgun?

@Lefty, my bad. These chokes are for the 20" Mossberg 835. I've patterned the Winchester heavy weight B coyote to 50 yards with the Carlson's coyote with something like 10 or 11 pellets in 10". I was pretty disappointed when I discovered the load had been discontinued so I'm excited to see this BB in ShotLok from Winchester and am expecting a decent pattern through the Carlson's choke. I did have the Carlson's LongBeard choke but it was too open for turkey shot but at .683 it may have been decent for BB. I actually got it from eBay for $19. Kinda wish now I still had it.
 
Lefty you may be reaching a point in which your gun patterns better than the load can effectively kill a coyote. Standard lead BB is going to be stretched past its effective penetration abilities at 50 yards. Especially so at hard angles. Within the BB's solid killing range you are getting excellent results.

With that said, I would caution that you shouldn't draw complete conclusions based on only one shot. That's simply not enough data. It's crazy how much variance there can be between shots at times. I shoot three to five shots nowadays to get a more reliable data base to draw conclusions from. Fun isn't it...
 
Originally Posted By: RossignolOriginally Posted By: Lefty SRHOriginally Posted By: RossignolSounds pretty good. I have a Carlson's Coyote choke at .690 and a Carlson's extended ported turkey choke at .675. I'm thinking the .675 is probably too tight though.

What kind of shotgun?

@Lefty, my bad. These chokes are for the 20" Mossberg 835. I've patterned the Winchester heavy weight B coyote to 50 yards with the Carlson's coyote with something like 10 or 11 pellets in 10". I was pretty disappointed when I discovered the load had been discontinued so I'm excited to see this BB in ShotLok from Winchester and am expecting a decent pattern through the Carlson's choke. I did have the Carlson's LongBeard choke but it was too open for turkey shot but at .683 it may have been decent for BB. I actually got it from eBay for $19. Kinda wish now I still had it.

The Mossberg is over bored so the .675 choke you listed is really tight compared to the chokes Lefty and I are shooting plus that .690 is the same construction as the factory Mossberg turkey choke. Try something in the .700-.710 range in your 835. I tried a .680 in my Mossberg and it blew the pattern. And that .683 Carslon would've been a perfect turkey choke for your gun.
 
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Originally Posted By: Marcl84The Mossberg is over bored so the .675 choke you listed is really tight compared to the chokes Lefty and I are shooting plus that .690 is the same construction as the factory Mossberg turkey choke. Try something in the .700-.710 range in your 835. I tried a .680 in my Mossberg and it blew the pattern. And that .683 Carslon would've been a perfect turkey choke for your gun.

I'm not sure if its because its the 20" barrel or not, but my 835 patterns much better with tighter chokes. My factory choke at .690 didn't pattern anything well at all. I had the .683 for turkey loads and patterns were terrible. Carlson's claims 182 pellets of #6 at 40 yards. My first pattern with #5 had 47. I switched to LongBeard #5 and got just over 100 pellets. I switched to Carlson's tighter choke at .675 and got 117. I went to the LongBeard #6 and am now consistently getting 170. All shots at 40 yards. I have a loaner TruGlo that is .670 and it patterns about the same as the .675 Carlson's. It may be just slightly better by 5 pellets or so.

The Carlson's coyote choke .690 patterns the older Winchester heavy weight very well and if that stuff was easy to get a hold of I wouldn't buy anything else. It patterns #4 buck decently too. I think my best 40 yards with the 4 buck had something like 15 pellets in it and my worst was 7.

I started with a Kicks Howler at .745 and worked my way down after finding out that stock of the heavy B was drying up. .745 did nothing for me and the .720 was an improvement I could live with for 4 buck but it wasn't any better than the Carlson's so I sold it.

I don't know if I'm an anomalae or not. I don't know anyone else shooting a 20" 835.
 
No worries GC, I have only done one shot with each varience due to ammo cost. You guys would have a heart attack if you knew what Ive spent on this venture in the past month! Lol, that being said, I plan to shoot more for better test data as I narrow down what seems to be working well.
I have also considered the energy at and past 50yds with just lead BB. I only backed out to 60yds for "grins and giggles".
Id like to find another type of T sized shot other than Hevi-shot dead coyote, they are just too expensive for me.

My next step is to see what the gun and chokes do with #4 & #5 2oz. Turkey loads. So far I have one box of each in Winchester Longbeard and Federal with the FCW.
All of my chokes (except one) are Carlson and its a very complete set ranging from skeet all the way to .660".
 
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Originally Posted By: Lefty SRHRossignol, I dont mean to get off the coyote subject with turkey talk but what turkey target are you using?

Thats my fault for getting off topic a bit but I added it to give some context and background to my preference for the tighter chokes. For targets, I use a large piece of cardboard about 48"x48" usually. I make a bull about an inch in diameter with a 10" circle around it and count the pellets at POA and within that 10". Now with the .675 Carlson's I mentioned above and Winchester LongBeard #6, my entire pattern is only about 24" at 40 yards.
 
I finally got a box of the Winchester VarmintX 3" BB load with ShotLok.

I fired three targets this evening through my 20" Mossberg 835 (over bored) with .690 Carlson's Coyote choke. At point of aim, I averaged 25 pellets in 10" at 40 yards. The entire pattern may have been 24" or so. (I'm guessing but if anyone is interested I'll get a solid measurement)

It looks solid at that distance but I'm going to go back in this thread and look at the gel penetration data for the lead BB.
 
I bought ten boxes of the new Winchester varmint BB. I am using a Beretta Extrema 2. I have tried just about every factory #4 buck there is and a few other so called varmint loads and have never found any ammo/choke combo that gave me confidence. Maybe my gun just doesn't like buckshot, I don't know but before this I used up two bags of nickel plated #4 buck in a 10 ga BPS with factory and 3 or 4 aftermarket chokes but again never found a honest consistent 50 yard load. Recently tested the new Winchester stuff. When I am looking for a coyote load I use a life size coyote target not circles, never saw a round coyote. I shot a minimum of two targets per choke, the results as follows. Patter master .714, 3&4 pellets in kill zone, Dead Coyote .672, 4&8 in kill zone, Drake killer .690, 5&6 in zone, Optima plus 4&5 in zone and Black cloud .713, 7&8 in kill zone with the Black Cloud doing best in this test I tried it at 30 yards, Quit counting at 30 pellets on target with 15 in kill zone, my only question now is in regards to penitration, I know what #4 buck will do but never hit a coyote with BB's
 
Well I have read and read on these forums and everyone has been a great help!
I acquired a Mossberg M590a1 and decided it was time to start taking a shotgun on my hunts after a few instances where out of now where I just could not get a shot.

The gun was cylinder bore so I tried a few loads and flite control wads before deciding to send it to Mike Orlen to be threaded. I was not happy so I sent it off. Great guy and s great business and I would highly highly recommend. I myself am a machinist but did not have all the tools to do it myself and by the time I could have bought them I would have had more than he charged.





After the threading I used a card choke to dial in My red dot and started my Research which I still haven't finished. I will post my following results with pics. My Guns bore is .734 Btw

These 2 were a .693 xfull factory mossberg choke 40 yards
Winchester varmint x 8 inch circle 8 bb

Then
Federal Premium no4 41 pellet


I knew I wanted another choke so I looked looked debated and debated and looked to members that were very helpful and informative. I had decided on a kicks. But with all my ou Guns I had always used Carlson so on a last min call I went with the .662 Carlson coyote. They said it measures .662 I measured .666 but and the very end of you only put your calipers in .100 it does measure .662 here are my results
40 yards Winchester varmint x

Next was the federal prem 3 no 4 which appeared to shoot high and I think with more testing I could have a better result

Then the Remington no 4 3 in lead 41 pellets

And while I had things out before the sun went down I tried the Winchester varmint at 50 which would be debatable weather or not the BB would have enough power and penetration at that range I wrote 60 on the target but for the life of me do not know why i did it was 50 yards



I am pleased although I have seen a lot better results leaves me thinking weather I should be happy with the varmint x and use the Remington as a cheap back up or try more chokes and try to get even better results. I still have more shooting to do with what I have. I do have a local company that will sell me a kicks at cost which is a .660 or try a kicks. Looking for opinions from everyone on which load I should perfect from my finding so far and any input

Thank you
John

Specail thanks to GC and ackleyman for not getting tired of all the questions!

sorry for any grammer or misspellings this was made on my iphone.
 
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Both patterns look good, the varmint-X patterned nice. If it were up to me i'd see how that Varmint-X performs in the field and then reassess, it's pretty new so i'm not sure if it's proven yet. It is copper plated shot so it should be basically similar to the Hornady minus the flight control wad. At least you did all the testing, now you know what to expect & the ball is in your court.

 
Thanks for contributing to this thread. You know what I told you, I would use the new Winchester Varmint X BB load keeping the range under 45 yards, shoot 'em in the head and rock on. Good looking shotgun, btw.
 
I think the Varmint -X is a great shell for the money! The patterns are impressive especially out of such a short barrel.
 
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