patterning your gun ?

[Cheers]

I hear lots of people talking about the importance of patterning a shotgun and learning how shells perform in each gun . I don't understand how you can put the information learned from patterning to practical use when wing shooting.

It makes sense to me to pattern your gun when aiming such as in turkey hunting but I don't get it for shooting at a moving target . When I swing and shoot at a bird it either falls or flies . When it flies away I know I have missed but I don't know how I missed . I could have been high or low or in front or behind, or a combination of each. When it falls I know I hit it with at least 1 out of hundreds of pellets but have no way of knowing where the rest went. Without that information I cant adjust my swing .So I pattern my gun by shooting a fixed target and learn that for example more shot hits the lower left quarter of the target . How can I apply that knowledge in wing shooting ? When I swing and shoot at a bird am I supposed to be compensating for the pattern and leading more and higher ?

It all sound logical but in reality I just swing pull and hope.I can adjust my lead by the speed and distance of the bird but still have no way of factoring in the shot pattern with out being able to see where my shot went in relation to the flying bird .

I can practice at the skeet range but when I shoot skeet I must use smaller lead shot . So when I go to the marsh I use a different shell with steel and supposedly a different pattern .

Please advise as I am sure many others don't understand either

[carpshooterdeluxe]

A good pattern eliminates one of the variables? Simplest explanation I can think of.

[BoxMN]

You find a shell and shot that make a consistent pattern. Some won't in your gun/choke, and some will. That eliminates the open spots or inconsistencies.

We found that in our gun (brother and I use same gun and same choke) that #2 in any brand, size, and shot type is really inconsistent. #1 not much better. But #3 and especially #4 and also BB is pretty darn good. In many shots, there was not enough space between pellets for a teal to fly through - whereas with #2 a mallard could have flown through in some spots. Maybe the magic BB will hit, but if you take the gaps out of the equation, not as much need for magic BB and just put your pattern near the duck and you will do okay.

Drilling it down, we found that Black Cloud #4 in our chokes (not BC chokes) really spreads nicely with no noticable gaps at 30-35 yards. So we try to stick with this. Other brands are okay too, but BC really hold nicely in our guns. Good luck.

[Neighbor_guy]

It all depends on what the definition of patterning your gun you are using.

For turkey you are both looking at the pattern location and density. For example I know that I get the densest pattern from 6shot and my shotgun is a 60(+)/40(-) Thus I know if I want to hit a tom in the dome I need to aim low on the neck. Because a little more than 60% or more of my pattern is above my bead.

With waterfowl you are not as concerned about where on the board you are hitting, (good I you have never done it) but more focused on pattern density. Your gun might not like a certain brand of shells, or you may find that there are big holes in your pattern that a bird like a real can fit inside and not get hit.

I know know due to spending some time in the yard that my choice of gun/choke tube patterns Kent fast steel #3 very well. But federal speed shock waterfowl 4 and 2 very poorly. And if I want to shoot a goose dark cloud #2 is ok, but Winchester funny hexshot is better.

It sounds strange, but all guns seem to shoot different shells ir loads differently. If you want to get the best out of your gun you need to take some time to try different things.