Shotgun patterning

[Mountain Guy]

Folks,
just picked up the new shotgun and thought I'd try and start right by patterning it to see how she shoots.
HAve a few different shot shells to try and am also curious as to where on the target it will hit.
Any quick tips as to the process.
Thanks.
MG.

[catnthehat]

Common pattern range has always been 40 yards, but I have always patterned my guns at 20 and 30 yards, simply because those seem to be the most common ranges I shoot at.
20 yards will tell me where the gun is impacting at , which is one of the two reasons we pattern guns, and 30 yards gives me a pretty good indication of pellet count.

I don't get too wrapped up in patterning however, mainly just to check POI.
I shoot the gun at skeet and trap ( a lot) to figure out if I can kill stuff with it.
Cat

[bobinthesky]

Patterning your gun is a very usefull excercise.
I took two other shooters that were having trouble hitting anything with their guns to the pattern board this past summer only to find out that their shot columns weren't hitting anywhere near where they thought they were! Both those shooters switched out their guns for different ones and immediately starting breaking clays!

I couldn't agree with Cat more when he said don't get too wrapped up in it though. Some guys like to pattern every choke tube they have and then buy new tubes cause they don't like the pattern, sometimes they gain a little ground, sometimes they loose a little ground by doing this. The thing is, every shot string is just a little different than the last one so no two are exactly the same anyway.
I've even seen guys switch out their tubes for custom jobs just because they didn't think they were machined to close enough tolerances. We're talking 1 thousands of an inch here... I've considered that these guys may be anal retentive loosers.
I usually try all my choke tubes on the pattern board just to check that they do hit where I expect them to for my own peace of mind, but I've personally never had one that hit in a signifigantly different place than the others.

Some guys think that resting the gun such as over a truck hood is helpfull but I've never seen any usefullness in this practice at all. Your only patterning at 40 yards or less so aiming isn't a factor. Besides, you don't aim a shotgun anyway, you point it! Just stand on your hind legs and point it at the center of the pattern board.

[twofifty]

For pattern boards, I've used large cardboard pieces you get from appliances or tub enclosure packaging. Set them up at different ranges, like 20, 30, 40y. Try one beyond 40 and see for yourself where big gaps start showing up in the pattern (with that particular load). This is your effective maximum range.

This may not be correct, but I put an aim point sticker in the middle of a 30" circle (use a nail, string, pencil to draw circle). Divide this circle into quarters. Shoot. The average shot count per quarter will help you tell whether your gun tends to shoot left, or high right, or whatever, at each of the common hunting ranges, for that particular load.

[honker_clonker]

I patterned the other day and it was great to see that the $18 a box Remington sportsman steel patter better than the $36 a box black cloud. You really dont know until you do it and you might find some pleasant surprises.