20 ga Long Beard Patterns

wturkey01

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I finally received some 20 ga Long Beards but they came during the season & I wanted to wait until afterwards to pattern them. The Winchester factory hoopla surrounding them would make one think they could kill from 22-250 distance!!:rolleyes:

Actually, they do pretty darn well! :cool:

I am a neck-aimer so I have set my Hi-Viz sights to POI slightly higher so that the entire neck & head would fall in my patterns.......also in case I misjudge the distance! :p

Attached are the results of my testing @ 50 yds. I tested at 50 because Winchester claims these are 60 yd shells.........I seriously doubt that for a 20 ga!
I have shot the Fed HW #7 for years so I included a target of those for reference.

I think the LBs would give a better pattern with a choke of around 0.550 - 0.560 but I didn't have enough shells to try with a lot of chokes.

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nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Those 5s are pretty impressive, I would really be interested in seeing what they would do with a more restrictive choke.
 

wturkey01

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Those 5s are pretty impressive, I would really be interested in seeing what they would do with a more restrictive choke.

I was surprised that the 5's did better than the 6's. I'm think the 5's would be a good backup in the magazine behind the Feds.

I have more LB's ordered so will pattern them with some tighter chokes later on.
 

wturkey01

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
How big is the Black circle, how many pellets in a 10", how many in a 20"

The black is a 6" circle.....the last ring on the target is 12".....if you wanna know how many in a 20" circle..........there ain't one! Use your imagination!

I did this non-scientific experiment just to see how the ammo shoots.......no climate data, no elevation data, no chronograph!! Just a good ole boy wondering how the ammo shoots!! :p

40 years ago the accepted pellet count for a turkey choke was assumed to be 70% in a 30" circle. As more advanced ammo & chokes became available, there were some shooters who would put 100% in a 20" circle.

The NWTF sanctioned contests count the number of pellets in a 3" circle!!

The bottom line is there ain't no registered, accepted, gotta be, number of pellets in any size circle!! It sure ain't a 10"........that's something invented by hunters who don't have any beer cans to shoot at.

I used a 12" circle because that's the size of my targets!!:rolleyes:

Most hunters get excited when faced with an about-to-be successful hunt so there's a little nervous "windage" involved in shooting a turkey.
 

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I was surprised that the 5's did better than the 6's. I'm think the 5's would be a good backup in the magazine behind the Feds.

I have more LB's ordered so will pattern them with some tighter chokes later on.
When I was shooting lead most 5s did better in about every gun I had given the chokes I was using at the time.
 
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