"Pattern a Shotgun".

I keep reading and hearing those words, but I have No Idea what that means.

Could somebody kindly clue me in?

Get a huge piece ofpaper, make an aiming point in the middle

shoot 1 shot at 30 yards, inspect pattern of shot.

You can inspect for holes in the pattern or  get technical and do shot counts and

point of aim placement.


Hope this helps some.

Many shotguns can be fitted with different choke tubess, so you can select how wide/open or tight a pattern (dispersal of shot pellets) you wish depending on what you are shooting. For instance, trap shooters generally want a tight pattern,  skeet shooters a more open pattern. I use an extra full choke tube for turkeys (very tight pattern), but use an improved cylinder-more open-when hunting pheasants with my dog.

Also of interest, not all shotguns will perfectly center the shot pattern with your aimed sight picture. You need to know this for turkey hunting.

Quoted: Get a huge piece ofpaper, make an aiming point in the middle shoot 1 shot at 30 yards, inspect pattern of shot. You can inspect for holes in the pattern or  get technical and do shot counts and point of aim placement. Hope this helps some.

I've always used a 30" circle on a peice of paper (butcher paper works good) . At 40 yds shoot at the center . Then count the holes inside the 30 inch circle , Full choke is @ 70% in the circle , Mod , improved cylinder are less ...I think Improved Cyl puts about 35% of the pellets into the 30" circle , Mod like 50 % . My %'s may be off a little but thats the general idea . Rocklock

Quoted: Quoted: Get a huge piece ofpaper, make an aiming point in the middle shoot 1 shot at 30 yards, inspect pattern of shot. You can inspect for holes in the pattern or  get technical and do shot counts and point of aim placement. Hope this helps some. I've always used a 30" circle on a peice of paper (butcher paper works good) . At 40 yds shoot at the center . Then count the holes inside the 30 inch circle , Full choke is @ 70% in the circle , Mod , improved cylinder are less ...I think Improved Cyl puts about 35% of the pellets into the 30" circle , Mod like 50 % . My %'s may be off a little but thats the general idea . Rocklock

If ya dont mind I'll chime in a few here too.

I used to shoot trap 2 times a week and shot competivley as well.

Different mfg's and different chokes will shoot waaayyy differently.  One mfg's barell with brand X full choke will shoot entirely diff with another mfg's barell and the same brand X choke.  Yes I realize very few use the same threads, but we are talking constriction, or the dia of the opening on the choke.

You should always pattern a gun/choke combo not only for pattern density, but also for point of impact.  You will find that some combos will shoot low or high and even right/left of your aiming point.  For general field use, a 60/40 is a great place to start, for trap I used to like a 70/30 or even a 80/20.  This all means that on a 70/30 gun, 70% of the shot falls above your bead and 30% falls below.

Hope this helps.

It was always something you wanted to know, especially on older shotguns that had a fixed choke, but is especially applicable with the changeable choke guns.

You would set the target up at a reasonable distance, where you might plan to be hitting your birds at, and pattern different loads in the gun to give you an idea of how many pellets, from your hunting load, would hit in the "kill area", trying different sized shot.

Speedwell sells paper targets for this purpose (ST-2), meant to be used at 40 yards, if I recall, and you can get offwhite or black pasters so you can use the target a few times.  They are nice targets, but expensive, and pretty thin paper that needs a good, thick, carboard backer, or you tear them up pretty quickly.

Seeing how your shotgun patterns is just as important as sighting in your scoped rifle!!!

You want to see where it actually hits,when you aim it!!!!

Once you see where it actually hits,you can adjust accordingly!!!!

Bob