Patterning Question

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Rafferty

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I took my Mossy 18.5" slug gun out yesterday to pattern 00 buckshot for the first time. A box of Remington Xpress and paper on frame at 15 yrds. My first shot gave a nice tight pattern, and the second was about the same. But from then on, they got progressively wider and very irregular. I stopped at number five so as not to waste ammo. I haven't tried another brand yet.

So the question: can fouling cause a deterioration in patterning, and so quickly? If I was flinching (which I'm sure I was), the POI would shift, but that couldn't effect the pattern, right? There was some wind gusting, but I timed it between gusts, and the range was only 15 yrds.
 
can fouling cause a deterioration in patterning, and so quickly

It shouldn't, but shotguns are sometimes funny critters.

Question- were you using a fresh sheet of paper for each pattern test, or shooting the same paper over and over?

lpl
 
Well, Lee, I used the same paper, but I circled each hole with ink after each shot, so I was able to track the patterns. They really did get strung out (with a few clusters of 2 each).
 
That's odd- and it shouldn't be happening with no more rounds downrange than that. Check the muzzle and make sure you don't have a ding or some other sort of irregularity like an out-of-round muzzle or a muzzle that isn't square. Check the bead and be sure the threaded part doesn't protrude into the bore.

I've seen 00 buckshot patterns get strung 3-4" wide and two feet long at 25 yards when the shot cups weren't leaving the muzzle on an even keel. I experimented with a Patternmaster choke tube once upon a time and tried some old style Estate low recoil 00 once, and it did that sort of thing consistently. The Patternmaster is a wad retention type choke tube, and it wasn't letting the wad go evenly with that particular load, thus the stringing. With an ordinary MOD RemChoke tube in place of the Patternmaster, that load would keep all its pellets on a 3X5 card at 25 yards most of the time.

Clean your bore thoroughly and see what happens to patterns with the same load you used earlier when you shoot several rounds. If the same thing happens again, that will give you some indication re. what's going on.

Then try some different loads with the same shot size and pellet count in your fouled bore and see how they pattern. Patterning is all about finding out what load your barrel likes- sometimes unfortunately it's more trouble than others.

Hope it works out for you,

lpl
 
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