TiminTN and others: Patterning Questions

[TheLBLman]

1) Do you believe it's worth the effort to clean your bore between shots, and if so, how do you do it?

2) How much do you typically see pattern centers vary, from shot to shot?

3) When you change choke tubes, then come back to a prior choke tube, does this effect your pattern center relative to the last time you used that particular choke tube? (My thinking on this last question is that if you screwed the tube in just a little more or less, you could shift your pattern center.)

 

[Grizzly Johnson]

I don't clean the inside of the barrel unless it's been raining out or just a couple of times during the season. I do clean them right before season opens and after a season closes where I would be using it also. It's not very practical that a hunter would carry a cleaning kit in the woods to clean between shots, shoot it like you would while hunting with it.

Mine doesn't change much/if at all as far as I can tell. Using a scope/red dot I just center the pattern with the cross hairs/dot and that's been it for me.

It shouldn't change anything, and you should be tightening the choke tube down all the way and then periodically checking it to make sure it is staying tight.

 

[Hawk]

Wes..Pretty good reading on Nitro's site

http://www.nitrocompany.com/pattern.htm

 

[Buckblaster]

1) Do you believe it's worth the effort to clean your bore between shots?


When you change choke tubes, then come back to a prior choke tube, does this effect your pattern center relative to the last time you used that particular choke tube?

1.) No

2.) As long as it is tight, your fine.

 

[TiminTN]

If you are hard core about it then cleaning between shots will give you the highest percentages. I am not that hard core.

The center of the pattern will always drift without optics. There is no way anyone can shoot this much recoil with beads off a bench and keep the shots centered. I can do it much easier with optics and a sweat shirt folded as extra padding when testing 15 to 20 rounds of 2 to 2 1/4 OZ loads.

Drifting patterns are not the only drawback, but many barrels do not shoot to point of aim at all. The sole reason I went with optics.

I want my research, and bruised shoulder, to be glorified by KNOWING that gobblers head is right in the middle of the swarm I am about to unleash.

 

[TheLBLman]

i actually saw impact changes on the same chokes when i would switch them back and forth and then go back
and i do beleive it was linked to tighten of the choke

That's exactly what I thought was happening last year when I was going back & forth between different choke tubes.

Think I'm just going to experiment with different shells this year, and not remove the turkey choke tube that's in there now.

Drifting patterns are not the only drawback, but many barrels do not shoot to point of aim at all. The sole reason I went with optics.

I want my research, and bruised shoulder, to be glorified by KNOWING that gobblers head is right in the middle of the swarm I am about to unleash.

Main reason I went to optics was because I could no longer clearly see my sighting plane and the target simultaneously. Wish I had gone to optics years ago --- much better period, even for young eyes.