I would be curious to know how many people actually pattern their guns at different yardage while shooting $10+ loads?
I have and I know what you mean. I started with old school 12G 3.5" 2 oz Winchester High Velocity #4s (
black shells, gold lettering, 270 pellets total), then graduated up to 12G 3.5" 2 7/16 oz Nitros (
kills on both ends), then stepped down to 12G 3.5" 2 1/4 oz Mag-Blends (
5,6,7 shot), then 12G 3" 2 oz handloaded TSS #8s, then 12G 3" 1 oz TSS #9s duplexed with 1 oz Lead #7s, then eventually graduated to the kid gun I tote today (
compact 870 20G), shooting handloaded 20G 3" 1 5/8 oz TSS #9s (
588 pellets). I have shot a lot of targets, recovered a lot of wads, even built a shot trap early on to recover TSS because of the cost, and can remember the days of a lightly bruised cheek bone and black eye from shooting eight of the 2 7/16 oz Nitros when I changed chokes (
Kicks to Indian Creek) and the POI changed, A LOT, like 8" high! With all of that said, these days, I am a firm believer in "
set it and forget it" as I have not patterned my main turkey gun (REM 870 20G 21" bbl) since I first dialed it in years back with handloaded TSS #9s. I still load the same basic recipe for it and it continues to perform. At that time, I field verified 20, 30 and 40 yard patterns with the TSS #9s and determined it was good to go with pellet density at all yardages and POA = POI. With TSS, and it's consistent uniform shot string without many fliers, you can estimate 75% pellet retainage inside the 10" and 20" circles for every 10 yards the distance increases. Generally speaking my Rem 870 20G 21" bbl turkey hunting gun shoots 250/250 inside the 10" circle and 20" circle at 40 yards, thus 250 * .75 = 188 pellets estimated inside each circle at 50 yards, and 140 pellets estimated inside each circle at 60 yards. I am just explaining the math, not advocating for anyone to shoot at a wild turkey at these distances. All of that to say, I have spent a ton of time and more money than I care to admit over the last few decades tinkering with shotguns/chokes/shells to make sure my turkey hunting setup was dialed in for the hunt. Those days are pretty much past me, but I did setup one new 20G last year and shot 3-4 TSS shells to get it dialed in at 40 yards. I started with lead #8s to get it on paper, and fine tuned the TSS #9s POI with 3-4 TSS shells. YMMV, just make sure your setup shoots straight (POA=POI) and you have the pattern density and uniformity you need at the distances you plan to hunt/shoot, and you should be fine.