#4 or #6 shot..?

[Loyalist Dave]

Roundball showed me this in another thread, and it has been a very easy method of diagnosing some load performance issues.

IF #6 penetrated the tuna can without "dents" with my load at the same distance the pattern was satisfactory, I'd use that as more pellets increases the odds in my favor....if they didn't penetrate, then....

I'd see if 10 grains more of powder would penetrate to satisfaction and give a good pattern...if the pattern didn't work but the penetration was good...

Then I'd go back to the original load, and drop to #5 or #4 shot, check the pattern, then the penetration.

You have to find a balance of a good pattern to hit the bird, AND enough impact energy to get the pellets to kill the bird. Feathers on turkeys and geese act like a kevlar vest, so you have to hit the head usually, or go through that "vest"...easier (imho) to get the headshot to work on a turkey.

LD

 

[roundball]

Are those loads 60 grns volume of shot? What weight do they equate to?

No, 100grn measure of 5's and 6's...1+3/8oz.
90grn measure of 7.5's...1+1/4oz.
(You have to look close as the handwriting with felt tip pen is not as sharp as it could be in the photo)

Have you tried heavier powder charges?

Sure, depending on the game and hunting situation...like most folks, I try to find/use powder charges, wad configurations, pellet size, shot charge size, etc, that give the best balance of pattern density, penetration, & distance. You can always change one leg of the triangle but usually at the expense of something else.

For example, you can bump the powder charge up to increase velocity to try and get better penetration with the 7.5s, but the pattern starts to open up/get thinner so the effective distance usually shrinks some amount, ie: 25yds down to 20-21yds, and that could be a deal breaker depending on the game you're after...

 

[rodwha]

I had always felt #4's or so were more ideal for turkey, but I continually read many who prefer 7 1/2 shot and do quite well even out a ways. Since I'm considering a smaller gauge with less pellets I'd think a compromise would do me better, and if 7 1/2 would work fine it would make sense to me.

With that in mind I still figure a slightly larger shot makes sense as added insurance that adequate penetration is there, but not at the expense of poor target saturation, which I understand to be about 10 pellets in 10" which sounds a little light to me.

 

[rodwha]

Is the shotgun/smoothbore you used just a cylinder or does it have a choke? That's a pretty dense pattern at 25 yds I'd think. Does it have anything to do with the heavier shot to powder charge ratio?

 

[crockett]

There hasn't been much said about the size of the shot and the range. At 25 yards a head/neck shot of either will likely be equally effective. With the denser pattern on the #6, maybe go with that. Two folks have mentioned #6 failing at longer ranges or low shots and feathers and I'll be a third on that experience. If your groups limit shots to around 25 yards then I'd figure #6 but if you can get killing patterns out to 35-40 yards then maybe think about #4's. They say #5 is the ideal turkey shot.

 

[roundball]

Is the shotgun/smoothbore you used just a cylinder or does it have a choke? That's a pretty dense pattern at 25 yds I'd think. Does it have anything to do with the heavier shot to powder charge ratio?

Rice 42"x 28ga wide open cylinder bore, using a full size 1/2" fiber OP wad...and yes, as the old saying goes:
"Load powder, more lead, shoots far, kills dead"
I bumped up to 70grns to open the pattern just a tad for doves...otherwise, things like squirrels are just small sitting targets and the tighter pattern does fine...have not tried longbeards with 28ga shot loads, PRBs yes, but not shot loads...normally use the 20ga for that.

 

[Rat Trapper]

My hunting buddy has shot bunch of turkeys with his flint lock 20 ga using 7.5's. Told me had to keep the range down to 25 yds or less and with the larger shot there was too many holes. I'll be using 2 oz loads of #6's in my Remington SP10 ten gauge this year. that old gun has taken a truck load of turkeys.

 

[PaulN/KS]

Took it out today and had good results with the penetration of the #6 at 25 yards with a 60gr 3f charge. I still need to tighten up the pattern some how though as I am not getting consistent killing density on the target.

 

[BradCayton]

I worked with my NSW 20 gauge yesterday. I've settled on 5s. 70 grains of 3F, 1 felt lubed wad, 1 1/4 ounces of shot and an OS card.



27 yards. The picture isn't very good but the shot penetrated the bottom and some through the lid on the other end.

I tried post it notes, 3 wraps of newspaper as shot cups and different wads columns but got better patterns with the single felt wad.

Stay at it, you'll get it worked out :thumbsup:

 

[PaulN/KS]

Today's best pattern was 1 1/2oz #6 over 60gr 3f with one OP card, a thin patch "shot sleeve" and one OS card. It got decent density at 25 yards and pretty good uniformity over all. So,since I'm running out of OP and OS cards we'll call it good for now.

 

[PaulN/KS]

Today I tried a combo load of #4+6 shot. 1 1/2oz over my "standard" 60gr of 3f at 25yds.
I got 4 solid hits in the vertebra/brain outline on the turkey head target plus good all around evenness and density.
That will work for me... :hmm: