Range Report - .62cal Turkey Targets

[roundball]

Blew the cobwebs out of the .62cal smoothbore this morning to get ready for turkey season”¦ using the standard turkey head & neck silhouette targets at 20, 30, and 40 yards, I got the following averages with the turkey load below:

(80grns Goex 3F, 3 Oxyoke wonderwads, 1+5/8oz #6s, Circle Fly OS card)

20yd averages = 58 total hits on target with 4 skull and 12 vertebrae hits
30yd averages = 36 total hits on target with 4 skull & 3 vertebrae hits
40yd averages = 25 total hits on target with 2 skull & 4 vertebrae hits

 

[The Baron]

That gun is jug-choked, correct? Those are great patterns! :applause:

 

[roundball]

That gun is jug-choked, correct? Those are great patterns! :applause:

Yes, Lowell Tennyson in Iowa did it for me

 

[stalkerhawk]

sorry could you explain what you mean by jug chocked.I've got a GM .62 smoothie on the way.what can I expect out of it.

 

[roundball]

sorry could you explain what you mean by jug chocked.I've got a GM .62 smoothie on the way.what can I expect out of it.

Ordinarily, unless your getting a smoothbore where you've made some special arrangements for it to have some sort of choke, it'll come to you as a wide open cylinder bore...like they typically were back in the day as I understand it.

However, there is an interesting, unconventional means of creating a choke effect in a smoothbore and it's called a "Jug Choke"..also invented some time back, or at least it's not a here today modern invention.

Essentially a Jug Choke is an "expansion chamber" that's created using a hone in the few inches just inside the muzzle...honing the cylinder bore dimensions larger by about .025" - .030" for a full choke effect.

The shot charge expands as it passes through this chamber causing the outer layers to start slowing down some, while the center continues moving forward at full speed.

Then as the expansion chamber tapers back down to normal cylinder bore dimension just before muzzle exit, the outer layers of shot are forced to regain speed and merge back into the trailing part of the shot column, and as the gun smith put it, makes the shot come out like the ML was a high pressure fire hose".

All these dynamics somehow create a situation where the shot column is influenced in a way as if it had gone through an actual mechanical choke restriction...and it works.

That's the best way I can explain it based upon how the gunsmith explained it to me...

 

[Slamfire]

Them wuz dead birds for sure, but it looked like you'd ah done a bit better at 40 yards by puttin' yore sitcker up where the * symbol appears on the target. That pattern seems thicker lower down. :thumbsup:

 

[roundball]

Them wuz dead birds for sure, but it looked like you'd ah done a bit better at 40 yards by puttin' yore sitcker up where the * symbol appears on the target. That pattern seems thicker lower down. :thumbsup:

Yeah, realized that as soon as I started shooting this morning...was watching TV last night while putting those stickers on, wasn't paying attention, just kept glancing down and centering them half way up the vertebrae...realized the pattern shift this morning but figured I'd stay with it....the number of kill hits will only improve when I sight up an inch or so higher