1+1/8oz steel #4's out of a .20ga cylinder bore do not make a very tight pattern at 25 yards.
It makes a reasonably kind of so-so good enough pattern for wing shooting at 25yds, but for the place I'm going to be forced to shoot from, with a couple farm houses around, I was really hoping to tag some like turkey hunting but the pattern is just too thin to count on a head shot.
Tried several combinations of powder charges, wad configurations under the shot cup, different numbers of and lengths of slits in the shot cups, etc...and while some where better than others of course, none of them just shouted out "this is the one".
The good news is that the steel shot cups did their job of protecting the bore...all the cups looked good...and checking after cleanup just now the bore is like a mirror the full length...GM put a polish job on this one for sure.
I had a few pounds of dusty old lead #4s and used them for the first few shots to save the more expensive steel...and the lead patterned great. So the first hand experience of lighter steel pellets...in spite of using a steel pellet shot cup...is that they spread wider making a much thinner pattern than the heavier lead #4s which just bored straight on ahead.
I've had feelers out several places for over a week now looking for some Bismuth but no bites...and now, since I already have the special shot cups, guess I'll see if I can find a couple pounds of leftover #5 or even #6 Hevi-shot from somebody, see if that'll give me a turkey head pattern.
Smoothbores are great...frustrating...but great !
:thumbsup:
It makes a reasonably kind of so-so good enough pattern for wing shooting at 25yds, but for the place I'm going to be forced to shoot from, with a couple farm houses around, I was really hoping to tag some like turkey hunting but the pattern is just too thin to count on a head shot.
Tried several combinations of powder charges, wad configurations under the shot cup, different numbers of and lengths of slits in the shot cups, etc...and while some where better than others of course, none of them just shouted out "this is the one".
The good news is that the steel shot cups did their job of protecting the bore...all the cups looked good...and checking after cleanup just now the bore is like a mirror the full length...GM put a polish job on this one for sure.
I had a few pounds of dusty old lead #4s and used them for the first few shots to save the more expensive steel...and the lead patterned great. So the first hand experience of lighter steel pellets...in spite of using a steel pellet shot cup...is that they spread wider making a much thinner pattern than the heavier lead #4s which just bored straight on ahead.
I've had feelers out several places for over a week now looking for some Bismuth but no bites...and now, since I already have the special shot cups, guess I'll see if I can find a couple pounds of leftover #5 or even #6 Hevi-shot from somebody, see if that'll give me a turkey head pattern.
Smoothbores are great...frustrating...but great !
:thumbsup:
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