Good afternoon gents! When patterning for point of impact, do you cover your aiming dot with your bead so you don't see the mark, or hover the bead directly below so the mark on the paper/plate is visible? Probably a very obvious question, I apologize. I've been shooting 50/50 guns for 20 years, and got around to patterning a new shotgun I got (XF choke and large bead). I covered the mark on the paper and let fly. If correct, my new gun is more 80/20... decidedly trap country. Yet as my pattern was 26" and the mark was about 4", it suddenly makes a world of difference if one sees or does not see the mark! Thanks in advance for setting me straight!

He do you shoot the bird bead below or bead covering up? POI needs to be the same.

I agree 100%. Said another way, if you shoot at a bird going dead straight away do you cover it with the bead, or do you hold the bead just barely under it? Pattern the same way.

Personally, I hold the bead just barely under the target, so that I have an unobstructed view of it. I don't like covering, and obscuring, any of the target. Even with that, I like my guns to pattern about 60/40 high.

Received wisdom is if you want to hit a flying object you should look at the bird “not the bead”

Seems to make sense when patterning to leave the bead at 6 o’clock to the aiming mark

Parabola, You check POI to verify your gun is shooting to the point you are aiming (looking) at. Best way to do that is to do it exactly the same as how you normally shoot. Same mount, same bead to target relationship. It also confirms your stock fit, to a large extent, but stock fitting is a lot more complex than just POI. POI can be fine tuned by stock fitting alteration but not fully. And POI verification on doubles also needs to check convergence which if off can be a much more difficult thing to correct. When hunting or target shooting I agree to focus on the bird, not the beads. Most people who focus on the beads will aim their shotgun like a rifle, with no follow through, which is never a good thing with a shotgun. I always checked POI at 16 yards because the patterns are still tight and well defined and the basic rule of thumb was every inch of correction required about 1/16" alteration of the stock. So a gun shooting four inches high at 16 yards would have face/comb adjusted down 4/16" (1/4") and then retested.

If you have ever been correctly fitted for stock fit, by a good stock fitter, you can have a basic set of numbers to start off from. Then measure your stock and see what difference there might be. If you know your stock is higher than your norm check POI to make sure it shoots high in fact. Not every gun will shoot the same even with the same stock fit. Weird I know. The other option is to alter your shooting style with that gun if you do not want to alter the stock. If you know your gun shoots high carry the target well above the bead. Sometimes a gun is too valuable to start hacking on the wood.

Thanks, that is very helpful