doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com patterning distances

When patterning a gun for hunting, at what distance do you like to shoot? At 16 yds, at 30 or 40, or at the range you expect to take most of your shots?

I'm looking to pattern a "new" 2" x 12b for grouse. I think 20 or 25 yds might be the best when experimenting with different loads, but what's the forum's consensus opinion?

My Grouse guns get patterned at 20 yards.

Brent,

16 yards should give you a more precise indication of the mean point of impact and convergence for each barrel, and whether a bird taken at that range is likely to be edible.

Then 30 yards to check pattern density for the chosen load.

William Harden Foster, ‘New England Grouse Shooting’, “we find that the average distance at which grouse were killed throughout the seasons was in the neighborhood of twenty-three yards”.

23 yds. Sounds about right. I wonder what the variance was in that analysis? 25 or 30 yds seems about right then. I don't think patterning at 40 yds is really going to be that useful, but 25 or 30 should get it done. I hope this comes as easily as advertised. I've spent an awful lot of time and money just getting 2" loads that seem to meet my velocity and pressure specs without thought about patterning. But 2" 12s are supposed to pattern extremely well. We will see.

My 2 cents. 16 yards for gun fit (stock dimensions), point of impact, and barrel convergence. Pattern density of choke constrictions/ammo, etc, should be checked at the expected range of the target.

Not many grouse here, but for hunting woodcock and quail with my flushing dog, I like to see what the right barrel does at 20 and 30 yards and the tighter choked left barrel at 30. For assessing where the barrels shoot relative to point of aim, I like to use a rest and shoot at a short enough distance that the pattern is just a few inches wide, 10-20 yards depending on choke.

This has been my general approach in the past. I don't pattern as much as I should.

I usually do 20 yards. I prefer using a 1/2"steel plate painted white using some white grease with it (and a roller). Then I take a photo of each barrel and keep notes on which one is which. Another approach: Several of my friends have suggested using paper (white works best), taking 2-3 shots at each target to check for stock fit and pattern.

My most recent patterning was done at 25 yards