ANF Hunter
New member
Hunting the thick woods with a rifle is not always the most convenient endeavor, enter the shotgun. I'm usually too lazy to carry 2 long guns around in the woods with me all day, but haven't quite had the confidence in my shotgun to give up the range advantage and ditch the rifle. This led me to the patterning board in an attempt to figure out what the old mossberg is really made of. I've made some half-effort attempts to establish some good patterns in the past, but never really put in the required effort to do a truly adequate test. I loaded up 20, 1 3/4 oz. 3" reloads and decided to pattern all of my chokes with 49 pellet F, a #4 buckshot blend (4-F, 28-4B, 7-BB), and a 90 BB load. All shot was BP nickel plated and all loads were buffered.
In all I shot 20 targets at 40 and 50 yards, chokes included Carlson's flush Mod, flush IM, flush Full, Mossberg extended Ulti-Full Turkey, and Carlson's Coyote choke. I started at 40 yards and worked from least constriction to most constriction. The shotgun's patterns tightened with more constriction, and I ended up with the best patterns from the Carlson's Coyote choke tube. I had the Aimpoint PRO mounted with a single low 30mm scope ring, which proved to be inadequate for the level of recoil involved and loosened up on me a couple times. I have since added an additional 30mm ring at the occular and hope this solves the problem.
Here are the best results of that punishing afternoon, the black circle is about 8 1/2" and was my point of aim, the blue circle is 10" and placed for maximum pellet density. paper is about 48" x 36":
This was a NP 49 pellet F load through the Carlson's Coyote at 40 yds.
Here is the same 49F load and choke at 50 yards.
This was the mainly NP #4Buck load with Carlson's Coyote choke at 40yds.
It's a real shame that i didn't shoot this shell at a coyote.
Here is the same #4buck load at 50 yards.
Lastly, a NP 90BB load out of the Carlson's Coyote choke at 50 yards.
I have some more work to do with point of aim adjustments and shot to shot consistency and hope to follow up with some pictures of actual pattern inside true 10" point of aim at the same yardages. I did not chrono these loads, but they were supposed to be about 1250fps. They were definitely stout, and firing all 20 of them in one sitting was a challenge. If i can get a pretty consistent centering on point of aim, my confidence in the shotgun will increase quite a bit because in my opinion these seem to look pretty good out to 50 yards, particularly the larger shot.
In all I shot 20 targets at 40 and 50 yards, chokes included Carlson's flush Mod, flush IM, flush Full, Mossberg extended Ulti-Full Turkey, and Carlson's Coyote choke. I started at 40 yards and worked from least constriction to most constriction. The shotgun's patterns tightened with more constriction, and I ended up with the best patterns from the Carlson's Coyote choke tube. I had the Aimpoint PRO mounted with a single low 30mm scope ring, which proved to be inadequate for the level of recoil involved and loosened up on me a couple times. I have since added an additional 30mm ring at the occular and hope this solves the problem.
Here are the best results of that punishing afternoon, the black circle is about 8 1/2" and was my point of aim, the blue circle is 10" and placed for maximum pellet density. paper is about 48" x 36":
This was a NP 49 pellet F load through the Carlson's Coyote at 40 yds.
Here is the same 49F load and choke at 50 yards.
This was the mainly NP #4Buck load with Carlson's Coyote choke at 40yds.
It's a real shame that i didn't shoot this shell at a coyote.
Here is the same #4buck load at 50 yards.
Lastly, a NP 90BB load out of the Carlson's Coyote choke at 50 yards.
I have some more work to do with point of aim adjustments and shot to shot consistency and hope to follow up with some pictures of actual pattern inside true 10" point of aim at the same yardages. I did not chrono these loads, but they were supposed to be about 1250fps. They were definitely stout, and firing all 20 of them in one sitting was a challenge. If i can get a pretty consistent centering on point of aim, my confidence in the shotgun will increase quite a bit because in my opinion these seem to look pretty good out to 50 yards, particularly the larger shot.
