Need help with buckshot pattern

G

G19g4

New member
So I am getting back into shot gunning, I picked up a Stevens 320 field/security combo. It came with two barrels, the 18 inch seems like it is good for a slug and home defense barrel it has a fixed cylinder bore. The 28 inch has removable choke. What I want is for both barrels to shoot OO and #4 buck well. The 18 inch barrel patterns all over paper and seems to me that the shot pattern is not dense enough to hunt with at any distance. The 28 inch barrel with the Modified choke it is putting 6 to 7 pellets of 00 on paper that is spread out over the paper. With a Full choke it is definitely tightening up the groups but now all pellets are hitting low right. Every shot. This is all at 25 yards using 2 3/4 shells by Remington, Rio and Military stuff from Winchester. Rio certainly has the most recoil. I even tried the flitecontrol stuff, tighter patterns but low right The target size is 25 inches by 33 inches approx.

Why are my shots going low right with full choke? And why am I not getting tighter patterns over all? All my research seems to show that I should be getting tight groups over all. No matter what barrel or choke out of the box. It's weird. Modified choke is Carlson flush (came with gun)
and the full is a Carlsons that I picked up cheap at BPS

I am eventually going to get a Benelli M4, But would like to get this Pump gun shooting right.

Any info would be great. Thanks in advance..
 
The choke area of the barrel may not be bored and threaded on center, causing the choke tube to sit a little crooked. I had this happend in a Winchester 1300 Black Shadow years ago.
 
This will likely not fix the low right impact problem but try some Remington "Low Recoil" OO buck. They have always patterned really well for me and they arent hard on your cheek or wallet.
 
Thanks guys. I picked up some #4 buck to see if I can get it to pattern better than 00.
If not then I was just shove the Stevens into the back of the safe and save up for the Benelli.
 
try a box of the Hornady coyote shells. I get the BBs and those wads are designed for modified chokes. They may get better results.

The good news is with the ones that you are shooting you are getting the same impact. If you get some new sights, you could adjust them to match up. (you do that with the scopes on a rifle)

Hope you get it working right.. Good luck
 
#4 buck seems to pattern Better. Of course more pellets equal more hits on target. In all my research I am reading that some shooters are getting good groups with buck out to some pretty long ranges (for shotgun) and I am trying to do the same. It just is not happening for me. It could be because it is a low $ shotgun I guess. It was suggested to me to go with some Trulock chokes. I can't see how a different choke tube will effect pattern greatly, but what do I know..... My chokes are cylinder bore in the short barrel and removable in the longer barrel. Modified and full are what I have been using in the longer barrel. I am about ready to give up on the shotgun. As a side note. I tried some Remington slugs that are 7/8 high velocity in 2 3/4

Wow these things cook!!!! Recoil seems greater and the bullet ROCKS my backstop. Way more than the regular 1 ounce slugs it seems.
 
The extended length choke tubes pattern buck shot better due to the extended forcing cones. My Remington Spartan would not pattern buckshot with any of the stock tubes. I bought a Trulock extended .670 turkey tube which works well to 40yrds with 4 and OO buckshot.

Trulock now has buckshot specific extended tubes.

There are lots of other good and maybe even better extended tubes on the market today.
 
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Originally Posted By: rkite The extended length choke tubes pattern buck shot better due to the extended forcing cones. My Remington Spartan would not pattern buckshot with any of the stock tubes. I bought a Trulock extended .670 turkey tube which works well to 40yrds with 4 and OO buckshot.

Trulock now has buckshot specific extended tubes.

There are lots of other good and maybe even better extended tubes on the market today.

Thank you. I do plan to get a Trulock. I have a second Email into them for more info. Should get a response tomorrow. I will either get the Deerstroyer which is designed for 4 buck or a turkey choke. The Bore blaster looks cool but all the pigs here wear Budweiser sweat pants and shop at Walmart. So i won't be needed that. Lol.
 
Kinda nit picking but the "forcing cone" isn't found in the choke section of the barrel. The forcing cone is the area immediately ahead of the barrels chamber. Usually a more gradual and/or lengthened forcing cone patterns better because it allows the shot an easier entrance into the constriction of the shotguns bore. The bore is tighter than the chamber and the easier the shot can sort itself out entering the bore there will be fewer mashed pellets and less disruption of the shot. The more round pellets the better the pattern and fewer wide straying pellets flying off into outer space.

Extended chokes have a longer "parallel section." This longer straight section of the choke does about the same thing for the shot column as a lengthened forcing cone at the chamber. Only now the shot gets the gentle treatment at the exit end of the barrel. The choke constriction is tighter than the bore so it's the same process as from the chamber and into the tighter forcing cone area. Also, usually extended chokes have a wad retarding mechanism to slow the plastic wad from the exiting shot pellets. Not having a big hunk of plastic banging around in the back of the shot column disrupting pellets is a big plus. With standard wad systems stripping or slowing the wad from the shot column gives a much more consistent and center dense pattern.

That is unless you are using a Flite Control wad system like Federal and now Hornady use. In the case of the Flite Control wad it is designed to stay with the shot keeping the shot sorta gathered together farther down range before separation. Firing a shotshell using the Flite Control wad through a tight exit diameter wad retarding choke can be potentially dangerous by causing the shot load and wad to bridge in the choke. This would basically be about like firing a solid Foster style slug through an extremely tight choke. No good comes of that. Barrels bulged, blown or stripped of chokes have resulted from such a bad combination. However there are extended chokes designed for the Flite Control wad that don't have a wad stripping/retarding mechanism. By all accounts these specialty chokes work quite well.
 
I can only find flight control in 00 buck or in Turkey load. But hoping a new choke will enable me to use regular ammo
 
I bought one of the Tru-Lock buck shot tubes. So far I've only put a couple Remington 3" 00 buckshot through it. Results were good but I'm hoping to shoot some more shells to see what else is out there.
 
Gotcha, The forcing cone is at the loading end. Good catch. Wait, I mean at the breech end. Either way the longer choke does not booger up the shot as bad
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My Trulock tubes for some reason pattern the cheaper Remington express 3" loads wildly better than the Federal Premium stuff. That may have something to do with using regular shot chokes and not a buckshot specific tube.

With the stock tubes buckshot was good at 25 yards max. I tried Trulock Full, extra Full and .670 turkey tubes and 40 yards is it for buckshot. Some guys are posting results of other brand tubes and getting tighter patterns. I have not seen results for the Trulock buckshot tubes.

The turkey tube does work really well when shooting turkey loads and amazingly well with 1oz 6 shot game loads out at 40 years.
 


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