Rather than shoot in a rimfire benchrest match this past weekend, I took the shotguns my buddy and I will use for turkey hunting to a range this coming weekend for some pattern testing. I tried Federal #4, Winchester #4, Hevi-Shot #4, and Fiocchi #5 and #6 loads and it turns out just shooting less than 20 3" 1 3/4 oz. load shells through a Remington 870 and Mossberg 835 will leave your shoulder sore. I first tried them all at 25 yards and moved out to 50 with the best performers to see how far they could reach. The Hevi-Shot #4s are best in the Mossberg but my Remington likes the Winchester #4s. I have a Remington brand turkey choke in the Remington and a Carlson's turkey choke in the Mossberg.

This was the pattern out of my Remington with the Winchester #4s at 25 yards. I had a tougher time staying centered on target at 50 yards and even though it will be lethal at that range I'll try to limit my shots to 30-40 yards.



Either way I'm pretty happy to know any birds within range will be facing a tight handful of hot copper-plated lead.

While I was at the range I also put the Improved Cylinder choke in my shotgun to see how it does at close range (i.e. less than 10 yards) with #4 buckshot and 1 3/8 oz. #4 game loads.



We're looking at about 1" of spread per yard here. The patterns are a little more open than I expected. Not bad.