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I have patterned all my guns, but not my SBE II yet. I need to! Hopefully I will get around to doing it before hunting season. How do you pattern your gun?

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I think the best thing to do is shoot your gun often. Some sort of clays practice will do much to help you develop the right sight picture. There's an old saying about fearing the man that only shoots one shotgun, meaning he's shot it so much he can hit most targets without thinking. Try to limit yourself to one gun and the same type of ammo. To me, patterning is over-rated. Don't get too technical. Practice, practice, practice. Good luck this season......

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Also, one might find out that a barrel, especially with cheaper over unders and side by sides, that your barrel is not shooting where it should. Sometimes way off.

I will say the typical upland or dove load may not be that critical. But get into some of the non tox loads, expecially in the larger shot sizes, you will find all sorts of screwy things showing up on the pattern board with some shell and choke combinations. And between different brands of shells too.

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I could not agree more.

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My patterning is hardly scientific...I don't count...I just look at it. If I can't find many holes that a duck, dove, or whatever can get through then it works for me.

Before I went turkey hunting this last spring I bought 4 different turkey loads. Turned out the 3" Federals with the flight stopper wad outperformed both the 3" and 3.5" Win Supremes, and the cheaper 3" Remingtons. But again I didnt count pellets...I just made sure it was an even pattern with not too many holes.

I've also patterned 3.5" blackcloads and several of the other common waterfowl loads.

Question...is my method good enough? I mean the main point seems to be not letting anything in a 30" circle without dying right. I know that some loads could be more effecient and have a higher % count but it kind of goes back to that dead is dead saying.

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Kinda the same way we did it before steel. I've been counting ever since the new non-tox shot has come out. I'm finding steel to be a better shot in some cases. But there's nothing wrong with the way your doing your patterning.

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I have patterned all my guns, but not my SBE II yet. I need to! Hopefully I will get around to doing it before hunting season. How do you pattern your gun?

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I do a 30 inch circle at 30 yards. I draw the circle first but others don't. I shoot it and expect 75% in the circle or better. 75% is the lowest I will go. I then start going with a faster round until it blows the pattern. Then back off to the best one. It is hard to do that last part with cheap shells because you just don't find the variety of speed. Do what you have to do I guess.

My goose hammer is a little different. I have it tuned in at 55 yards at 55% but I could be doing better. I think I said this the other day. On a decoying geese you would be surprised at what will kill them. I shoot a Browning Gold Hunter. If they are within 20 to 25 yards, decoying, I shoot some pretty cheap stuff. I have been known to shoot the same load I shoot ducks with at those type of geese. I shoot that through a IC choke. Now later in the morning when they hang at the edge of the spread it is "Tune Time". I go with my pattern master and BB. Things tend to get bloody in the outer edges if you know what I am talking about. To give you an idea of how small a pellet will kill a goose, back in the days before steel I shot a lot of different stuff. If I had the money it was #5 pellet for everything. There were many a times when I went goose hunting with 7.5 dove loads and killed geese. You just have to get them over the decoys. I just did not take the high passing shots. Just about every time we went when we were kids we crawled the irrigation ditches and got in the flight paths. If you can do that your going to nasty on the geese. We call it raking or dredging now but when your kids what the heck.

I do want to switch to the Terror choke because my bud gets a 10% increase in pellet retention. I also believe the pattern master wad stopper is too aggressive and the steel hits it on the way out of the barrel.

I think I am going to take a dremmel tool and grind the rear of the studs in that pattern master choke where the collision occurs. Maybe if I ramped it instead of it being a 90 degree up-turn into the barrel it would not be so aggresive. It is worth $100 bones to try.

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OKAY Wal how did this turn out, before I waste another 100 bones on a another choke ??????