Thread: Expected spread for a full choked 12 gauge @ 30 meters?

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

At 40 yards (35 m) 70% of the pellets in the cartridge should be inside a 30 inch circle, so pattern density depends on your shot size and weight. No 4 is 130 per oz, no 6 225. Effective range is the lesser of the effective pattern distance or the pellets penetration both of which are influenced by the load size. For no 4s penetration is around 60 metres but the pattern thins out at 50 for a 1 1/2 oz load.

Thats about what I had guessed, i have been using no4 shot 36 gram loads.

Originally Posted by woods223

Check wear your shot pattern is hitting in relation to your aim point with sight bead. Sounds like pattern may be hitting low, 6 o’clock. Pattern test on sheet of paper at 40m will soon tell you.

I was wondering that, from memory i tested shooting a larger box at around 50 metres a while back and didnt think the pellet distribution was anything fancy.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Yes but unless his cardboard box was a Jaffa packet.....only putting three pellets on it says to me he missed by at least 2 feet,600mm

How far out do you have to be to miss that badly? I was taking my time when i fired at the box.
I didnt think it was very easy to miss with a shotgun, but I seem to be hitting targets pretty easily at closer ranges when there is little spread and will blow holes out of possums up to 20M fairly routinely.

Originally Posted by blip

What are you like normally with a shotgun. Mate of mine can hit stuff without even thinking about it, me I cant hit shit with them so mine is just a dust collector

I cant really say because im not too experienced, have shot plenty of possums at closer ranges but I have trouble shooting possums around 50M away, not sure if this is because of shot size, branches, etc.
The fella in our store says that you have to aim a bit "higher" to shoot things at that range, but perfectly capable. How much higher to aim, im not sure.

Also with bead sights, are you supposed to place your bead over your target or aim the top of the bead in the center where you are aiming?
Never really given this much thought, I think most of the time i place the bead near enough over the center as possible.
Another thing i noticed is this barrel had a rear sight on it thats been removed, most shotguns ive used only have a bead at the end, so not sure what purpose a rear sight serves on a shotgun.

I also have an SxS thats much older and has a pair of full and modified choke barrels, i only use 32G loads in that and easily took down a couple of rabbits at around 30M away with it.
I should really compare the pattern between both guns i guess.