Pattern Pattern You You Duck Duck Hunting Hunting Shotgun Shotgun
The pattern of your shotgun is a combination of choke size and shot size and how the pellets hit a target at a specific distance. Getting to know what combination of the two works best with your favorite duck hunting shotgun is quite simple. You will need a few things to get started. You will need different size choke tubes you are going to use, a selection of shotgun shells in a variety of sizes, a backboard to place your paper target on, pen and paper, and eye and ear protection.
First set up your backboard and paper target in a safe area. You can use poster board or some old cardboard boxes for you target. The backboard is simply something to hold your targets up. If you can, set up several of these. It will save you some time walking back and forth down range. On you paper targets, draw a 30" circle by placing a thumb tack near the center with a 15" piece of string connected to thumb tack on one end and a pen or pencil on the other. You can also find waterfowl pattern targets online if you prefer to us those.
Next, mark off several different distances from your target. Distances are dependent on how far you will be taking shots on waterfowl. Open water ducks in rice fields or lakes you will probably get a 40 yard shot. Wooded area ducks or marsh ducks, 20 to 30 yard shots. Be willing to use several different distances to have a better understanding of your shotguns pattern at each distance.
Now that everything is setup, let's get started. Take your shotgun and start with one of the choke tubes. Now lay out you shotgun shells out according to size you have selected. Let say you started with #2 shot. Fire a shot with the #2 shot at the center of the circle from each distance you marked out. Use a fresh target for each shot at each distance. For reference, mark each target with the choke tube and shot size used. Now document the shot density within the circle by counting or averaging the amount of pellets that hit within the circle. Do this for each choke tube, shot size, and distance. By the time you have shot each shot size through each choke tube at each distance, you will have a very good picture of your shotguns pattern. You will also have a better idea of which choke tube works best with a particular shot size at a specific distance.
Sources: http://www.gunsamerica.com http://ezinearticles.com/?Pattern-You-Duck-Hunting-Shotgun&id=7511364