If I miss a turkey this year, I can't blame my gun.
Over the last couple of months, I've tested various turkey loads and choke combinations in several shotguns. My most intensive tests have been with Winchester Long Beard XR turkey loads and choke tubes made for those loads by Carlson's and Trulock. They concentrate devastatingly dense patterns out to 40 yards, and they would be dependably lethal at 50 yards.
I have trust issues, though, because my primary test guns, a Remington V3 and Winchester SX3, print far enough off point of aim to cause a miss. The V3 is more egregious because it shoots 6 inches to the left and a couple of inches low.
A reader noted a similar problem with his shotgun. He said he solved it by installing a Truglo Magnum Gobble Dot sight. This sight clamps to the shotgun rib and does not require removing the front bead. It is also adjustable for windage and elevation.
I bought one for the V3 that must have been mislabeled because it is too narrow for the V3's rib, but it fits the SX3. The rear sight has two green flight pipes, and the front blade sight has a red light pipe. It is low profile, and the pipes are bright.
I took it to the Redneck Shooting Range for additional testing.
As per my reader's instructions, I zeroed the sights at 10 yards with 2¾-inch, No. 8 field loads. They are cheap, and they recoil softly.
At 10 yards, without adjustment, the Trulock choke, with its .660 constriction, twice put the entire load in the center of a plain white sheet of paper. My reader said the wad should punch the center of the pattern, but that did not happen with those two shots. One wad punched far to the right, and one punched very high, but there was no question about where pellets hit.
At 30 yards, I fired two rounds of 17/8-ounce No. 6 and No. 5 LBXR at the head of two HS Strut turkey targets. The patterns concentrated well to the left, but more so with the No. 5. The right edge of the pattern clipped the image, but 30 pellets from both shots hit the kill zone. I adjusted the rear sight, and the next shot ventilated the target.
The next three shots were at 40 yards with 17/8-ounce loads of No. 5 and No. 6 LBXR. The third was 1¾-ounce of No. 6.
The No. 5 pattern was loose overall, but it still put 24 pellets in the brain and spine sections of the image.
The No. 6 17/8-ounce load was the most consistent with the Carlson's tube, but it did not do as well with the sight-assisted Trulock. It "only" put 17 pellets in the brain and spine sections of the target.
In previous tests, the faster 1¾-ounce loads did not pattern well in either shotgun, but they performed much better in the sight-assisted Trulock/SX3 combo. At 40 yards, they put 27 pellets in the brain and spine portions of the image.
Keep in mind that I only counted direct brain and spine hits. Many, many more pellets hit other parts of the head and neck.
At 50 yards, lethality for all loads diminished consistently by about 66 percent. The 17/8-ounce No. 5 load punched eight pellets through the brain and spine sections of the target. The 1¾-ounce No. 6 load punched nine pellets through the brain and spine.
Although I enjoy shooting the V3 more, there is no substitute for accuracy, because accuracy equals confidence. With turkey chokes, the SX3 always was more accurate than the V3 without sights. Adding the Truglo Magnum Gobble Dot sight removes all doubts that arose from point of aim/point of impact discrepancies.
Curiously, the V3 is inaccurate only with turkey chokes. For all other occasions, I use a set of Brownell's tubes that were made by Carlson's. They throw exceedingly dense and true patterns, especially with steel shot.
It all serves as a prime lesson why shot-gunners should pattern their favorite loads and chokes. It will result in cleanly killing more clay targets, doves, ducks, clays and wild turkeys.
Sports on 03/12/2017