I shot my turkey gun this morning to sight in a new red dot I put on it over the winter. This is the weapon I'll be using. It's a Mossberg 835 GrandSlam. 20 inch barrel and synthetic stock.
I figured I'd shoot slugs (using an IC choke) through it in order to get the red dot sighted in. At least if the slugs were hitting dead on the shot pattern should be close. I was lucky and the first slug hit right on at 25 yrds. So I loaded up a Federal 12 ga 3 1/2 inch with 2 1/4 oz #5s and squeezed the trigger from a bench position.
OWE!!! Good god this thing packs a wallop. This isn't the first time I've shot turkey loads in this but how soon one forgets...
This is the target at 25 yards.
I also tried a Winchester 2 oz load at this distance too, but it did not pattern as tight as the Federal with the Flite-Control wad. That second shot gave me an instant king size headache and a numb shoulder.
I wanted to see what the pattern would look like at 50 yards so I gathered up the courage for one more shot:
The stock ported choke that comes with this shotgun has a .695 constriction. How do these two patterns look? Has anyone gotten significantly tighter patterns with a tighter choke?