Even though nothing was wrong with it, I had a wild hair last week to buy a new choke and swap shells. In other words, it wasn't broken, but I decided to fix it anyway

I still shoot an old Mossberg 935 turkey gun (basically the full camo, short barrel, semi-auto version of the 835 shoulder destroyer). I won this gun as a NWTF sponsor at least 15-18 years ago, never removed the factory ported turkey choke, shot all kinds of shells with fine results. Last year I shot TSS and it worked fine, but geez I ain't spending $65+ on a box of shells anymore....I ain't THAT mad at turkeys

Bought two boxes of 3.5" #6 Long Beard XRs and a Carlson's LBXR choke (.683 I think it is). I honestly had never "patterened" the gun with anything before, it just basically killed anything and everything you pulled the trigger on. So Saturday I went to the range and shot some. My impression is "meh". It'll definitely kill a turkey, but I was NOT impressed with the density past 30-35 yards. Got no clue if the old factory choke was any better (I doubt it), but my takeaway was you could probably spend obscene money in chokes and shells for very little improvement. I sorta felt like patterning a shotgun is just what fellas who enjoy shooting for fun do, not necessarily something that's paramount to killing a turkey (unless you're willing to buy several expensive chokes and a crapload of expensive shells).

Whatchall think?

Have you tried a 3” shell? Had a Winchester SX2 that would not throw a 3.5” shell worth a flip no matter the choke. It was a lot better with 3” but still not impressive. This gun finally crapped out and the reason I won’t another 3.5’ gun. Now my Benelli with a factor full and Nitro 3” # 6 throws an amazing pattern out to 40-45yrds. That’s one reason I haven’t jumped on the TSS bandwagon with the 12 gauge. My sons 20 gauge loves some TSS with the factory mod/imp cylinder

I think we agree.

I’ve spent a good bit of time patterning guns, set up some same guns side by side. Quite a few Guns I have messed with do have a preferred choke restriction. I can’t explain it but when setting up 2 of the exact same 870 20ga same loads and they liked different chokes.

I also have had different chokes and shell loads produce different poa/poi.

I have had same chokes ported/non ported totally reverse the shot pattern density from inside to out or vice versa.

Guns people were positive were accurate that turned out to be very much off.

If you really want to know what your gun is doing, All these things can only be found out by shooting loads and chokes in guns onto paper.

I have been very surprised by how many shotguns that do not have the same poi/poa.

But You are correct, you can go overboard end up chasing numbers and spend as much as you like! But for the most part, patterning is a one time deal and once you confirm poa/poi accuracy and the best load/shell combo you are done until you knock something off or make changes.

I see your apprehension and understand it shooting factory loads! I load and use a shottrap that recovers 90% of tss I shoot so all the shooting is not that bad.

I do enjoy it and Patterning is very interesting and informative! I Each gun I have set up sighted in and patterned I have learned more and more about It and the process

^^^
I missed a pile of turkeys caise I assumed my gun shot great - It shot horrible when I finally did pattern. Got an 835 after that and it shot good with one of the four chokes it came with and it shot some shells bettr than others

My recent 20 gauge I hated after I ran several diff shells thru it - then I introduced it to apex # 9 tss - fell in love w gun and it shot bettr with choke I got for it - not the factory. And while I was hating the 20 before I tried the apex shel - i bought a single shot stevens 301 20 - shot several thru that - hated it - ended up selling it to my best friend - we patterned it in the sales process - it loved APex tss 9s - May even shoot bettr than my current 20 i kept

Patterning a new gun is important

If I had to make a blind choice on choke it would be anything Indian Creek. From my experience an Indian Creek choke will make a sling shot pattern great.

But Indian has also changed POI in every gun I’ve tried. That’s why patterning is important. It may throw a hell of a pattern, but if it’s 9” to the right, it doesnt do much good. But once you know that, it’s not a big deal and can easily compensated.

^^^
Yea - patterning very important

Sounds to me like you pissed away a lot of time and money in shells and a new choke to get something inferior to what you already had but now at least you can tell everybody that you ain’t spending $10 dollars a shell on TSS for a gun you might shoot twice a year.

Lol drops mic…

Shots fired…LOL

I guess that came off as really crass and I honestly didn’t mean for it to. He’s right you can blow a ton of money on fooling with patterning guns but still turkey hunting ain’t like a dove shoot even if you kill a bunch over the course of the season. If shells cost $20 a piece they’d still be the cheapest part of the equation.

I used to pattern a shell..now i pattern the gun..i had always been told its the shooter not the gun..thats bullcrap..bout half the guns ive ever had shot crooked as a jaybirds dick..an i missed a buncha dang turkeys cause of it..i realized that most gun poi/poa is off pretty significantly and they really do need an optic..i been shooting indian creeks in bout ever turkey gun ive had in the past several years..ive been really pleased.

I definitely do not enjoy patterning any turkey load. Sight in with 4-5 bird shot rounds and hopefully only shoot one turkey load to confirm POI and pattern density.

Dang pal, don’t be too hard on em 😂

Come on with it bud

Just like a rifle. You got to sight it in.

I didn't take it that way. One thing I didn't mention is I put a Burris FF3 on it this year, so some of my issue could've been the sight (it just consistently wanted to shoot to the right no matter how much I adjusted). I did finally get a couple of shots "somewhat" centered on the target, but I wasn't impressed with the density. Def kill a turkey, it wasn't THAT bad, I guess I had just watched too many YouTube videos and expected "hundreds of holes in a 10" circle". It just really fell apart after 30/35 yards.

+1