Like anything, you can take patterning a shotgun too far. A turkey hunter told me once he spent $1,000 one winter buying XX-Full chokes and magnum loads for his guns, then he patterned them all to ...

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In the world of shotguns there are some large topics of dissension: lead, choke selection, gun fit, and shot size selection to name a few. But one surprisingly controversial topic is the subject of ...

Most duck hunters head to the patterning board after buying a new shotgun to see how their gun shoots and identify where the shotshell pellets are striking paper. You might think the results are ...

It was just a casual conversation on shooting shotguns that made me realize how much misinformation is out there regarding choke tubes and shot shell patterns. Although this topic has been kicked ...

Warm weather has roused turkey hunters from their slumber, sending them afield for dawn patrols on lonely roads listening for gobbles. Finding and patterning turkeys is helpful, but it's also ...

When I was 10 or thereabouts, my father introduced me to quail and rabbit hunting on my grandmother’s farm north of Carl Junction. On a calm, sunny November morning, we flushed two coveys of quail and ...

It is an unfortunate fact that the vast majority of shotgunners head into the field each fall without first proving their scattergun’s real-world performance on a patterning board. This ...

Dove season begins on Sept. 1, and here’s an important piece of advice to improve your shooting this season — don’t choke. I don’t mean that in an insulting fashion, though it’s easy enough to choke ...

This article by John M. Taylor appeared originally in the September 2004 issue of American Rifleman. To subscribe to the magazine, visit the NRA membership page here and select American Rifleman as ...