I used Federal Black Cloud loaded with an ounce and a half of #4's. 4, 5, and 6 shot is generally best for gobblers and in Washington it's mandatory to use shot smaller than #4. I wanted the largest pellet allowed for knockdown and figured I could use the rest of the ammo in the fall for duck gunning.
To get the feel for the kick and power of this 3 1/2 inch magnum I fired a half dozen rounds thru the gun before doing the pattern test. I'm glad I did too because this thing kicks a little more than my old 3 inch mag 12 guage and it gave me an idea of what to expect when I was on rest shooting at the target.
I made some target's that included a 2 inch target in the center, which is about the size of a turkey's head, with a 10 inch ring around it. I found some heavy card stock paper at Office Depot that worked great and then used one of my wifes sauce pan lids to draw the circle. It just happened to be the right size and well...she's at work and will never, ever find out
The Mossberg 935 comes stock with Improved, Modified, and Full choke tubes and I set up a 30 yard target for starters to test these three stock tubes out to see how they pattern.
Here's the results:
Improved Cylinder at 30 yards-31 pellets inside the 10 inch ring
- mossberg935_improved_30.jpg (48.17 KiB) Viewed 9648 times
Modified Cylinder at 30 yards-38 pellets inside the 10 inch ring
- mossberg935_modified_30.jpg (51.2 KiB) Viewed 9648 times
Full Choke at 30 yards-105 pellets inside the 10 inch ring
- mossberg935_full_30.jpg (40.59 KiB) Viewed 9648 times
I then paced off 40 yards and took three more shots with the Black Cloud #4's using the Improved, Modified, and Full Choke tubes
Improved Cylinder at 40 yards-30 pellets inside the 10 inch ring
- mossberg935_improved_40.jpg (40.18 KiB) Viewed 9648 times
Modified Cylinder at 40 yards-18 pellets inside 10 inch ring
- mossberg935_modified_40.jpg (30.93 KiB) Viewed 9648 times
Full Choke at 40 yards-25 pellets inside the 10 inch ring
- mossberg935_full_40.jpg (40.98 KiB) Viewed 9648 times
As you can see from the photos the full choke performed very well at 30 yards and the improved and modified were marginal at this range. At 40 yards, however, it appears as though the pattern opened up considerably. I was set up on a rock solid rest and I can't imagine flinching enough to miss the target with the full choke.
I was in a hollow and the wind overhead was maybe 10 mph...little to no wind in the gravel pit. Perhaps as the velocity decreases with the Black Cloud loads they tend to wander a bit. Black Cloud are shaped like a UFO and while I've never heard of this the blade around the pellet could actually make them sail a little.
I definitely want to pattern this gun some more at 40 yards using several different brands of ammo to see if there's any difference. Regardless, this was a great exercise and now I know to get in tight if I'm going to take a shot at a gobbler this week. I can't wait to perform a pattern test on an Okanogan County turkey later this week!
