patterning

[ky hunter]

how do you go about judging your yards when you put your targets out to pattern your shotgun

[RDL270]

If you are going to go through the process of patterning and want to be as accurate as you can.....tape it off. I either step it off or take a tape measure. If you know how far your stride is, then when you set up with a decoy or a landmark, you know when the turkey is in that range. You then kill two birds with one stone.......or pellet. You know the pattern at that range and you know how to walk that range off.

[schuyler olt]

Excellant point, Roger. You rarely use a tape measure in the field, which is why I use "real life" yardage to pattern.

This brings me to a side point. Especially in open fields, turkeys look closer than they often are. So if you have the time, pace off 40 steps from your set up and find a point of reference so you KNOW that bird is in range.

[skin_dog1]

I pace it off and try to take the same steps when pacing off my decoys in the field. I usually put my decoys at 20 yards and know I can kill a turkey if he's twicw that far.

[SixPack07]

I definetly pace or mark it off when I am patterning. I want to know exactly what the gun is doing at exactly what yard it is. Then I pace off to different markers when I am hunting, or if you have a range finder, use one of those.

[P. Beyer]

Lots of Bowhunting has helped me, but when patterning I step it off. However, I've been patterning my guns from the same spot to the same target for years, and it's 40 yards (give or take a few.)