Wayne Lee talks about patterning shotguns and it's importance for waterfowl hunting. Patterning shotguns for waterfowl hunting is an often overlooked aspect of the hunt. So much emphasis is put on decoy placement, concealment, and scouting, but none of that matters if you're throwing a pattern out there that that isn't uniform and has holes in it. The only way to find out what your gun is doing is to test it on the range much like turkey hunters do. You want to give yourself the best chace possible at harvesting that passing duck or goose and firing some shots down range is the way to do so.

Our setup wasn't ideal. It wasn't by the book like most people say how to do it, but it was consistent. Every shot was fired at the same distance and the same size circle. Most tests you read about take place at 40 yards into a 30 inch circle. We had chunks of cardboard from a recent move that only measured 20 inches. We used what we had and for the sake of consistency, they worked. Now don't go comparing our shot numbers and percentages to other tests because their targets are probably larger allowing more pellets to be counted. What we wanted to do was see what our guns were doing and give others an idea of how different shell/choke combos stacked up against each other. This is far from scientific, but come on, we are resourceful waterfowl hunters! Check out http://www.fowledreality.com for the full results of the shotguns, choke tubes, and shells we shot.