I agree! I’m just not a fan of #5’s past 40 yards. Kind of defeats the purpose of owning a 10 gauge. I do use one and 5/8 ounce load of number six along with a 100 grains of FG in my old Damascus 10 gauge with real black powder. I think they probably pattern better.lol
It was just a fun experiment. That’s why only loaded two. Obviously, it sucks for patterns. My guess is a big wide modified choke tube would probably pattern way better with a 3 ounce load. Still a complete waste of shot I agree.
I used to use factory Remington 2 1/4 ounce number six loads for turkey hunting out of my 10 gauge and a gobble stopper choke tube. It look like my target was a screen at 40 yards. If I shot a bird out to 50 plus yards (which there was plenty of pellet count) it would hit the ground and then get up and run. I normally wait till they’re 20 or 25 yards now which doesn’t make any difference what I use for that. The old factory roll crimp federal grand slams and Winchesters with number fives pattern way better at 50 yards than the gun does with 3 ounce hand loads of #5 at 40 yards. I might have to buy a box of longbeard 3” #5’s and see how they pattern in my 12 gauges with the code black turkey choke. My guess is they will put the 10 gauge to shame. I have enough ammo laying around that I figured a half way decent pattern is acceptable at most of the ranges I shoot. I always used to chase a nice tight pattern with tons of pellets over the decades, but I realize it’s not really needed. I sure would like to get a little tighter patterns in both guns though.
I agree though… I wasted a lot of pellets just in 6 ounces of testing shot!… even if they all went into the 10 inch circle because it’s not needed for a turkey. Maybe if I was trying to knock 30 crow out of the sky at once.lol.