Greatly Improve Your Turkey Pattern
For the cost of around $3.oo you can make your turkey pattern much better.
Materials Needed on Hand:
~Scotch brite pads. You will want to get the green and the blue (metal finishing/no scratch) pads by 3m (other brands fall apart to quickly).
~Drill (cordless preferred)
~12 gauge or 20 gauge bore brush
~Shotgun cleaning rod
~WD40 or lubricating oil
Next if you have a twelve gauge get out the wire brush made for the twelve gauge. You cut the scotch brite pad to wrap around the brush once and then just a little extra. You will want the scotch brite to overlap itself just slightly. Once you wrap the pad around the brush, you need to apply a liberal amount of wd-40 or lubricating oil to the pad. I also use some wet pads to make sure the bore of the barrel is also lubricated. The brush should be attached the cleaning rods so it will reach the length of the barrel. Then attach the end of the cleaning rod in the drill chuck and tighten it down.
35 yds before polishing:
Start with the drill on slow and try to ease the scotch brite down the barrel (starting at the action end). This is where the little extra scotch brite will help as you power the drill, the scotch brite will start spinning and the little extra flap will keep the pad tight to the brush. Then once you get it started, switch to high speed and continue going up and down the barrel for about 5 minutes with the green pad. Put a new green pad on and repeat for another 5 more minutes. Then put on the finishing pads and repeat for about 5 minutes. While you’re doing this make sure to work it up and down the length of the barrel, Also apply oil as needed (the barrel does become a little warm but the oil will help reduce the heat). This is a messy process and it may be best to perform this outside in junky clothing.
Now clean your barrel like you normally would. Take a look down your barrel and it will be as smooth as glass. If not continue drilling. When it is a mirror finish go re-pattern your gun you should be pleasantly surprised how much polishing your barrel can help out a turkey pattern. I got greater than a 25% increase in pattern density with my Mossberg 835 with xxfull comp-n-choke at 25, 35, and 45 yards. All comparisons were done on shot inside a 10″ circle. I believe the reasoning behind this working is that when the manufacturer makes the barrel they do not do a very good job of removing the machining marks. By polishing it out you ensure that the wad does not get dragged down the barrel at a slower rate than the shot. Some people have had better results from polishing their barrels than buying aftermarket choke tube.
35 yds after polishing:
