North Jersey Clay Target Club Pattern Board

North Jersey Clay Target Club

Using the new Pattern Board to pattern your gun

If you talk to any of the pros they will all tell you the same thing. If your scores suddenly take a nose dive for no apparent reason the first thing you should do is pattern your gun. What does it mean to "pattern your gun"? How do you use a pattern board? How do adjustments to my gun change the point of impact? These questions and more will be explained on this page.

The new pattern board is located just to the left of Trap House #5. You'll notice that it is just slightly back from the front of the trap house. By doing this you can SAFELY pattern your gun while shooters are active on Field 4. Another advantage is that you can approximate the yardage by where you position yourself on the concrete lanes.

UNDERSTANDING THE PATTERN BOARD

The pattern board is a device that allows you to see where your shot is impacting compared to where it was aimed. We all know that we don't "aim" a shotgun but for the purposes of patterning we really do aim. The pattern board will also show you pellet disbursement at a given yardage using a specific choke and shell. The pattern board will tell you if your gun shoots high, low, to the left or to the right or if it shoots flat. You can adjust your Point of Impact (POI) up or down, left or right to suit your individual style. If you have heard people saying things like "My gun shoots 80:20" or "My gun shoots 100% high" you'll now understand what that means. Yep, using a pattern board will provide you lots of information which you can use to improve your game.

Our new pattern board has a couple of features which make it easier to use.

The first thing you'll notice is there is no backing. This was done on purpose to give you a much cleaner pattern. When you use a pattern board with a backing you will get more holes because when the pellets hit the backing many of them ricochet back through the paper. With this new design the pellets pass through the paper, what you see is what you shot.

The target area is 36" by 36". This is the ideal size for a pattern shot at 27 yards since the vast majority of pellets will strike in this area.

If you use a roll of paper it is easier to pull it up than roll it down, that's why we put the paper holder on the bottom. No more lifting 45 pound rolls of paper over your head while trying to pass rebar through it.

Mounting roll paper is a snap. Simply slide the piece of rebar though the roll and into the 2 eye bolts provided. Slide the paper up through the slot and attach to the top bar with the clamps that are provided.

If you are using something other than roll paper simply clamp it to the top bar as before.

After you have taken as many shots as needed you can use the steel bars as a knife guide to slice the paper.

SHOOTING A PATTERN

After setting up a sheet of paper for your pattern use a black Sharpie to make a 2" circle in the center of the sheet. It doesn't have to be perfect but try to get it centered horizontally and vertically. Some people draw a 36" circle on the paper but with the new pattern board that really isn't necessary, the target area is 36" x 36".

Different people have different ideas about how many shots to take at one pattern. Some say one, some two and others three. My preference is one shot per paper target. If I put more than one shot into the paper I can't tell if my pattern is too large because of the choke I'm using is too open or make the gun shoots high to the right and on one of the shots I moved the gun to the left when I pulled the trigger. There are many theories, do what works best for you.

Adjusting your Point of Impact (POI)

While reading the information on how to pattern a trap gun please refer to the following graphics. Also, at the end of this page are the sources of information I used to construct this page; check them out, there is some really great information there.

Graphic showing how POI reacts to changes in COMB position

Point of Impact Calculator

Click here for working copy of the POI Calculator
Please note, you will need Microsoft Excel 2003 or later in order to use the calculator.

Courtesy of Rollin Oswald, the author of "Stock Fitter's Bible" (second edition)

Moving your comb will change your POI. If after shooting one or more patterns you determine that you need to adjust your POI this is how you figure out what to do. There are two things to always remember:

If you move your comb the POI will move in the same way. So, if you raise your comb you will raise the POI. If you move your comb to the left the POI will move to the left.
If you move your front sight the POI will move in the opposite direction. If you raise you front sight you will lower your POI.

Take your pattern sheet(s) and determine where your POI is in relation to where you aimed the gun. Ideally you will have a nice round pattern that is centered left and right which means your comb does not need to be adjusted left or right.

If the pattern is a circle with the pattern centered on the bullseye your gun shoots "flat". This is fine if that is what you want. With trap most people prefer to shoot a pattern that is "high", that is the center of the pattern is higher than that bullseye. What I do is draw a horizontal line through the center of the pattern and measure how high or low that line is above or below the bullseye. From this line I determine what changes are needed and then I use the POI Calculator to calculate the change needed in the comb.

For those of us that have a hard time keeping things straight here is a simple rule to remember:
If you move the comb your POI will move in the same direction.
If you move the front sight your POI will move in the OPPOSITE direction.

Sources of information: