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deltadukman wrote:Who is someone who can help with the drop and cast alignment? I feel like another eye that has done it may help.

Oh and I bought a maxus a few years ago. Absolutely love it.

Google "Country Gentleman Gun Fitting." They come through Jackson when there is a big shoot in the area with their shop trailer. They are otherwise in the Muscle Shoals area. Or holler at me if you are on the Coast, and we can go to my club and hit the pattern board. Its simple to see where the gun needs adjustment. Not so simple to get it there sometimes with the factory shims.

Gulf you don't have to deal with Randy down there do you?

bulldog ducker wrote:Gulf you don't have to deal with Randy down there do you?

I will plead the 5th on advice of counsel.

GulfCoast wrote:

bulldog ducker wrote:Gulf you don't have to deal with Randy down there do you?

I will plead the 5th on advice of counsel.

I buy a boatload of shells from brownlee every year. He has always been good to me.

I've bought components from him in between Gamaliel bulk orders. Seems like a nice-enough fella. Good prices - delivery to various shoots, i.e. no shipping, etc.

I second Country Gentleman (Todd Nelson) - he and his Dad Jerry have fitted more all-Americans than Fruit-of-the-loom. Jerry fitted my gun and changed my shooting style on trap......went from 89% avg. to 97.7% over a 2-year period. Todd can do the same.

GulfCoast wrote:

deltadukman wrote:Who is someone who can help with the drop and cast alignment? I feel like another eye that has done it may help.

Oh and I bought a maxus a few years ago. Absolutely love it.

Google "Country Gentleman Gun Fitting." They come through Jackson when there is a big shoot in the area with their shop trailer. They are otherwise in the Muscle Shoals area. Or holler at me if you are on the Coast, and we can go to my club and hit the pattern board. Its simple to see where the gun needs adjustment. Not so simple to get it there sometimes with the factory shims.

I've gotten lucky with the factory shims for my last two guns. There's more to it than this, but the principles are as follows...

Imagine your eye as the rear sight of the shotgun. How your eye aligns to the barrel is changed with drop and cast. (Provided you shoulder the gun consistently.)

Dry shoulder the gun toward a specific spot with your eyes closed. Open your eyes and note the sight plane. Are you seeing a lot of rib? You need more drop.

Next is cast. People generally have a larger tolerance for cast than drop because we tend to make little adjustments without even realizing it. Proper cast alignment helps with snap shooting. If point of impact is left, you probably need a cast-off adjustment. I've always shot better with a little cast-off.

This will get you close. Then you can fine tune based on the pattern board and how you want the pattern to land vertically relative to point of aim. Some folks like the pattern a bit high, say 60% above point of aim. Others like a balanced point of impact.

I've always required a little drop and cast-off. The SX3 I just bought came with neutral cast (straight) and neutral drop. Out of the box I couldn't hit anything. I'm talking total 3-shot whiffs at 20 yards. If you've followed the logic this far, you've figured out I was shooting high and left before any adjustment.

It came with a set of shims so I was able to add 1/16" of drop at the comb and 1/8" cast-off. That moved point if impact down and to the right. Then I started shooting the lights out. I haven't put it on the pattern board yet so I may still have some fine tuning to do. My gut tells me I may be a little low and still a little left.

How do you tell the difference on a pattern board between drop and cast versus crummy shells.

I went up to see Todd at Country Gentleman last week. In the kindest way, he told me that I was never going to find an off the shelf gun that fits (it's rough being a disproportioned stick figure mutant). We did some mods to my Citori and got it spot on.

The bad news was that my '83 Browning Auto-5 can't be adjusted to ever fit. And my M2 is better relegated to a turkey gun with a holo sight. I may be selling the Browning auto soon. Bummer.

cupnglide wrote:I may be selling the Browning auto soon. Bummer.

is it a Magnum?

Blackduck wrote:How do you tell the difference on a pattern board between drop and cast versus crummy shells.

At mid-range (30yds) and longer distances, a uniform pattern that is shifted off center is probably drop/cast. Crummy shells usually have an uneven shot distribution.

I check my drop/cast alignment at closer ranges with the fullest choke I would use. For ducks, that's a modified at 15 steps. Crummy shells don't have time to show their crumminess at that range and a three-shot string will mainly show quality of alignment. (In MY opinion. There are far more knowledgable people on here.)

teul2 wrote:

cupnglide wrote:I may be selling the Browning auto soon. Bummer.

is it a Magnum?

Yes. Invector chokes.

what do you guy think about a Mossberg?

irishevox wrote:what do you guy think about a Mossberg?

Garbage. Every one that Ive ever seen that is shot substantially has had parts falling off of it. I have one, for a turkey gun. Thats it.

got one for Christmas when they entered the 3 1/2" arena...spent an hour working on it in the blind...never fired a shot out of it. took it back for a supernova and a box of shells and haven't considered mossberg since that day.

good to know. I saw some good reviews on it...
But benilli has some awesome reviews