PLACES TO BY BOB FRYE PATTERN It's not hard to find advice in books, magazines or online about how to be a more successful turkey hunter. But putting that guidance into practice can be challenging. Pattering a shotgun, for example - learning how it handles different loads before hunting with it - requires a place to shoot. Fortunately, there now are a few such places on state game lands. Over the past year or more, the Game Commission has built shotgunpatterning ranges on State Game Lands 109 in Erie County and State Game Lands 205 in Lehigh County. Both are adjacent to existing rifle and pistol ranges, though separated from them by earthen berms. " They've been well received so far, which tells us there's real demand for something like this, " said Game Commission Chief Engineer Austin Kieffer. They're impressive to see, too. The target backers on rifle and pistol ranges are rubber roofing material hung between poles. It's almost self-healing when used with single-projectile ammunition. But it doesn't handle shotgun loads well, Kieffer said. So the patterning stations feature 7-foot-tall triangular-shaped trap strucNEW RANGES ON GAME LANDS MAY 2023 37