The choke of your shotgun does its
job with every round you fire. But shell and choke combinations don’t always deliver the pattern percentage that the choke is designated to do. Actually, the shells you use have
more affect on the pattern density you are seeking than the choke. An example of this is a test that I did with Winchester’s Upland Mk 5 factory shell, with 1¼ oz. of No. 8 shot. Now this is a good shell, but my full choke Beretta delivered only a 51% pattern at 40 yards. The shell must have said something offensive to the Beretta, and the gun got even! And a new Federal factory Gold Medal shell, 11/8 oz. No. 7½ shot, delivered an average pattern density of 79.8% ... very tight indeed! Same gun, choke, and yardage. By shooting several different shells, you can cherry pick the best load for your gun. Intrinsically, one would think that
a given choke and shell combination would deliver the same density pattern at all ranges. For example, if a certain combination patterned 65% at 35 yards, then the same combo would pattern 65% at 50 yards. Wrong! A Remington Nitro 27, No. 7½ shot, delivered 76.3% at 40 yards, but patterned only 63% at 60 yards. Same gun, same choke. The reason for this flaring of the pellets as they fly from the muzzle is that the pel- lets spread in a non-linear trajectory. Many pellets that are in a killing pattern at 30-40 yards fly into obscurity at 50-60 yards. Visually, the flaring pellets would look somewhat like a trumpet. Pellet distribution on the pattern is
greatly affected by the pellet hardness. Hard, target, or magnum shot with 4-6% antimony, will always shoot tighter patterns as compared to an identical shell loaded with chilled shot, with approximately 2% antimony. If you reload your shells, try this experiment. Reload some chilled shot and pattern test. Then reload some hard shot, using the identical components, shoot some patterns, then observe. You will see a pronounced difference in the pattern density. Hard shot are much more re- sponsive to choke changes, and chilled shot shells sometimes don’t respond to choke changes at all. It is noteworthy that pattern den-
sity can be controlled simply by chang- ing shells. If you want open, large, less dense patterns for quail or rabbit hunt-
ing, the budget priced shells work just fine. Discount house low priced shells do not deliver the ballistic performance that expensive target quality shells do. For the money, the budget shells deliver good performance, and are completely adequate in many hunting situations. I believe that budget priced shells are not loaded with as high quality shot, reducing cost. Higher priced target quality shells, and special geese and duck hunting loads, offer better ballistic performance, but view the prices with safety glasses on, as the price may cause temporary blindness! There is a physical law that rears
up as a bucking bull with every shot fired from a shotgun, when using bird shot. It works mightly against shotgun ballistics, with every inch the shot travels to the target. This law is more permanent than any law that Congress can make. Can you believe that? This is the unbreakable “inverse
square law,” which states that as the distance doubles, the area increases four times. For example, the area of a 30-inch diameter circle is 706 square inches. If you shoot a 11/8 load (395) pellets of No. 7½ shot, at 30 yards, using the 30-inch diameter circle, the pellets would aver- age covering 1.78 square inches each, assuming all pellets land in the circle. Double the distance to 60 yards, the 30- inch circle is now 60 inches in diameter, and contains 2,827 square inches, and the 395 pellets have to cover 7.16 square inches, on average, each! That’s four times the coverage as at 30 yards. This is a big reason shotguns become rapidly inefficient, ballistically, at 50 plus yards. Take a look at image No. 10 again. Past 60 yards, a shotgun with bird shot is about as useful as screen doors are on a submarine!
Black Hills
Ammunition
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Collections Wanted
Phone: 605-341-5211
Fax: 605-341-0431
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Rapid City, SD 57701 Sightron Sport Optics Headquarters There are many variables on the
route to successful shotgun shooting. It sometimes is frustrating to try to understand them all. Furthermore, you can’t instantly employ all the knowledge that you have when shooting flying birds, as you may not have more than two seconds to aim and shoot. When a covey of Georgia quail flushes in your face, a Dakota pheasant pops up and begins putting real estate between you and him, or a defiant, loud mouth crow charges your blind with a full head of steam, it’s no time to break out ballis- tics tables, and start studying. Do your homework before you go hunting! You certainly will have a more palatable relationship with your gun, and your hunting experience. Shotguns firing bird shot are very
limited-range firearms. Any responsible hunter will learn shotgun limitations, and keep its usage within those limita- tions. I try to practice this myself, every time that I hunt. Having looked at my pattern im-
ages, you may now feel comfortable blaming some of your misses on some- thing mysterious, and not yourself! Sometimes!
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www.pac-nor.com www.varminthunter.org Page 89
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