doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Pattern and Shotstring question...

Bravo, KY Jon. Who really cares? Doesn't the length of the shot string also depend on the type of wad you are using or the chokes you are using? If you are using say.... Comp U Chokes, don't they grab the wad and hold the wad back and make the pattern more open? Your first mistake as far as a lot of guys are concerned was going to the patterning board in the first place. But that is just some guys' opinions. I remember the first gun I patterned at the patterning board- after I saw the pattern the size of the hood of my car, I didn't think I would ever miss anything. Boy was I wrong! After that, I just went out and shot a few rounds of trap or skeet and figured out how the gun shot that way. That patterning board can really mess with your head. But I wouldn't be that concerned with the shot string. It's there- about 8-10 feet long.

Forget philosophy. Go to Time Wrap people, borrow their camera. Shoot a variety of guns to determine one with the shortest and one with the longest shot strings. Get the shock(s) alerted to make sure you're as good with one as with the other. Take both guns to Argentina, switch guns after every 100 shells, have a cameraman film your shooting. Process the results. BTW, I'm not a financial adviser, so don't ask me who's going to pay for that

I guess it would depend on the density of the wOOd.

I do sense you ask.

Understanding shot string is vitally important to shooting sub-gauges. It stands to reason. If you look down into an uncrimped .410 shell, that pellet in the center of the top layer of pellets is going to exit the muzzle at whatever speed and it will go in a straighter (as straight as a round object can travel) line to the target than the pellet at the bottom of the wad cup up against the side of the bore. That bottom pellet will be deformed and it will leave the muzzle later than the front pellet. Both are equally as deadly. Understanding what they will do in flight is just one more way I can understand the power and workings of the shotgun I'm swinging.

I like to understand how things work. It makes me enjoy using them much much more. Forgive me if that's ignorant, but it's how my mind operates.

Stan, great post yet again.

Do you really think it can effect up to 1/4" of payload length? I didn't realize it had that much of the payload.

While not directly related to a comparison of gauge shot string, I read somewhere (one of the two NRA mags.) that ducks, geese and pheasants are killed with as few as three pellet hits in the body and are seldom hit by more than five. So how ever long the string is a miss is probably defined as less than three hits? Clay targets ought to get busted as well with a 20ga as with a 12ga with 1oz of shot and an lot of pellets going right on by.

That's interesting Ben-t. I'd be interested to read that article if you can remember which magazine it was in.

I find that white wing doves don't require too many pellets, maybe just one sometimes, but that mourning doves require as many as 8 or 9 before they're brought down for good. They're hearty little critters!

It was many years ago, well before The American Rifleman went mostly tactical and assault. I many run through some old ones just to see if I can find it. If I do I'll be sure to let you know!

Plastic wad vs the old style cork or fiber is also a factor, because the plastic does a better job of protecting the shot from deformation.

Hits on a pheasant . . . I've read elsewhere that you want 3 that reach something vital for a very high probability of a kill. The vital area comprises about half the bird's body, so assuming you center the bird, while you may have only 3 hits to the body, you're almost certain to have more in other places (legs and wings, etc).

Hi Phi,
It's always interesting (more or less) to know how things work. However, as some of the others have implied, what would/could you do with the information even if there was a definite answer. IMO, shotstring is not something that can be used to the shooter's advantage and also not something to worry about. It exists but if you shoot behind the target, none of the shot will hit it and if you shoot in front of the target, the shot string goes by so much faster than the target is moving, it will not help you there, either. Shoot the best, hardest, roundest shot you can afford and keep swinging it, like John Anderson says.