doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Pattern performance in 20 bores

There was a time when shotguns were regulated with a specific cartridge to produce a required pattern. Most guns today are choked to a certain constriction and we either change choke tubes or change shell types to get required results. The ‘Choke in 20 ga. and smaller’ thread pointed out that chokes are all over the place. How to we fine tune performance of the barrel constrictions we are dealt?

Using B&P shells my favorite 20 bore double gives me gives me a nice 30 and 40 yard pattern, but it is a handicap in the woodcock alders. My experience with spreader loads is that while they produce an open pattern the shot distribution is clustered with considerable gaps. What do the considered gentlemen of this board use in the way of shells to produce a more open pattern? Do fibre wads contribute to open patterns?

square shot used to be the norm for "spreaders" don't know how available it is now but I have shot some out of a very tight choked fox with acceptable results. The wads with a "stem" in the middle of the column seem to work pretty well too. The most common explanation of tight choked doubles of years gone by is the poor quality of ammunition as compared to today. Trying to duplicate the loads of yesteryear with fiber wads and overshot cards may open patterns, but you are going to have a lot of deformed shot. perhaps the best solution is finding another gun for the collection with open chokes that you can love as much!!

Since I buy predominantly use guns and many of them vintage guns, I think I have a fairly broad exposure to the choke philosophies from about turn of the century to today's modern guns. I'm sure other members here have even broader and more in depth experiences. But here's my take: I like to know what the constriction is and I almost always measure my gun's constrictions, new or old. Then I pattern with the loads I intend to use, hunting or claybusting. I get a qualitative idea of their performance at various distances and make a decision on their use or whether to modify them (I haven't modified any). Generally, I use them as is if fixed choked and those that have choke tubes, I'll change as I think necessary from qualitative testing. I don't count holes, ever. That's the simplified version of how I deal with chokes. I don't have any difference in how I deal with new fixed choke guns vs. old. Shoot 'em and decide their use.

I wonder if anyone has tried flattening (slightly) the shot to be used in a tight choked gun at close targets? I have figured out a way to do it using an arbor press with a one inch diameter flat ended shaft. I would have to make a metal "tray" an inch wide and as long as convenient. I would fill the tray one level high with shot so that the shot does not flow from one end to the other. Feed the tray an inch at a time from end to end, compressing an inch of shot at a time. You could substiture a drill press for the arbor press. I just happen to have a long handled arbor press that would work. It wouldn't take to long to make enough flattened shot to experiment at the pattern board.

Using soft shot should open up the pattern some.

8-Bore, I recall an old article in GunDigest by our friend Roger Barlow in which he discussed the use of square & flattened shot. Don't recall all the details but seems he made a fixture to surround the shot & then just hit them with a hammer. I like your idea of the arbor press a lot better.

I may give it a shot if I can design a tray without too much work. One way to prevent meat damage in large birds with tight chokes is to use large shot. I have a bag of real soft fours that would be ideal for experimenting.