I cannot recall the man (it was Brister) who did the testing with the old "woodie" station wagon driving 30MPH (I believe it was his wife) pulling a hayrack with plywood on side with ducks painted on it and shot with the "short string" Winchester ammo. He was able to prove 2 things for sure:
1. He had a very brave and understanding wife...
2. Shot strings are much longer than the everyday scattergunner realizes and the more "overloaded" the shell, the longer the string. "Overloaded" = what?
We have all heard the old banter about a "square" shot charge. This of course is impossible due to the fact that a shell is round, but in principle it has some merit a shot column that is as long as it is wide or as close as possible tends to perform better. What is "better?" How so? This has been tested and slightly proven. By whom?
Fact is we can disscuss this adnausim and it doesn't change the fact that if you don't put some of the string where he's gonna be you ain't gonna break/kill your target. Shotshell performance has been hypothesized in many ways from lead formula, to velocity, to pressure, recoil, ect. ect. ect. Now throw in all the "advancements" in bbl technology and all the hooplah and who knows what to believe. Look for real, live data to back up claimes.
I believe a gun should fit as well as you can make it fit, shoot instictively to point of impact (point of aim) for you and be balanced (how about weight and swing efforts, too?)comfortably for you. We all have our theories and reasons and I say if it works for you, great. If not do some more experimenting and practicing till it does. Yes. Main goal is to have fun and enjoy. And, yes.
