That's the best title I could come up with, but I'm not sure it describes my question. Heck, I'm not even sure I can express it well enough to communicate, but here goes.
I am of the belief that sufficient pattern DENSITY, at a sufficient velocity and with sufficient pellet mass, is what kills birds and breaks targets. In other words, if the velocity and the mass of the pellet(s) is enough (retained energy), density in the pattern is what puts the shot on the bird. Greater density, greater number of hits on target, provided the target is within the pattern area.
If that is so, then the same pattern density delivered from a .410 will kill and break a target equal to a 12 ga. Don't get riled up yet, I'm going to qualify that. If the same pellet size is used, at the same velocity, and the pattern density is the same, the bird will not know if it has been hit by a 12 or a .410.
Now, as to pattern density. It is absolutely truthful to say the above can be done, and is done. But, at what cost? Pattern size. The density of a pattern fired from a 1 1/8 oz. load can equal the density of one from a 11/16 oz. load at the same distance, if greater choke constriction is used in the .410 to accomplish this. This, again, reduces the overall diameter of the 11/16 oz. pattern and makes putting that pattern on target more difficult.
So, if I haven't been tried and convicted of heresy yet, how can this be calculated? Have charts ever been published that show, for example, what diameter the pattern from a 11/16 oz. load of #8s would have to be to equal the density in a 30" pattern from a 1 1/8 oz. load of #8s (100% patterns)? I'm not much at math, admittedly, but I know many of you could quickly calculate this. I also may not have done a very good job of communicating this, and please feel free to cover any variables I may have missed. But, hopefully, charts exist somewhere showing these comparisons.
SRH
Last edited by Stan; 03/06/13 10:50 PM.
