....People keep saying "--- hard shot improves the pattern ---." It improves the pattern ONLY if you want a tighter choke effect pattern. It does not change the pattern distribution from a Rayleigh!!
DDA
So, is the soft shot staying true and just flowing different through a given barrel. I'd wonder if softer shot got deformed by some manner or another, it may hold a certain distribution at shorter ranges, but that may not translate to the same distribution only larger pattern at long distance. Maybe time in flight would allow air resistance to act differently on spheres and randomly distorted spheres.
