First, I would say the type of shot is just one component in the overall scheme of things and that the takeaway from this thread is that an astute shooter will pattern his firestick with the cartridges he intends to use in the pursuit of game. The theory on the Gaussian distribution of shot(I prefer Gauss over Lord Rayleigh) is a good start or rule of thumb, but empirical data is the best bet. Hunting trips to Kansas chasing the ever elusive ditch parrot was what began my quest on cartridge selection. We've tried most and went to a 3" Fiocchi on one trip but settled back on Kent. So it was an effort for more than 1 gun and different types of scatterguns. And it was the "in the field" performance that was reviewed. Much of the performance is dependent on where the tube(s) is aimed and the spread is measured from the center of the density; hence, the Gaussian distribution. Typical situation is that you are in a duck blind, make-shift or not, you are trying to get down a kashi bar to fend away the hunger pangs in what you think to be a down time. Ducks are coming in and in an effort to keep concealment you are watching your dogs eyes as they go round & round as birds circle. When you pull up and shoot, is your mount the best it can be and are you pointing at the duck or where the duck will be? Just some rough numbers off the top of my head say at 30 yards(don't know if the numbers will stand up to pure mathematics or not but it gives the point) you have 170 pellets & an 80% density on a diameter of 24". Say you are off 1 foot in relation to the center of the bird. The best overlap of the Gaussian distribution(2D) and the bird will be say 3 pellets. These patterns are at a time of plus infinity, so all pellets have passed. And the big ole white elephant in the room is that there is a shot string and of the 3 pellets, will they all arrive on the target at the same instance? In most conversations it appears that it is assumed that the distribution is in the same plane when in fact it is not.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
