Stan,
In his book The Modern Shotgun, Volume 3 pages, 74-77 Burrard reviews the condition that you experience on the dove field ,under the heading, "Balling".Burrard reviews the reasons for this problem. He gives details of a serious accident that occurred when a passer by was hit by a cluster of balled 6 shot at a distance of 133 yards. The result was a serious facial injury. The same shot killed the original quarry a pheasant!
Several years ago whilst Woodcock hunting I experienced a freak occurrence. I shot at a rising woodcock at approx. 25 yards ,The bird disintegrated; with the wings floating to earth like falling leaves! At that time I was shooting reloads of 7 1/2 shot in Remington shells with plastic wads. The bore of the barrel was cylinder. Clearly the wad had not stripped on discharge hence the result observed.
