I have read most of the great shotgun ballistic authors and have their books on my shelves. They include Greener, Burrard, Oberfell & Thompson, Brister, Zutz, Lowry, Jones, and many more.
I can find fault if I look hard enough with most if not all of them in some small way whether it be a conclusion, a process, or statement within the book.
A.C. Jones writes well and more importantly supports what he writes with understandable experimentation. He probably has made more than one statement that is imperfect. That said, his method of experimentation to include sampling size as well as use of valid software computations lend me to think he is more right than wrong. Simply put as educated an amatuer I maybe, he knows more than me and I hazard to guest in this narrow field more than most of us on this board.
He does address Brister's method of shot string analysis briefly in his book. Not to attack Brister but to note that method of sampling (pulling a trailer behind speeding truck) did not account for the effects air movement and draft(my words not his as I don't have the book in my hands at the moment) caused by the truck itself.
Stan, his book dealt with more than just shot string analysis.
I believe it is a work of some benefit, in particular in debunking some commonly held myths and assumptions.
His experiments showed many things assumed or populaized as issues or solutions yielded negligible differences (effects of overbore, no one gauge is inherently superior to another, negligible difference in performance between fiber and plastic wads, and much more) He also confirms much of what Burrard and others have already written. He is dry and his book is chart heavy, but it is well worth slugging through.
I don't believe his purpose was to stir controversy, but to answer basic questions. My only regret in reading his book is that his bibliography included a book I could not find in English and my French is not up to the task of understanding technical literature in detail. Menus and tourist guides no problem, even gun catalogs, but not technical works.
As others in this thread have noted, at the end of the day and the end of the science it comes back to simply putting the pattern on the bird.
