Patterns are magical and mystical, both at the same time. By that I mean that no matter how long you have been doing this and no matter what you have learned you will still come across a result that just defies your learned experience. And no more so than with the .410 sometimes. Maybe it just that patterns involve about 20 different variables and we tend to think it is just three or four. Maybe pattern perfection is unobtainable because it is truly random to some extent in nature. We can only see the average, think that the average is everything and forget that it is not the whole picture. With a long shot column in the .410, bore scrub deforming a higher percentage of shot, you would expect to see less center density, at distance and more fliers. Not what you get at all. But what does it mean? In the hands of a average shooter the .410 might be effective three to five more yards than we thought. The .410 and 28 are not magical they are what they are, limited to some extent and those limitations are their appeal to me.
I have shot a lot of small bore shells in my time. Killed a lot of game with the 28 before lead shot was banned for waterfowl, now shoot a lot of .410 at small upland birds and have shot tens of thousands if not a hundred thousand rounds at clay targets with the 28 and .410. What I've learned in 50 plus years of shooting 28 and now .410 is that it comes down to range and limitations I should just accept and exceed at doing them well. If you use the best ammo you can, shoot at ranges not to exceed 25-30 yards, then both the 28 and .410 can work well. Given a little repeated practice on clay targets you can stretch a .410 out to 35 plus yards, on crossing targets, but I would not shoot game at that range. A chipped clay target does not suffer. One hint is that if you want to shoot a .410 at 35 yards you had better check it's POI because it is not what you think it is.
I used my .410 almost exclusively this year on doves with limits easily taken on multiple times. It is not the bow or arrow but the Indian when I miss. I killed four pen raised, released pheasants yesterday, with five shots with the same .410. All birds killed with in 20-25 yards. Only miss was a hit too far to the rear, because I shot too fast. Second shot cleanly brought the bird down but all in reasonable range. Pen raised pheasants are much easier to bring down than wild ones in my experience and I would not even try it on wild birds.
Like many shooter I have read a lot of pattern articles or books and tried to figure out what they all mean. From simple pattern plate counting of shot, to higher math explanations, to advanced physics being use to explain and hopefully predict what a pattern will do. They are all interesting to some extent but the only thing that really counts is the result. Do you hit what you are shooting at and does it have the desired effect? Dead is dead and over kill does not make it deader, it just puts more holes into it. And for years I hated to pattern any .410 I wanted to shoot because that image of such a small pattern just undermines my confidence in shooting it well. I might shoot for POI on a .410 but not for pattern. I go more by results.
