Stan;
I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. A shotgun barrel is a simple tube. I have a copy of Brister's Art & Science & have yet to see a single thing which has proven any magic to a 28 ga bore. He did indicate some shorter shot strings with the 28 "BUT" also with 12 gauge Winchester Mark 5 shells. Careful study will I believe reveal that in both cases these were "Premium" loads utilizing harder shot than most of his other tests. Overall these tests where his wife was towing the target on a trailer were simply to limited to be truly significant.
Bottom line is the bigger the hole the greater its capacity, proportional to the Square of their diameters. 1 5/16 oz of shot in a 12 will have the same column length in the bore as 3/4 oz in a 28. The 28 will have a higher proportion of its shot in contact with the bore walls, also the choke. This very well explains the smaller bore having a higher concentration of its shot toward the center. Still nothing Magic, which cannot be explained regarding bore diameters. The further one wants to shoot the bigger the hole they need in the barrel. As Robert Rurak said, "Use Enough Gun", don't count on Magic.
Just because we disagree doesn't mean I don't respect and appreciate your passion for explaining things with proven math and physics. I do, very much. You have explained many things for me that I did not previously know the reason for.
However, note a couple of things please. I didn't say that Brister proved any "magic" to the 28 bore, and please also note that the word "magic" was not initiated by me. I do not believe in magic. I believe there are things we cannot explain, but that does not mean they are magic. It just means that we do not have the knowledge to do so. I can believe, due to hundreds of thousands of rounds fired at clays, game, paper and pattern plates, that a particular load works better than it should (by the numbers). My 58 years of shotgunning should mean little to you, or anyone else, but do you totally discount Oldridge's statement? Reckon he was just a longtime ballistician there because he snowed everybody with theories and postulations?
We each are free to believe nothing that we cannot prove with numbers and reason. But, I believe even you do not go that far. You're a believer in gravity, I'll wager. Who can explain it? Where does it originate, how does it work? Why does it affect all things, not just ferrous, as with magnetism. How it works, and why, cannot be proven with math.............but it exists, obviously. How does it act equally to counteract the centrifugal force created by a spinning earth, and do so proportionally at the poles and at the equator? There is infinitely higher centrifugal force at the equator than at the poles, where there is basically none.
There
are unexplainables in this realm. I may seem to be getting far out on a limb, but understand it's not me that's trying to prove anything, other than that there are things we
cannot prove.
Best, SRH
