Miller, I, too, wonder if the stray pellet theory came from someone who shot a low bird too close to a dog and wanted to assign blame somewhere else. Just last month a friend's grandson-in-law's Lab was filled up with #8 bird shot when a customer on the preserve on which he guided shot a low, slow quail, a late flusher, after the lab was sent in to retrieve. The dog survived bowel surgery and x-rays showed over 100 shot in a hind quarter. Gil