Rocketman,
It may have been on the old board, but I posted several notes back when about flattening shot between the bottom of a tin cookie sheet and a steel plate with a suitable bludgeoning devise. The deformed shot does indeed work, and sometimes quite well, but it seems to some extent to be influnced by other factors as well. We'll call them the 'JLV factors' for purposes of discussion, but specifically choke, powder, wad column & velocity come to mind. My best spreader loads have incorporated deformed 'drop' shot [soft], knock offs of the old Remington 'Post' wad and a .200" hard card wad on top of the post wad followed by a tight pie or star crimp. These are 12ga. spreaders normally loaded with 700X powder & 1oz. of shot between the sizes of #7.5-9. I use the larger size shot on rabbits, SC type clays or warm blooded & use Robert Churchill's technique of shooting the ground just under them in both cases. It is absolutely fool proof when the shot is placed there.
That particular recipe for a spreader has been wonderfully effective, for me. Soda straws and golf T's can also be effective as can 'X' wads or even a plain 'post wad', but my findings in the guns or bbls. I patterned assorted spreader loads in generally would only open a full choke [my def for FULL is the old one of .040 constriction] one degree. This load recipe can open some Fulls up well beyond that.
The Russians, when they first dominated International Skeet, were using ammunition specifically loaded for each station. Some, like that loaded & used for station 8 was cubic Aluminum shot. I would have loved to have been able to pattern some of that ammo & one of my retirement projcts on a very long list would be to get some cut from aluminum plate stock on a hydraulic shear. A bit tedious, but curiosity at times just gets the best of us. I have thought of cut pieces of small dia. Aluminum welding rod as being perhaps the easier source, but it would not 'upset' in flight the same, due to being a dif shape.
Jack & I at one time or another on this board have bantered back & forth about plomb disco, raye borings, &c. Got into a fun bit of dialogue one time by the suggestion that Raye borings were for taking Ortolons w/small shot. Prolly shouldn't have pushed that particular button, but all got an education on spirits, glue and other stuff. Its all historic at this point in time & none are on the menus any longer. In your face woodcock were the real intended quarry. I have & also did a lot of patterning with a Briley's difussion choke tubes. I use them with my deformed shot load, sometimes. However, my findings w/good quality factory ammunition [trap loads] was that they throw pretty consistent IC % patterns. Tighter than I would have guessed. Same can be said of several 'rifled' chokes I tried w/similar ammunition. I'm of the opinion it is due primarily to the use of plastic wads in said ammunition, but have not proven it absolutely to myself. I need to do some more patterning with those chokes and older type card/felt wads to further prove that. I'd surely like to see someone publish some pattern tests done with a Paradox.
FWIW, I am in agreement w/your thots on pattern 'patchiness', but will restrict that to game birds/clays inside 35 yards. I have seen some nicely distributed patterns delivered from CYL bbls at reasonable distances [inside 30 yds] and other times the same bbl. w/ a dif load deliver patterns w/a 'HOT' centre, the latter being more the norm, in my limited observations, than not.
Sorry for the ramble, but that's as few words as came to mind to get it said, correctly. Always open to thots & discussion, even if we are re-inventing the wheel. I don't have much time to play at the moment, so can't go be overly experimental, but its on my list ;-)
