After having done lots and lots of patterning and analysis some decades ago, I came to same conclusion as some other posters. Load and gun combinations that give high scores on clays and high percentages of kills in the field are the "best".
On patterning such loads and guns, I keep finding that they give patterns that have a rather even density of pellet holes out to quite near the edges. I also notice that these loads generally produce "half hits" (half the clay is smashed) on clays when I happen to get the shot off slightly to the left or right or in front or behind the target. They give nicely smashed clays when I do my part, as well as dead-in-air birds. Lots more fun than counting hundreds and hundreds of pellet holes and doing elaborate analysis.
Niklas
