Actually, it wasn't 40 yds. MM wrote about guns (some were 20s) with "little or no choke" breaking crossing targets at "a hair over fifty yards" (Shotguns and Shooting, pg 121). My trap shooting buddy related something he was told in a lesson with Kay Ohye: a skeet choke gives a 4" reliable pattern at 36 yds. This assumes 1.125 oz best quality traploads are used. Even allowing for target presentation, who do you believe?
And MM hates the .410. My full choke M-42 with 11/16 oz #7.5s in 3" shells gives a 14" reliable core at 40 yds. Works on clays, too. Even so, such things are stunts in my hands. I sure as heck am not going to pretend that I can take phez (or targets) at 40 or 50 yds with a 12 ga cyl or skeet barrel.
Sam
