Patterns bloom at a certain distance and their pattern efficiency (which I guess I would call eveness of distribution of pellets) declines rapidly.

I shot a couple sharptails against a snowy background last January, and I was surprised at how nice the pattern density was at 25 yards and how terrible it was at 35 yards based on the marks in the snow

The shot still had a lot of detritus on the snow and I picked up the wads from both shots, but really patterns are only good for a certain distance

Out there doing it best I can.