We often see these pictures of a game bird with an excellent pattern and a circle superimposed on it. It gives us a mental picture that is kind of unrealistic Let’s say the 1” column of compacted shot in the shotshell has now stretched to 6-8’ long at 40 yds. That perfectly centered bird on a 90* crossing shot has a whole bunch of shot that has passed in front and a bunch behind but some of “the center” caught him. Not all the shot on that patterning board arrives at the same time.
Of course the shot string conundrum is most applicable on the 90* crossing shot and is diminished in effect as the angle decreases. This shot string thing is exaggerated with the longer (magnum loads) the shotshell in that particular gauge. We might arbitrarily say the 3/4 oz 28 load (the great “square” load), the 1 oz 20, and the 1 1/4 oz 12 ga load might be roughly equivalent though the latter two might quite be as good as that of the 28.
I have witnessed pheasants flushing in a loose flock, at the outer ranges and headed for thick cover to my left, dropping the first, missing the next bird close to it, but dropping a bird “far” to the right with that shot. I remember being momentarily surprised. That bird in this anecdote must have been hit by the very end of that shot string.
I think it’s intuitive that the tighter the choke the longer the shot string with the same shotshell.
Last edited by George_De_Vries_3rd; 03/21/19.
