CGPAUL,
Yep, and unless required to for an article I don't count pellet holes in paper.
My normal patterning routine is to shot several rounds at dirt hillsides to see whether the gun hits where I point it. Have encountered some over the years that don't, including some doubles where one barrel shoots to a different place as the other. This has occurred in both SxS's and over-unders--and one of the times I didn't do a "dirt" pattern, the shotgun had me talking to myself.
At the time I was working on my book SHOTGUNS FOR WINGSHOOTING (published in 1999 by Krause) so was shooting a LOT, especially Sporting Clays at a local course, in order to test different different things. Was in a hurry to shoot some clays, so didn't impact-pattern a new O/U 28-gauge that had just show up. A few stations into the round the gun had me talking to myself, and not happily. Sometimes it wouldpuff targets, and other times they weren't even touched--on very similar shots.
Patterned the damn thing afterward, and as I recall the top barrel hit right where I pointed, but the bottom barrel shot basically a full pattern high. Thought at first it might have been a bad choke tube, but it shot the same way with all three tubes that came with the gun--which was NOT a bargain-basement brand.
I may also shoot a few patterns on paper with a specific load, but instead of counting every one, I look at the holes to see how evenly they're spaced--and if the pattern's dense enough to kill the kind of birds I'm hoping to shoot.
