Pattern is a picture of your shot on impact of a flat board with a 30" circle drawn on it. One dimensional.
Shot string is the column of the shot once it leaves your barrel and for the most part the wad has fallen away. it is a three dimensional picture.
So what this basically means is the Pattern is a very limited view of that is going on, while the shot string is a better representation of what is really going on.
Some others here maybe able to say it better than I did.
Edit by the way not a dumb question.
Last edited by MontanaCreekHunter; 01/21/20.
