Ken O,
Is there a trick or tip to chronying shotshells?
I've tried everything I know of to get consistant readings, but I've all but given up.
What do the factories use to get their velocities?
Thanks for the help,
Elk Country
Measuring shotshell velocities is much more difficult that rifle or pistol. The shot string is continually stretching out and the individual pellets are small. Our suggestions are to use the most open choke available, put our start Skyscreen III three or four feet from the muzzle and use a spacing between screens of four feet. You can protect the guts of the first screen with a block of soft wood to pick up stray pellets or wads. Anything that would stop a direct hit can also splash lead back into your face.
We believe that using photoelectric screens to measure shotshell velocities can give you good comparative data, say between you load and similar Winchester AA, but you may not get the same average velocity as is measured by the factory procedure.
The factories use a coil system designed and built by Oehler almost forty years ago. This system tends to ignore the stringing pellets in front of the main charge.
