Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Why is a "Short Shot String" Good?

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Quartering birds have always been tough for me. Most every presentation the birds are quartering to some degree. Very seldom do you have a 90 degree crosser or a bird directly incoming or outgoing. I believe you have to visualize everything, including what the shot is doing, to break birds. Quartering birds are the easiest to shoot in front of. They require a delicate and precise approach.

But you definitely can over-think things. Most of the time to shoot your best, you need to just shoot and let it happen

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The slightly quartering bird has always been my bane in trap shooting. Especially those birds just ever so slightly off straight away. When I miss them I invariably shoot behind them.

You are right on over thinking. We can over think ourselves right into a string of missed birds. Stick to the basics, good gun mount, good solid cheek to wood, keep the head on the stock, and follow through. The shot string, long or short will do it's job if we do ours.

Mart

Look for Bob Brister's book, "Shotgunning, The Art and Science"

I think it was Gil Ash, with help from an outside source, that calculated you would have to swing a shotgun at well over 200mph to exert any sideways force on a shot column. Bat speed for a major league player is somewhere around 80mph.

I know Gil and with common sense would have to agree. How on earth can moving the gun so slowly affect a shot column that leaves the barrel in .00432 seconds (I think)?

Still, when shooting R to L crossers as an example, I have seen the shot column "bend" from R to L. The front part of the column as the widest and out to the right, the rear end of the column the narrowest and further left.

Like I said, I can't explain it any other way and if someone has an explanation that's better, I'd like to hear it.

Colo Wolf,

Brister's book explains many things, but not the bending of a shot string in the air.

I knew Bob very well, and he would have loved to be able to measure that. He was very sure it happened, especially in any sort of wind, but couldn't prove it when shooting long pieces of paper.

These days the major ammo companies have shot tunnels that can electronrically plot the position of every piece of shot as the pattern goes down the tunnel. But none of those patterns are made with a swinging gun--or wind.

I think it's our eyes playing tricks on us. I for sure can't explain it. I see it the same way you do when I'm behind the shotgun. When I'm standing next to or behind somebody else, it looks like a straight column...

A big NOPE is what I say

I know what I see. Over and over and over.....

I know Gil too, and also know there are some things mathematics don't explain. And despite Gil's research, science doesn't explain everything about a moving shotgun and a shot string.

As in Brister's book title, there's both an art and a science to shotgunning.

mmmm The book I am thinking about has photos of experiments dealing with shot strings, if it wasn't Brister, I am a bit stumped. Have a copy, buried in storage or I would have the info.

What was done was shots at paper pulled on a frame behind the family car, driven by his wife. (amazing what they would do before they learned GFY)Seeing the string playing out at a slow speed, gives one an idea of what can happen moving a barrel.

Senility sucks.

Colo Wolf, that was Bristers Book. My wife would have a frickin' heart attack if I popped a shot off at a target pulled right behind her Avalanche. I'm surprised Bobs wife wasn't waving at the camera.

I've never noticed a bend in the shot column. Looks more like a swarm to me. I'll look for it this Sunday at the skeet range.

Well part of the problem solved, didn't read the whole thread. Bending shot strings...mmm new concept.

You won't see a bending shot string, or at least I haven't, on crossing shots as close as on a skeet field. I've only seen it when 50 yard or longer crossers are being attempted.

Probably because your looking at a larger field of view and a longer length of time. Also, your focus is at the target which is further out.

I think the bottom line is some guys have better eyes than others. Not to steer this off course more than it is, but I've seen .22 LR bullets come out of a rifle as well as watched bullets from high powered rifles on the way to a steel target.

I'm not talking about trace or distortion in the air, but actual copper colored shiny projectiles. Not with my naked eye but through Leicas when the sun is just right

The times I have seen it on a skeet field have been when we are shooting skeet targets from the trap 25 to 27 yard line and back onto the porch playing miss and out games. You are correct that up at regular skeet yardage I have not noticed it.

All respect due to Mule Deer, but firearms and bullets really
do obey the laws of Physics.

Here's a video of "glow in the dark" shot patterns taken at night. Not all that good but can't see any bending patterns. Forgive the commercial at start of video.

Second video slow motion skeet. Again not perfect but can see some shot string shapes. I tried stopping the video to catch the shot string right as it hit target. Could see the shape in a couple but no bending was evident. Not saying it isn't there, just can't see it.

http://video.fieldandstream.com/video/Incredible-Night-Skeet-Shooting

http://youtu.be/0NjLIc44H_U

It is an illusion. As a kid we used to throw snowballs at passing cars. If you looked at the snow ball it would go straight
and the car would drive into it. If you wayched the car the snowball would start out aiming in front then curve to hit the cat. (a miss spent youth).

Maybe an illusion, but I've seen it enough to think otherwise. I think JB nailed it with the BC post. Perhaps more of the deformed shot is going someplace other than the main cloud than we sometimes think.

Thought about the water/hose analogy that I posted and realized it doesn't apply due to the fact the hose is putting out a continuous stream over a long period of time while we move the hose. That doesn't happen when we send a ball of shot out to the target over a fraction of a second.

LOL!

After reading this article here I've pretty much stopped worrying about the affect of shot stringing.

Excellent article.

I especially would like to point out the statement made about "in the course of these tests, we learned that variations in pellet size and shape are only partial causes of stringing. The main cause, it seems, is the way the pellets individually leave the protection of the indespensed shot column during the first few yards of travel. This is somewhat analogous to the way a group of swimmers would be strung out in the water after jumping off of a fast moving boat.

You'll also not that the diagrams of the bird traveling 90 degrees to the shot string show a distinct bend in the shot string