I'm sure you know what it looks like. But I've never cut one open before. Inside a 3" #6.

I never have. Is that a grease binding the shot together? That looks wicked.

Never cut one open either, great photos of the inside of one.
I think it is some kind of polymer that turns to a powder when shot.
I know when I shot the ones I have, there is a light white cloud of smoke that kinda looks like a muzzleloader (not near that much smoke but there is something there that is not there when shooting a standard shell)

My 14 year old grandson wanted to use a 12 gauge this year. I bought the same shells you cut open. Patterned great and looked like he was good to go to 40-45 yards if needed.


Tom Turkey decided to strut in from our side at 5 yards. The turkey finally became alert and my grandson nearly took the top of his head off.

I was afraid he would miss at that range but all turned out great.

Chris

I carry two of those in my shotgun. 2, 3.5" #4, and two of those in #5.

It's some kind of very brittle resin. I suspect if I dropped it on the floor, it would shatter completely.

Drop it in a bucket, much easier to clean up....lol

I've dropped it a couple of times on my oak work table and only succeeded in breaking the clump in half. I've been able to break some chunks off with my fingers. But it is definitely tougher than I thought it was.

Now, THAT'S cool !!!!

Shot A bird with LB this season at 20 yards, very dead bird. Dug out a few from the breast that fell out of the pattern. The odd thing was that they were both three pellets stuck together. I could not break the pellets apart with my finger nail, wonder if that resin might bond the shot to much.

Wonder at what temp the resin melts at?

In a very scientific experiment, I put it all in a little plastic bag then smacked the shyt out it several times on my concrete patio and still couldn't get it to break up completely. There are multiple chunks in there still bigger than a 00 buck pellet. I smacked it so much the pellets started coming through the bag.



Makes me wonder if it does break up completely every time when fired. However, I went back on some of my old pattern pictures and don't see any evidence of holes made by chunks. Looks like mostly individual pellet holes. Maybe a couple holes made by 2 pellets still stuck together.

I had a buddy tell me that he shot one at a turkey and it went out like a slug. Now that was when they first came out and I am not saying I did not believe him but it did seem odd to me.
I think maybe the force of the sudden explosion happening under it as well as the heat from the burning gasses, may cause the resin to let loose.
I don't know, just a guess

I knew they used a binding agent so this is interesting.

The resign strength is amazing and tells you how much force is inside a shell to cause shot deformation.

On a side topic... there are youtube videos of guys doing this with wax on trap loads to make then behave like a slug, but it "frags" inside when it penetrates the first hard surface.

I had interesting results with the XR.

LOL!

That literally made me LOL

I looked back at some of my past targets and did not see any real sign of pellets stuck together. Wonder if the bunched up ones are not making it to the paper. I pattern at 30 yards and do not use large sheets of paper. Like to try on a big old piece of cardboard and count the holes.

SKane, that looks like some of the guns I have patterned in the past...lol

I forgot I took these pictures. That bird I shot this last spring off my left shoulder with my left eye got hit at mid neck. It's neck was obliterated. Some pellets went low and hit the wing bone. Looks like some Long Beard XR pellets may have remained stuck together they hit.