Virginian
Member
Some random shotshell observations. Last Saturday, buddy knocked down a Mallard. Swimming cripple. He fired at the cripple at about 45 yards and the Black Cloud strung out from maybe 35 to 60 yards on the water. Missed the duck. After some appropriate words, he tried again, same result. Choke was 12 gauge RemChoke Full. Other buddy then killed cripple with a Browning BPS Invector Full and Winchester #2 steel - nice tight pattern.
So, after things slowed down later, we tried a few more experiments. His 3" 1100 patterned nice and tight with the Winchester steel 2s, and with my Remington Hevi-Shot 4s. The BPS strung out the Black Cloud slightly less than that 1100. The BPS patterned the Hevi-Shot even tighter than the 2s. My 3" 1100 with a lite full did not string out the Black Cloud nearly as bad as the other two, but it still wasn't what I would call close to a tight pattern, and was slightly more open with the #2 steel, and the Hevi-Shot looked even tighter than with the other two. Which was good, because I had patterned the gun for Hevi-Shot, and that was why I was shooting the lite full.
My buddy had checked his gun with steel Ts and 2s, but he had just bought the Black Clouds. Goes to show you need to know what results you can expect with your shells and your gun. I am not saying this was a highly accurate test session, just an indication of how field results may not be what you expect. Not a knock on Black Clouds either (other than the fact that they are steel
) , just that you may need to experiment with choke for the best results - I don't know. I did used to shoot some old Duplex steel loads, and had to play around with choke to get those things to shoot good.
So, after things slowed down later, we tried a few more experiments. His 3" 1100 patterned nice and tight with the Winchester steel 2s, and with my Remington Hevi-Shot 4s. The BPS strung out the Black Cloud slightly less than that 1100. The BPS patterned the Hevi-Shot even tighter than the 2s. My 3" 1100 with a lite full did not string out the Black Cloud nearly as bad as the other two, but it still wasn't what I would call close to a tight pattern, and was slightly more open with the #2 steel, and the Hevi-Shot looked even tighter than with the other two. Which was good, because I had patterned the gun for Hevi-Shot, and that was why I was shooting the lite full.
My buddy had checked his gun with steel Ts and 2s, but he had just bought the Black Clouds. Goes to show you need to know what results you can expect with your shells and your gun. I am not saying this was a highly accurate test session, just an indication of how field results may not be what you expect. Not a knock on Black Clouds either (other than the fact that they are steel
) , just that you may need to experiment with choke for the best results - I don't know. I did used to shoot some old Duplex steel loads, and had to play around with choke to get those things to shoot good.