Dave McCracken
Moderator In Memoriam
Our global economy has a lot of different shotgun ammo turning up here.
Last count, 20 some makers now compete for our money. Sources range from Federal, Winchester and Remington to stuff from Third World and former Soviet Bloc countries. The offerings vary widely in quality though all will produce some sort of pattern and serve some purpose.
And, quite often the phrase "You get what you pay for" applies.
Let's take a look at a shell and see the variables that can be changed and what happens when we do....
Let's posit a 12 gauge, 2 3/4" load of 1 1/8 oz, 1200 FPS. Let's make it a cheap import, using the technology we left behind in the 50s.
And let's imagine we're shooting it in a Cylinder bore with an old style forcing cone in front of the chamber. Let's also imagine we have X ray vision and can slow things down so we can really see what happens.
Our basic load has some fiber wads between powder and shot but no cup shielding our soft, quasi round pure lead shot from the bore.
So, there's ignition, and as the launch starts we see the back pellets are squashed under the weight of 60 Gs of acceleration. As the crimp unfolds we see the shot scrape against the bore, further deforming the shot as they carom down the bore. The shot charge leaves the bore and begins to expand as air resistance slows the leading pellets.
A pattern sheet at say, 15 yards, will show nice density and decent spread.
One at 40 yards will show large gaps in the coverage and all those deformed pellets way off where they do no good.
Now let's look at a better load, one with a shot cup that protects the shot clear out past the muzzle. This one has a bit less spread at 15 yards, but that 40 yard pattern looks a bit better.
Kicking it up, let's see a load with not only a shot cup, but a one piece plastic wad that has collapsible sections to blunt the forces at launch a bit. This one has even less spread again, but that 40 yard target is getting much more in the center, increasing effect.
Next,add hard lead shot alloyed with antimony from a maker that takes pains to make sure the shot is round and uniform. At this point, the 15 yard spread's maybe half that of our starter load, but the longer pattern's looking much better.
Plate that hard, round shot with copper or nickel and note again that the 15 yard spread shrinks and the 40 yard pattern gets better, if more pellets near the center means better.
Add a buffering agent like Grex to that and again,MORE pellets stay in the pattern.
Round shot, all else equal, loses velocity at a lesser rate than nasty, deformed shot. Not only do deformed pellets leave the pattern, they carry less energy to the target. On a clay target, that may spell the difference between an X or O on the score card, but on game that may be the difference between a humane kill and a critter suffering for hours or days.
Other things that can tighten up patterns include dropping the velocity, adding some choke and using a longer forcing cone to ease transition into the bore.
However, upping the quality of the load is the best way to up performance.
And, while it may sound wierd, using the so called "Dove and Quail" loads on clay targets and using good quality Trap loads on Dove and Quail makes a lot of sense.
Last count, 20 some makers now compete for our money. Sources range from Federal, Winchester and Remington to stuff from Third World and former Soviet Bloc countries. The offerings vary widely in quality though all will produce some sort of pattern and serve some purpose.
And, quite often the phrase "You get what you pay for" applies.
Let's take a look at a shell and see the variables that can be changed and what happens when we do....
Let's posit a 12 gauge, 2 3/4" load of 1 1/8 oz, 1200 FPS. Let's make it a cheap import, using the technology we left behind in the 50s.
And let's imagine we're shooting it in a Cylinder bore with an old style forcing cone in front of the chamber. Let's also imagine we have X ray vision and can slow things down so we can really see what happens.
Our basic load has some fiber wads between powder and shot but no cup shielding our soft, quasi round pure lead shot from the bore.
So, there's ignition, and as the launch starts we see the back pellets are squashed under the weight of 60 Gs of acceleration. As the crimp unfolds we see the shot scrape against the bore, further deforming the shot as they carom down the bore. The shot charge leaves the bore and begins to expand as air resistance slows the leading pellets.
A pattern sheet at say, 15 yards, will show nice density and decent spread.
One at 40 yards will show large gaps in the coverage and all those deformed pellets way off where they do no good.
Now let's look at a better load, one with a shot cup that protects the shot clear out past the muzzle. This one has a bit less spread at 15 yards, but that 40 yard pattern looks a bit better.
Kicking it up, let's see a load with not only a shot cup, but a one piece plastic wad that has collapsible sections to blunt the forces at launch a bit. This one has even less spread again, but that 40 yard target is getting much more in the center, increasing effect.
Next,add hard lead shot alloyed with antimony from a maker that takes pains to make sure the shot is round and uniform. At this point, the 15 yard spread's maybe half that of our starter load, but the longer pattern's looking much better.
Plate that hard, round shot with copper or nickel and note again that the 15 yard spread shrinks and the 40 yard pattern gets better, if more pellets near the center means better.
Add a buffering agent like Grex to that and again,MORE pellets stay in the pattern.
Round shot, all else equal, loses velocity at a lesser rate than nasty, deformed shot. Not only do deformed pellets leave the pattern, they carry less energy to the target. On a clay target, that may spell the difference between an X or O on the score card, but on game that may be the difference between a humane kill and a critter suffering for hours or days.
Other things that can tighten up patterns include dropping the velocity, adding some choke and using a longer forcing cone to ease transition into the bore.
However, upping the quality of the load is the best way to up performance.
And, while it may sound wierd, using the so called "Dove and Quail" loads on clay targets and using good quality Trap loads on Dove and Quail makes a lot of sense.
