Questions re choke vs barrel length

Licensed to kill said:
Can you elaborate?
Click to expand...
Holes in shotgun patterns are the norm.
There are no "even" shotgun patterns except by random chance.
Interference from a spreader wad for example, to within a pattern tends to be "self-healing" with further distance. Random pellet distribution within the pattern is reestablished, past the disruption.
I'm paraphrasing here.
It's really worth reading the original description, and experimental methods of Dr. Jones.
If you shoot 10 patterns to do statistically valid analysis, you will find the shot to shot pattern variability to be quite impressive.
 
Sooo many questions, sooooo many theories and ONLY one easy way to a reliable correct answer on patterns every time.I put up a 40”x40”x 3/8th inch thick plate on the side of my barn and use a roller covered in white lithium grease on the face to test patterns. Hundreds and hundreds of patterns from distances 15 to 80 yards. All gages, all chokes, all shot sizes, all lead alloys, different payloads, mixed shot sizes, And slow to fast powders, different styles of wads and different buffers from granulated polyethylene, flour, cornmeal, Crisco, STP etc etc….(don’t ask about the crisco & STP)
And the answer is 50% of the time the theory doesn’t match the results. And 10% of the time the results are terribly disappointing (just like the last girl you dated on ‘plenty of fish’). lol
For the record the Mighty Ithaca Mag 10 was initially a dismal failure (prototype gun). The initial patterns out of the theoretical fixed full choke patterned poorly. In desperation they reamed out a bit of the choke and it tightened up!! Somewhere between IC and Mod they got fantastic 90 yard patterns …..so all the barrels were machined to improved modified specs and then the barrels were stamped full choke !! It’s not what it says but what it does that counts.
Last titbit of info is a gem of a book written about 50 years ago. ‘The Art and Science of shotgun shooting’ by Bob Brister. In that book there were dozens of pics of patterns shot on plywood sheets on a trailer being hauled by his wife at 40mph behind her station wagon at 40 yards. That was an eye opener, chokes have a large impact on the 3 dimensional configuration of a pattern. The 30 inch circle only tells part of the storey. As for Bob Brister, he was way ahead of his time and there was a lot of love and trust between him and his wife, driving the station wagon way out there. Be pretty difficult to find a wife like that on the internet these days. Cheers
 
If I were to use an open choked 10 bore I'd step up the size of shot. If you want a pheasant gun of the 10 bore I'd use a slightly heavier load of heavier shot. If it's lead shot it doesn't need to be pushed all that fast as the heavier pellets will still deliver killing performance. The larger the bore the less deformation of the shot and thus better more even patterns.
While the 10 can throw alot of smaller pellets if you really want to swat a bird with a cloud of shot they really shine and show their strengths over other gauges as payloads and shot size increase.
The idea of choke and pattern size is the relationship of the bore to the choke. It's not always linear either. I have turkey chokes that pattern wider than factory full chokes of less constriction.
A backbored 12ga generally shoots a more even pattern than a 12ga of a minimum spec barrel.
This isn't always the case either.

I have 12.5" barrel that patterns tighter than a 28" barrel of much better construction. Beretta a400 xplor vs a cheap Turkish pump. For a turkey shoot I take the 12.5" turk to insure I get the densest pattern with the highest pellet count

Wadding plays a huge role as well. A cylinder choke with flight control wads can beat full chokes shooting lesser wads. Fiber wads tend to shoot more evenly dispersed patterns where as plastic wads show a denser core when compared thru the same barrel.

10ga pigeons guns killed birds surprisingly far back in the days of black powder muzzleloarders so one can not say they don't work.
I've shot thousands of rounds comparing gauges and chokes and speeds from reloads and factory loads and I've learned the simple truth that there is only generalities and no hard rules when it comes to shotgunning.
Fit and style and physical mechanics alternately mean more than the barrel length and choke

For instance my trap gun is a 21" barreled 1301 comp. I shoot as good with it as my Ithaca 4e trap gun. I prefer the handling of the 1301 comp and my shooting style and body speed match that style of gun. There are others who will swear I need a 32" full chokes gun to shoot 16 yard line trap on the basis of a longer sighting plane of which I can't notice as I look at the target not the bead. Even if I looked at the bead I can't tell how far it is away as I don't see the rib in front of me when I mount the gun
My movements are short and fast and I tend to shoot shorter barrels better.
I can shoot the same skeet scores with a 12ga with open chokes as I can with a full choked 410. My misses are simply a human error not a fault of choke or payload as I proved at the sxs classic this year. Shooting 22/25 with both my 12ga and my 410.
Confidence is another topic but if you believe you can make the shot you often can.
Swap a box of shells with a trap shooter and tell him they're 100fps faster and watch them often start missing birds. That 100fps doesn't mean a damn thing but it gets in their mind

So to sum up a cylinder 10 bore can and will make a great bird gun if you take the time to find the correct load.
I had great patterns using 1.5oz of #6 shot at 1100fps in mine double 10ga I just decided I'd rather carry a light 20ga than an 11.6lb 10ga
My 10ga are a modern 3.5" chambered double and a browning pump not a classic short chambered double though
 
Dig up a copy of Bob Brister's book from about 1970 on shotguns and that will answer your questions. He spent years testing to answer questions like yours.
 
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