Shotshells thru rifled bore

C

ctdonath

New member
FYI, as I see & ask this question periodically.

Q: What happens when you fire bird/buckshot through a rifled bore?

A: Very rapid shot dispersal, about 1.5" for each foot of distance.

Just tried it with #8 shot in a 24" rifled 12 guage:
Distance -> spread
1 yard -> 6"
2 yds -> 9"
3 yds -> 13"
4 yds -> 18"
5 yds -> 23"

00 buck spread about 16" at 5 yards.

Comparitively, in a smooth-bore 20" 12-guage at 5 yards, birdshot spread about 9" and 00 buck spread 3.25".
 
Actually, the birdshot did not make a doughnut pattern - it was just as evenly distributed as usual, just a wider dispersal.

The buckshot more resembled the feared doughnut pattern, but with only 9 pelets I didn't fire enough to determine an actual pattern.
 
Additional thought:
For a doughnut pattern to appear, the shot in the center of the shell would have to accelerate out more than the shot at the edge. Reality is the reverse: items farther from the center have more "centrifigal force" and hence spread out faster, resulting in a similar spread as normal, just widening faster overall.
 
All I know is that 1 1/8oz of high velocity #6's didn't have enough pellets and energy to knock down a steel popper target at 10yds out of my Mossy's rifled barrel. I was hoping for the ultimate spreader setup, but found that there were too many holes in my pattern even at 10 yds. I'm going to stick to Brenneke and sabot style slugs in my barrel.
 
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