After firing a few rounds out of My shotgun I was surprised at how small the Pattern was. Whats the WIDEST you can spread lead under 50yds with a Shotgun?
One of the most common myths about shotguns and buckshot is the idea that one doesn't have to point it right, the spread will take care of any mistakes.
The big advantage of a shotgun for defense is the huge amount of energy it can dump into a target. To do this, ALL the pattern has to hit.
Where did you go to pattern with buckshot? I did not think that W&W's board could handle buck.
I need an entire day to spend some quality time with my 870's for patterning.
Mike
SodaPop: Not a whole heck of a lot. Its not moving at light speed, nor does it have aerodynamics on its side. You want to dump all 9 or 12 into the target, because impact damage goes up as the square of the number of similtaneous hits: 2 hits from one shot is the same as 4 hits from seperate shots, 3 hits is the same as 9 independant hits, etc etc.
Take a hammer and smash the muzzle until it is a flattened oval. That will spread out your shot!! Don't shoot slugs though
Actually, wasn't there some sort of choke that gave the shot an "X" pattern? Maybe it was some BS from a movie. Anyone watch the "Phantasm" movies? In one of those a guy welded 2 double barrel shotguns together (4 barrels in-line) and then sawed off the ends like this
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Anyway, it let him blast a whole room of BGs by setting off every barrel at once. I don't think cutting a slant into the barrel will send the shot sideways, but it sure looked cool!
You need to give us more info. Are you trying to improve your skeet by getting a wider pattern, or thinking more about home defense? Are we talking 00 buck on people? In that case, you need to keep the pattern tight to acheive good downrange results. 00 tac buck covers the head of an IDPA target at 8 paces from my 590. Thats all the spread I want. LAter.
Well, I could give you some of my crappy OOO reloads. 8 pieces of OOO that spreads to about 12-16" at 25yds. I can't get more than 1 or 2 pieces on paper at 50yds LOL!
Try shooting it out of a rifled barrel. It makes a "donut" pattern at 25 yards. Apparently the spin flings the shot outward. I get a parrern about 24" at 25 yards with a nice big nothing in the middle
9mmMike I did it at a friends place up the Mountains. I set up about 6 cans and bottles and tried to see how many I could take down with one shot. I put them all in a circle about 2ft apart and shot them at about 15yds. I never hit more than one or two at a time. I was a little surprised I still had to aim to hit anything.
Pattern that shotgun with buck and you will find out.
I have never patterned buck at 50 yards. Generally accepted maximum range in 35 yards. But your gun may be different. Mine throws best patterns with a modified choke tube in. Full choke actually throws a wider pattern. Maybe more pellet deformation? I get around 10-12" at 25 yards.
Energy one pellet? What's the weight and the velocity? Assuming velocity of around 1000fps, one pellet with with a diameter of .32 is in the same range as a .32acp FMJ. No?
In fact, I heard a P-32 owner say that emptying the P-32 into a BG is similar to hitting him with one round of 00 buck. Makes some sense.