I have patterned light 12 loads, Nothing complicated use a 12 inch plywood disk with a 2 inch hole in the center trace it on a piece of cardboard & shoot at normal distances for the gun and load. No counts or percentages just eyeball the results. I have a stack of them all gauges short to long distance.
When I bought a 26 inch 12 G Parker with factory open chokes, .007 right barrel .010 left used my regular long barrel tight choke loads. 7/8 oz of 7 1/2 at skeet distances = 21 yards patterns were open too open I thought.
Switched to # 9 and patterned with 7/8 and 3/4 oz, just finished pattering again with 5/8 oz
Shot spread looks about the same all 4 loads difference is how dense the patterns are. 7/8 of 9 more shot than you need to break skeet targets. 3/4 is what I settled on, checking the 5/8 loads they are still adequate for skeet targets and more dense than the 7/8 oz 7 1/2 oz loads
Using a chart off the internet illustrates what you can see on paper
7/8 oz # 7 1/2 = 306 pellets
3/4 oz # 9 = 439 pellets
5/8 oz # 9 = 365 pellets
Only takes a few # 9 pellets to break a skeet target and the 5/8 oz loads put more pellets on target than 7/8 oz of 7 1/2. Shooting the 5/8 this week they break birds just fine. I did try some of the 3/4 # 9 loads on sporting clay's targets at longer distance. 35-45 yards I don't trust them. It's not the density it's the small pellet I figure. Have done fine with 3/4 oz # 7 1/2 at 35 yards in a full choke gun.
One of the skeet shooters told me I was re-inventing the wheel. They use 28's and 410's all the time 3/4 and 5/8 oz with # 9 and don't consider it a handicap compared to a full load 12 g
William
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