Digital pattern counting?
 

A number of years ago at Ernie's I ran into a fellow who had a program, that when loaded on his tablet, would let him take a photo of a shot board pattern and give him a pellet count. Anyone know of this or if the program is available on the market?

I had a version on my tablet at Hausmann’s in 2015. In 2016, a good friend who helped create it, was at Hausmann’s with me. My experience with it has been very enlightening. Like any tool, you have to learn how to us it effectively. Keep the target nice and flat. Use it in good lighting. It’s fun. If you google. Target telemetrics you should find it. If not, let me know. Jeff

For quite a few years I was heavily involved with shotgun patterning and the associated statistical analysis. I used a product called Shotgun Insight. It is not quick and dirty but delivers on the analysis end. It involves shooting patterns on clean paper, taking a digital photo of the target, loading the photo into the program, and registering the photo dimensionally. All of this takes time. I used to shoot maybe 50 targets on an ideal day. Then on a slow winter day set up to do the photo work. Care on this aspect pays dividends in the final product. Then on to dimensional registration which is tedious. After all this the software does all the rest. Time consuming but rewarding.

http://www.shotgun-insight.com/intro.html

I'm glad there are people with great patience like you, Gary.:bowdown:

Thanks, Jeff, for the tip.

pellet count
 

Jeff, it was likely you I ran into. In the parking area, I had to head out and couldn't stay around to see it work. I will give it a google, thanks
Keavin

Probably, and good luck! Personally, I have a lot of fun with it. Jeff

I tried Insight a few years ago but had problems getting it to load and run properly. I have written my own analysis program which will do about any statistical analysis I can dream up. I can tell you that if you shoot more than a few patterns you will quickly learn to hate the wind or even a gentle breeze. Having access to a tunnel, cave, or very large barn would be so nice. I will take a look at Target Telemetrics and see what they have. Digital photo analysis is interesting. Identifying closely spaced or touching pellet holes can be tricky.
C.G.B.

Agreed! I'm sure that there are some very smart people that will disagree with me, and that's okay, but my experience has been that shotgun patterns vary greatly. As you mentioned, at 40 yards, wind can be a factor. And, the simple task of aiming at the bullseye, at 40 yards, with nothing more that a bead on the end of your barrel, lacks a certain amount of precision. HOWEVER, testing a few patterns sure does help a shooter understand what's going on "out there".

Shotgun terminal performance is, in my opinion, very fluid. The old rule of thumb required a 10 shot string to get reliable results. I found that indeed it takes that many shots to routinely reach the 95% confidence level. Some loads never attain that level or even close to it. Then, that is exactly why shotgun patterning is a worthwhile endeavor even though it is tedious. There is much to be learned by critical pattern testing and the results are too lenghy to discuss here. I will say that some factory loads are very bad and some handloads can be very good.