[Tom Flanigan]

Todd, I very much enjoyed and appreciated your article on #10’s in Parker Pages. You certainly did a thorough analysis even to the point of using live birds. It certainly provides some insight into the close range shooting done by my grandfather and market gunner Dee Slocum with #10’s.

I was surprised at the penetration of #10 shot. I have always used 9’s on grouse. I do believe that I am getting full penetration on grouse with some of the 9’s. Nines are not all that much larger than 10’s. So I was a bit taken aback at the penetration of #10 shot. I have often found #9 pellets just under the skin of my birds. But I always believed that these were pellets that went all the way through the bird to end just under the elastic skin on the far side. This is the same effect as finding bullets in big game on the far side just under the skin. The bullet does not have enough remaining energy to exit the elastic skin. There were no entrance holes in the skins of my birds above the pellet and I used to have to pierce the skin of the bird to remove the shot. Also, many of my birds had feathers pulled into the wound channel of the shot. So a mystery still remains. I will do a careful post mortem on all the grouse I shoot this year. The analysis continues……