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.
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