A few years ago I patterned an Eibar sidelock 12 ga left to me by a friend, after I had the XF chokes (which had been ring bulged by steel shot use) opened up to .009 in each barrel. Nothing to lose and it was in rather poor shape. I patterned it with Remington Game Load 1 oz 6's (225 pellets per shell), and with RST 24 gram 2 1/2" 6's(190 pellets per shell). Both loads put on average about 180 pellets in a 30 inch circle at 30 yards (I usually pattern at 30 and extrapolate to 40 per Oberfell & Thompson's data). The RGL's however, had a nice even distribution across the 30" circle, but the RST's put most of their pellets in the inner 20" circle with only a small number in the outside ring, more like a full choke often does. I concluded that, for my use on pheasants and chukars, the RGL's were the better hunting load inside 40 yards. Anybody ever try a similar comparison?
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