Vintage shell pattern test

[Bruce Day]

Bill Murphy, this is an open question. You know we hear that the plastic full coverage shot cups are much more effective that the old cardboard wads in holding the shot string together and that these shot cups add a full increment of choke. Is this an old wive's tale? That old paper shell and cardboard wad shot a nice pattern.

[Bill Murphy]

I doubt that a plastic shot cup would have caused my old 16 gauge Scott to shoot more than a 90% pattern. I guess shot deformation is not that big a deal at reasonable ranges. We can easily throw patterns with plastic wad shells and compare them to the patterns shot with the same shells and the wad petals cut off. I don't think we're going to see much difference.

[Double Play]

I've been watching Tom's strutting around here for almost a month and having decided to try my luck this year with a tightly choked VH 20 I went thru some old 20 gage shells I had and this is what I found. Rather than using modern 7 1/2's or 6's I think the vintage 5's having less pellets would pattern better through the .025 chokes.