Vintage shell pattern test

[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.