Insight Appreciated

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Paul Ehlers

The simple answer is "No" it doesn't matter. A pellet of any given size traveling at the same speed has the same down range energy no matter what gauge of gun it's fired from.

The extra payload potential of the larger gauges can be of benefit at times, but it really comes down to choking, patterning & keeping the shots within the yardages you patterned for.

I agree with this but it took me a long time to get there. I HATE patterning guns but do know that sometimes a similar load in similar constrictions gives very dissimilar results. For example I shot a 1200fps 1oz #8 with a constriction of .015 in my GH 16 with 28" barrels, then again same shot weight, speed and constriction in my 12g VH with 28" barrels and the 12g gives a MUCH more even pattern at 20 yards with fewer holes and indeed it's better at breaking clays. That's about where I end it because then I THINK we're talking about wad design, type of powder, length of forcing cones or constriction...etc. I just would rather pull a molar out than test loads all day. And there's something called Sacco's Theorem: If I pattern my turkey gun at 50 yards I will have a 10 yard shot and no head left, and if I pattern it at 10 yards I will only get a 50 yard shot.

[Gary Kephart]

Ha ha thanks and i like and agree with that theory.... I really dislike patterning them too. I was just telling a guy this story the other day. When i was 12 i bought a cheap mossberg bolt action turkey gun with an amazingly long barrel. I had killed a pile of turkeys with it and can only recall missing 1 or 2 . One day when i was about 19 a buddy was home from the military for a weekend and asked me to go to a turkey shoot. I barely put a pellet in the card was totally embarrassed. i decided i better pattern the gun and it was horrible there was a large hole in the very center of the pattern. To this day i have no idea how it was so deadly and can only attribute it to me being a poor shot and not aiming he gun properly and it played right into that poor pattern...