1 ounce ten loads

[Stepmac]

Originally Posted by Paul Harm

In the old muzzleloading days of live pigeon shooting, before chokes were invented, they would use less shot - 1oz in the 10ga - to tighten up their patterns. The reason why is, the very short shot column means lessshot deformation in the bottom layers. Also less powder to keep pressures down mean the same thing. A high pressure means the shot started more violent and in turn more shot deformation. A buddy shoots sporting clays at our club with a Lefever and no chokes. Some birds are 40yds and by useing 7/8oz of shot at 1100FPS [ low pressure ] in a 12ga he shoots real good scores. By doing the above almost all the shot is staying nice and round and you're not getting flyers, hence great patterns and in effect increasing your choke. Paul

Makes total sense to me. I can see that the larger the explosion the harder the shot will be pushed leading to more deformity and excite the pattern when it leaves the muzzle.