16ga.com ~ View topic

Joined: 08 Jan 2019 Posts: 7

Been doing so much pattern testing with 16 ga that I gave up on paper and
switched to shooting over calm flat pond water with video record. This allowed
me to view multiple patterns with the same loads to test for consistent pattern
and shot string and also distance effect. I strived to keep velocity
a consistant 1100~1200 approx fps. with all loads.
This is what I have concluded : The 16 gauge 2 3/4 , 1 1/8 oz 28 inch barrel full choke delivers more "consistant " patterns than any 12 gauge Combo barrel choke I tested.
I beleive this is partially due to a square load and the dynamics of a barrel/ choke.
I beleive this is why the 16 ga is so popular with this site users.
Interesting to this when I tested a 12 gauge with a 16 gauge insert I got better
patterns than any 12 gauge load. When testing a 20 gauge insert in a 16 gauge
I got even superior patterns to the standard 16 load! Is this the effect of overbore?
I observed full blow patterns in both gauge 12/16 loads when roll crimped,
at the rate of about 1 out of 20 rounds.
16 gauge 2 1/2 chamber with correct 2 1/2 rounds of 1 oz perform also
to equal 2 3/4 1 oz. 20 gauge insert in 2 1/2 camber 1 oz delivered
superior patterns.
Bottom line is you can not depend on pattern performance with only a few
paper tests, Any gauge. I stood behind trap shooters looking down there
shoulder shooting 12 gauge 1 1/8 oz standard AA and observed clean
misses which I was sure were due to that 1~in 25 poor pattern performance.
My opinion , 75 years old, ton of ammo shot over my pond is the 16 gauge
delivers consistent patterns with high tolerence for wad/load variables.

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1844 Location: Central ND

Patterning is all about percentages, ratios, pellet counts, in other words statistics, pretty much like any other internal or external part of shotgun ballistics.

I have never seen a big difference in 12 and 16 gauge pattern performance when it comes to 7/8, 1 or 1 1/8 oz. loads, as much as I would like to believe otherwise.

Woooo . . . The Square Load! . . . Don't get me going on that . . . The "square load" is a load where the height of the shot column is the same as its diameter. A square load of pure soft lead shot in the 16 is around .8 oz. It will about 3% less than .8 oz. with the usual hard antimony alloyed shot which is less dense. Calculate it. Shot packing factor, by the way, is around .55 for up to about #5 sized shot in the 16 gauge bore -- i.e. the weight of small round shot packed into a volume is around 55% the weight of solid lead filling the same volume. You can check that. A 1 1/8 ounce load of lead is 40% taller than it's diameter, or about .93", and that's in the bore (.662 dia. nominally). In a shell with a shot sleeve, that shot is confined to a diameter less than the bore, so the height of 1 1/8 oz is probably well over an inch -- easily checked and far from the fabled square load.

Why do we always see the square load touted for the 16 and 28 gauges as the "key" to their purported "mysteriously good" performance. It's BS. At 3/4 ounce, the 28 is almost 17% more "un-square" than the the 16 is at 1 1/8 ounce! Yeah, that's a .9" shot column in a bore of .550". There is no "ballistic magic" resulting from this. In fact there is a detriment to performance of any shotgun of any bore as the ratio of the shot column height to bore increases. Tales to the contrary are all romance.

This is not to say the 16 and the 28 gauges do not make attractive guns. Guns in those gauges guns can give us special feelings. A strong argument can be made that if the action of the 16 gauge gun is sized in proper proportion to its bore, the result is a "sweet spot" in the trade-off between performance capability and handling, especially for upland shooting where the gun is carried even more than it is shot. That's the "magic" of the 16. The 28? . . . well it's just plain cute and fun and still quite capable and worthwhile.

Cheers!

Joined: 08 Feb 2009 Posts: 1311 Location: Western WA

We switched from paper to freshly painted steel plate with high res digital photos to make pattern comparisons and pellet counts. Just remember to mark a reference measurement and POA in the paint for each round.

A can of spray paint will nicely cover 4-6 patterns. Leftover house paint works even better but can make a mess.

Neither pattern board nor water will reveal shot string however. It likely makes a difference. Otherwise why not use that 28 ga CZ Bobwhite with 1 oz ear ringing Winchester hunting loads?

B.

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1844 Location: Central ND

Shot string, has little to no effect out to approximately 40 yards. That has been pretty well established by Bob Brister, Ed Lowry and others.

Brewster11, are you using Dr. A.C. Jones' program? I have tried it, liked it, but the camera I was using went belly up.

Joined: 01 Oct 2007 Posts: 963 Location: Minnesota

I have never done any patterning. I just load and shoot. Seems to work great on pheasants.

I have developed a foolproof methodology over the years and will share the secret since we are all friends here:

Point, Aim, Fire, Repeat.

Joined: 28 Jan 2018 Posts: 159

At the Ben Avery range north of Phoenix they have a large steel plate and you roll on a coat of axel grease.
The pellets leave a clean spot (no grease)
You can just reroll it without adding grease between shots.
Works fast and simple.

At the Ben Avery range north of Phoenix they have a large steel plate and you roll on a coat of axel grease.
The pellets leave a clean spot (no grease)
You can just reroll it without adding grease between shots.
Works fast and simple.

Joined: 08 Feb 2009 Posts: 1311 Location: Western WA