16ga.com ~ View topic - Has this been done? Optical patterning board...

Ok not really 16ga only applicable, but If no one has done this yet, then I figured someone here would know about it. Also if it hasn't been done, then Why not let one of the society members have the first crack at it??

Everyone shuld patttern their guns, but it is a major PITA to re pattern for each load, choke, etc. What if you caould speed the process up, so you didn't need to walk up and down the range to change targets.

What if you had a thin sheet of falling water, which could recycle. and a digital/video camera rigged to snap when the gun goes off. Add a laser pointer or 30" steel ring behind the water to give you a target. You could Fire and see the result immediatly. I'd think that stock fitters would LOVE something like this.

I'm not sure if you could get a digital/video camera which would be fast enough to get the image you would need. I'm not up to speed, so to speak, with this type of technology.

Probably would be too expensive except for major shooting centers, but most technology starts off speciallized at first...

Could work.

I've never shot a gun through falling water to see if there is enough resolution to see an actual pattern. Most run of the mill video rigs are around 19 frames per second so a high speed camera may be needed. I would think that it would be difficult to see the detail of the pattern with all of the water flying everywhere. In addition, free falling water will always want to bead up when looked at under magnification so getting a sheet would be difficult. If the water flowed over a surface in the laminar flow regime it would stay together and sheet pretty well if a surfactant was added to break the surface tension. Only problem is that the surface would become rough over time from the lead shot and sheeting would probably stop due to turbulence from the roughened surface. Other issue might be the freezing of water when it gets cold. Some of us still shoot below 32F! I'm not saying that it couldn't work, its just the anal / negative thinking engineer in me!

My buddy has a 4'x4' steel plate about 5' in the air with a hardened bolt in the center to shoot at. We slather black grease onto it with a paint-roller and shoot it to pattern shotguns. It has pretty good resolution (you can pick out some flyers), works wonderful for general patterning and stock adjusting but you can't really count the shot beads like you can with paper. I would think you could build something that when you push a button, a plate wide roller could re-roll the grease without walking up to the board.

A system with a big roll of butcher paper with 30" pre-printed circles on it and a motor to advance it would give you (A printout) with excellent resolution that the user could tear off when finished. It would not recycle of course but I would think that it has possibilites as well.

Guess it would be nice to have a machine to do all this work Exclamation

I enjoy walking back and forth from my pattern stand and sure don't see it as a PITA. I own more machinery than most folks could dream of but I enjoy walking up to that pattern board with my old Lab and walking back under the walnut tree where the Lab and I sit down and check it out. Prolly would be different if I lived "city" and had to go to a range or club to do my work. Walking is good, just ask someone who can't.

When you play "virtual "golf, you hit the ball and a beam of light captures it. The balls flight is then displayed on a computer screen.

If the pellets passed through that same beam of light at , say x yardage, you could then read the pattern on your lap-top. Then, you could move the beam further out, and pattern at a different distance.

Go make it!! Send my royalty checks to me C/O 16ga. Society.

Good luck,

Peter Weber

Member Joined: 28 Oct 2005 Posts: 665 Location: Louisiana

Ralph---If you will replace your grease with a slurry of white plumber's lead and cheap 30W motor oil, you can apply it to your board and it will give you a nice white 'background' and the shot will print easily seen and discrete darker (black) dots. Apply with a paint roller.