Joe: Blowing patterns is a function of magnumitis, which seems to rise with the level of testosterone a man has. Seriously, there is not problem with blown patterns if you use reasonable loads. People keep refusing to admit there is a sound barrier at around 1100 fps, and think they can go above it, even with BP loads, and not pay a price. They can't. It doesn't matter what gauge the shotgun is, when you go above the sound barrier or even get into the transsonic zone, you pay the price.
Much of that relates to understanding how poor the lead pellet is aerodynamically, and why you can't expect to push it through the air in a straight line for very far. If you compare the drops in energy and velocity for any given size pellet shot at the fastest velocity compared to the slowest, you will see that all that extra energy is lost in the first 20 yds. Now, for turkey shooters, who try to wait until a turkey is within 25 yds, in order to get a pattern of shot on the turkey's neck and head to make a clean kill, all that extra powder may seem necessary. But, if you actually read those columns, and then stick with the lower velocity loads, you will find your gun puts lots more pellets on the turkey at 25-30 yds, and kills them very dead.
The guys that don't listen to me remind me of Skeet shooter who load up the guns to help that shot " spread " by blowing the patterns out of their shotguns. They suffer greater recoil, and almost all break down and begin to miss targets when they shoot more than 175 targets in one day. You can look at their score sheets and see the problems they bring on themselves. And, boy do they get angry when a new guy walk in without the most expensive gun, shoots light loads, and scores higher! If you don't shoot modern shotguns just for the increased practice, you are making a serious mistake. Most of the top shooters at Friendship come to that shoot directly from the Indiana State Shoot held the week before. They have at least a week, and sometime two full weeks of practice shooting clay targets before they role into Friendship to compete in the shotgun events there.
Its everyone's choice, but I truly believe you can't fool mother nature, and I don't try anymore.
People also refuse to understand that there is a basic law of physics that say what ever goes faster will slow down faster. In the past, I have referred people to the tables in the Lyman Shotshell reloading manual, not because they talk about black powder loads, but because they give actual velocities based on muzzle velocities for various loads, and then the down range velocities at 20, 40 and 60 yds. Other tables give energy figures for pellets, time of flight , and drop in flight for the various muzzle velocities of loads.
Those tables demonstrate the truth of those basic laws of physics in black and white. It does not matter if the pellet come out of the gun barrel pushed by smokeless powder, or black powder. Velocity is the key.
If people here would read the article by V.M.Starr in Bob Spenser's Black Powder notebook, they will learn the same lessons from the Dean of Black Powder shotgun choking: More is NOT necessarily better. In fact, most BP shotgun shooters here would consider his recommended loads on the whimpy side!
