Red, you bring about a good point that I surely hadn't thought about. I was looking at it in terms of each individual shot pellet, not the total # of pellets making contact. With that thought in mind, I suppose 15 pellets would have more energy than 6 pellets. Good point.

I've thought about that some more.....questions come up....I hate when I think....[&:]

Let's say 6 pellets with 100 foot pounds hit the bird. You add that up and get 600 ft pounds. Now, let's say 15 pellets hit making 1500 ft pounds. This I can see, but each pellet is still the same. So then, if each pellet only carries 100 ft pounds, why would you be able to kill them from farther away? Because as I understand this, with the velocity the same, and the shot pellet weight the same, it creates the same KE....correct?