If a guy is just shooting a bead there is always the possibility of a "whiff" with an ultra tight pattern at close range. Iron sights, a scope, or a red dot sight are a tremendous advantage over a plain old bead at close range provided of course they are sighted in for the correctpoint of impact.

It is great to have a gun that will kill them at 50 yards but probably 90 percent of your birds more than likely will be under 30 yards many less than 20,so you have to take that into consideration. The tighter the pattern at longer ranges the more of a handicap it is at close range. A guy doesn't think he can miss at close range with a shotgun but it happens every year to fellas across the country.