ORIGINAL: biscuit jake
As with some, as shotguns became available in longer shells I moved up but did not keep my old gear to compare patterns. So I am wondering, for those who have deep safes and have some in all chamber lengths, what your thoughts may be on pattern effectiveness as the shot column gets longer. Have you found it worth the extra cost and weight?
Hard part about that jake is that shot column length (shot string length) is rather difficult to measure. Bob Brister put a sheet of plywood covered in paper on the side of a boat on a trailer and had his old lady drive it past him at 35 miles an hour to test just such a thing. Honestly I think suggesting such a test (at least around my camp) would net me an excellent opportunity to test out the couch for a week. I think a lot of what you may notice with longer shot strings will just be that when you look at a bird that you have shot, it will have the same number of hits as if you'd shot it with a 2 3/4" load.... you just can't tell exactly what part of the pattern or shot string you hit it with. Pattern testing only offers us a 2 dimensional view of our pattern... when really we need 4 dimensions... not just height and width, but also depth and length. Without some high ticket camera equipment, its hard to tell. We can read articles all day... but I'm more of a I wanna see it guy.
I only shoot 3.5" shells at turkeys. Its a pellet count game. You'll no doubt notice by the handle and picture that I'm a duck hunter, and collectively, duck and turkey hunting is my thing... and I don't even own a 3.5" waterfowl gun any more..... why bother to fool with such a thing as I see it? Louder, more expensive, kick harder... all to shoot a hovering mallard duck at 35 yards? I'm about to buy a 20 gauge BPS this summer for ducks in the 08-09 season.... most folks are looking for longer shells... I'm switching to yellow shells.
3.5" loads give you more pellets, and in a few select cases now, can give you a bit more speed.... a BIT more speed. I've never in my life shot a bird with a 3.5" shell I couldn't have killed with a 2 3/4" shell, and I've never lost or missed a bird with a 2 3/4" or 3" that I think I would have collected had I been using another 1/2" of chamber and shell.