Does shot string matter?

B

BrownDogsCan2

Well-known member
I experimented a little with the kent steel duplex loads this year. Just a couple of days and a hand full of birds before the shells ended up mixed together with other shells in my pocket. I shot the kent 2x4s. And a few 4x6s that no quail fell to, but one pheasant did in dramatic fashion. What I noticed with the 2x4s is that at 20-25 yards good kills seemed to be maybe slightly more explosive, but you know dead is dead. At 35- to maybe 45 in the extreme there was really no difference between the duplex and my normal number # 3's. Which is to be expected with the limits of steel shot.
Today I got to looking around at some of the other duplex offerings. The Migra 1x3s and Apex steel x tss loads. Anyway, I ran across a couple of videos that I thought were pretty interesting.

 
No, it is insignificant since the shot swarm is many times faster than the bird. There has been much written about it over the years from many more knowledgeable in ballistics than I. I believe Ed Lowery from Winchester did a good amount of work on this question and wrote a paper or article on it. You might try to google and try to find his writings. Also look into Roster, Brister, etc. writers that have touched on this topic.

The other more important question is what can you do about it if it did make a difference since all shot swarms have some stringing? Lots of thoughts about that but if its insignificant why worry about it!
 
I agree I just thought it was an interesting video. It surprised me that a shot string is 6-12’ I always assumed it was 2 or 3 ft. I read some of the comments in the video. Guys a lot smarter than me. A 12’ foot shot string is an extra foot of bird movement at 40 yards.. So potentially you’re losing an extra 5 percent? Of your pattern to a poor shot string.. The other thing that surprised me was how steel or tungsten loads had shorter strings and how the steel steel duplex load was consistent with straight steel loads.
 
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Well, that was what I was thinking, the shot is moving so fast compared to the target speed, it just isn't an issue. Good videos BDC2, thanks for sharing that. Now go pattern your shells on paper to determine what works best in your combo.
 
The string MAY be 12' but most of the pellets are in the first half of it, with only a few straglers in the last 3'.

Shoot good, spherical, hard pellets and they are not going to string very much, certainly not enough to worry about.

Let's assume your phez at 40 yds crossing at 90 degrees is going 40 mph. That is 58.7 fps.
By the time your shot gets to 40 yds it has slowed down to about 587 fps (regardless of how fast you launched it).
IOW the shot is going about 10X as fast as the bird.
So while the ENTIRE front half of a 12' shot string (i. e., 6' or 72") passes through the plane at 40 yds, the bird moves 1/10 that far, i. e., 7.2"

Now, how many 90-degree crossers do you get at 40 yards? I don't get many. I get going away birds at 40 yards.

And I'm just as likely to OVER-LEAD a 40-yard, 40-mph pheasant as I am to lead it perfectly, so maybe those pellets in the back of the 12' shot string are going to be the only chance I have! :)

I'd find something else to worry about.
 
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Coach 20-Gauge said:
The string MAY be 12' but most of the pellets are in the first half of it, with only a few straglers in the last 3'.

Shoot good, spherical, hard pellets and they are not going to string very much, certainly not enough to worry about.

Let's assume your phez at 40 yds crossing at 90 degrees is going 40 mph. That is 58.7 fps.
By the time your shot gets to 40 yds it has slowed down to about 587 fps (regardless of how fast you launched it).
IOW the shot is going about 10X as fast as the bird.
So while the ENTIRE front half of a 12' shot string (i. e., 6' or 72") passes through the plane at 40 yds, the bird moves 1/10 that far, i. e., 7.2"

Now, how many 90-degree crossers do you get at 40 yards? I don't get many. I get going away birds at 40 yards.

And I'm just as likely to OVER-LEAD a 40-yard, 40-mph pheasant as I am to lead it perfectly, so maybe those pellets in the back of the 12' shot string are going to be the only chance I have! :)

I'd find something else to worry about.
Click to expand...
To add to this, we only use 30 inch circle as an easy standard to compare. Most people have 40-50 inch circle of usable pellets which means the bird doesn't "escape" your pattern in any real world situation. Unless you are using a 3/4 ounce payload and have 20 ft shotstring while frequently taking 40 yard crossing shots, you simply are not going to notice a difference.
 
I think it was the red bearded dude in the previously mentioned videos, but his video on shot string indicated steel has a shorter shot string than lead if i remember correctly. Good chance I had some whiskey when I watched that tho. The Fiochi brand Scheels #3 with the dog on the box has killed them really dead for me the past few years.
 
LittleBigHorn22 said:
To add to this, we only use 30 inch circle as an easy standard to compare. Most people have 40-50 inch circle of usable pellets which means the bird doesn't "escape" your pattern in any real world situation. Unless you are using a 3/4 ounce payload and have 20 ft shotstring while frequently taking 40 yard crossing shots, you simply are not going to notice a difference.
Click to expand...

Good point. I also should have mentioned that even assuming a 30" effective pattern the effect of having the bird move 7.2" while the 72" string is passing through that plane would be entirely dependent upon where the bird was when the first part of the string arrived. If you slightly over-led the bird it would be hit with more pellets as it moved the 7.2" than it would with a 1" long (i. e., "flat") string because it would be moving toward the center of the pattern. It is only if you almost missed behind that the 6' shot string could cause fewer pellets to hit the bird, because it would be moving out of the 30" shot-swarm as it passed through.

And all that's with a 90-degree crosser going 40 mph. I have seen such (kicked up and missed by another hunter) but the vast majority of 40-yard pheasants I have seen were going away and/or flying more like 20-mph. They would not move 2" relative to the shot-swarm, no matter how long it is.

There are just so many things more important to worry about, and if you are choosing good, hard pellets you are minimizing shot-string length anyway.
 
This video reinforces what some are saying on this thread.


Note that you can see at about 1 minute that the shot at the tail end of the shot string (slower shot) is the shot at the outer edge of a pattern.

Two observations:

1. Your pattern is much more important than the shot string.

2. Birds struck at the outer edge of your pattern are being hit by lower energy shot than birds hit by the center of your pattern.
 
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Its going over 1,000 feet per second. 250 feet in 1/4 of a second. How much you think that bird is moving in 1/4 of a second? It doesnt matter, the whole string is going through that bird before it can blink.
 
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