THE TECHNOID CHOKES UP FOR EDGE-ON.. An old sporting
clays canard has it that improved cylinder choke is all you ever need.
Smoker Smith used to claim that he used only "no choke in one barrel
and a little bit more in the other". Yea, right. How do you think he
originally got the name "Smoker"? Not with those open chokes, you can
be sure. He would have been called "Chip","Chipper" or "Bitsy".
Smith definitely did not share all his secrets.

Traveler Andy Duffy said he shot the whole NSCA championship
course with a pair of his Eyster Light mod .015"s and never changed.
While we certainly believe Andy, it is even more of a tribute to Andy's
remarkable shooting ability because, as you will see, he was
handicapping himself on some of the longer shots. Naturally, we are not
going to argue with the National Champion's result, but the rest of us
need all the help we can get. In many cases, all the help we can get
means more choke, not less, especially when we are dealing with edge-
on targets.

The Technoid's personal deity, John Brindle, wades into the deep
waters of this "more choke is often better" thing in his usual convoluted
manner. (Brindle appears to write in English, but that is only at first
glance. Delving deeper requires- well, deeper delving.)

To demonstrate why he thinks that the optimal clay breaking
pattern often requires more choke than is commonly thought, Brindle
breaks the standard 30" patterning circle into three concentric circles of
10", 20" and 30". He then shows how the percentage of shot in each of
the three circles changes as the percentage of shot in the total 30" circle
changes. Remember throughout all of this that the percentage of pellets
you can put into a 30" circle is a function of shell, choke and distance
from target. A 70% pattern from a full choke at 40 yards will look the
same as a 70% pattern from an I.C. at about at 20-25 yards.

Note that Brindle is using a high quality shell. Lower quality
shells will produce slightly different numbers. A 50% pattern from a
high quality shell will have less center weighting than a 50% pattern
from a low quality shell. Here is how Brindle lays it out. Where "T" is
the total percentage of shot in the 30" circle, "10" is the 10" center
bullseye of the pattern, "20" is the 10" to 20" ring and "30" is the 20"
to 30" ring:

T=40%(Cyl): 10"=5%, 20"=15%, 30"=20%
T=50%(I.C.): 10"=8%, 20"=18%, 30"=24%
T=60%(Mod): 10"=10%, 20"=22%, 30"=28%
T=70%(I.Mod): 10"=13%, 20"=27%, 30"=30%
T=80%(Full): 10"=17%, 20"=33%, 30"=30%
T=90%(XFull): 10"=25%, 20"=47%, 30"=18%

Brindle starts by saying that a normal shotgun pattern is always
denser in the middle than at the edges. There is no such thing as a
perfectly evenly distributed pattern. Very open patterns (40% and less)
approach -but do not achieve- even distribution in the 30" circle, but that
is just because the circle is not large enough to show the full distribution.
As the numbers show, the higher percentage of shot in the 30" circle,
the more marked the central thickening. Look at the figures- note how
the 10" percentages increase faster than the "T" total 30" percentages.
Do this as a percentage of the whole and you will see. Where "T"
increases from 50% to 80% (a 60% increase), 10" increases from 8% to
17% (a 112% increase).

"Plotted on a graph, the density of any diameter drawn across the
pattern is rather like the bell-shaped "normal" curve beloved of
mathematicians, the higher the percentage of pellets within the 30"
circle, the higher the peak of the curve." says Brindle. (As to patterning
and the bell curve, see "The Technoid takes Gauss"- RELOAD! February
1995). Burrard, in his classic The Gun, never figured this out and often
talked in terms of "evenly distributed" patterns. Burrard must have been
making it up. Effective shotgun patterns are always "hotter" in the
center. A pattern has to be well under 40% (and thus of ineffective
density) to even casually appear to be almost evenly distributed over 30".
Anyone who tells you that his target crushing pattern is evenly
distributed across the 30" pattern circle needs better glasses or more
sodium pentothal.

Fine, so now you believe that ALL patterns are hotter in the
center than they are at the edges. Denser patterns are even hotter in the
center than looser ones, but they are all center biased. What does that
have to do with how you choke and why you should probably use more
choke for edge-on birds, rather than less? Simple (sort of).

As you have often read in this space, you want the pattern that
will put the most pellets into the effective fringe of the pattern. What we
will find out in the following is that for certain target angles this may
take more choke than you have been normally using.

Looking at the column of numbers above, you will see that as
pattern density increases (higher percentages of pellets in the 30" circle
as you would get from using tighter and tighter chokes), the center 10"
ALWAYS continues to get denser. The outermost 20"-30" fringe circle
does NOT ALWAYS do this! This fringe ring gets bigger for a while
and then it shrinks. As the percentage in the total 30" circle ("T")
increases, so does the percentage in the outer 20"-30" circle until it
plateaus when the pattern in the 30" circle hits the 70% and 80% mark.
Then the percentage in the outer 20"-30" ring starts to decline from
30% to 18% as patterns tighten over the 80% mark. The percentages in
the 10" central circle and the 10"-20" middle ring increase constantly as
the total 30" pattern increases and continue their increase even after the
total pattern reaches 80%.

The peaking curve of the 20"-30" ring crosses the ascending
curve of the 10"-20" ring at about 75% total pattern. This is the magic
number for most clay target patterns. This is also just about what full
choke is supposed to deliver at 40 yards, modified at 30 and improved
cylinder at 20. The barrel/cartridge combination that can consistently
produce 75% patterns at 40 yards is pretty good. An 80% pattern with
the less than totally efficient screw chokes we use today would be
exceptional. Bottom line: At forty yards and out use every bit of choke
you have if you want the maximum effective fringe for an edge-on bird.

"Full at 40" is easy to remember, but what about the shorter
distances? For edge-on targets you will have to tighten down there too if
you want reliable patterns. The Technoid is certainly not going to tell
you that a legal shell can fully fill a 30" pattern. The biggest circle that
a 1 1/8 oz load of #8s can properly fill to insure a reliable break on an
edge-on bird is about a 24". Do the math. General experience has
shown that it takes 2-3 pellet hits to break a clay target reliably. The
profile of an edge-on 110mm target measures a bit under 5 sq". You are
going to need a pattern that can reliably produce 2-3 hits in every 5 sq".
We will aim for a density of 3 pellets per 5 sq" as an average and hope
that we get 2 pellets per 5 sq" at the edge of the pattern, knowing that
the fringe will be thinner than the center, as shown above.

Here is how to figure it out. 1 1/8 oz of #8s contain about 460
pellets. From the table of numbers above you can see that an 80% Full
choke pattern puts 50% of its pellets into the center 20".
That would be 230 #8s into that center 20" circle containing 314 sq".
Assuming perfect distribution (which we had just shown does not exist),
that works out to one pellet every 1.34 sq". That is a little denser than
one pellet for each 1.67 sq". If we increase the circle to 24" diameter it
will include 453 sq". The 4" ring from 20" to 24" contains 139 sq",
about 1/3 of the entire 20"-30" ring's 393 inches. It would have 1/3 of
30% of the pellet load shown in the numbers above (actually, perhaps a
bit more due to central thickening of the pattern, but let's not quibble).
That is 10% of the pellets for the 20" to 24" inch ring added to 50% of
the pellets for the 20" center. Thus the central 24" of an 80% full choke
pattern would have 60% of the 460 #8s, or 276 pellets in its 453 sq".
This comes out to one pellet per 1.64 sq"- just about exactly 3 pellets for
the five square inches of the edge-on target. Yes, there are tons of
variables- different sized targets, targets showing some skirt, targets with
a lot or a little spin, targets retreating or advancing. On the other side,
lots of times you get a nice break with just two pellets, but the important
thing to note is that you cannot count on it. Three is the number.

So, the biggest reliable killing pattern you can count on from
your gun is 24", IF you use 1 1/8oz shells with #8s. Sorry one ounce
fans, but lighter loads mean smaller effective patterns. Gotta be. For
distances beyond 40 yards, assuming that 80% patterns are about as full
as you can actually get, effective pattern size starts to shrink rapidly. It
has been suggested that the 27 yard handicap trap shooter, shooting a
target at 45-47 yards, has an effective pattern of about 15".

Now here is the important part: What works at 40 yards also
works at 20 and 30 yards. You want to deliver about 75-80% of your
shot into a 30" circle at the target regardless of the distance. If you do
this, you know that you can count on having a good killing pattern in the
center 24". Less, or more, of a pattern spread means that you are not
maximizing your pattern and will not obtain this 24" killing circle. A
consistent 75% pattern at the target will almost certainly require more
choke than you are used to using. If the target is edge-on, you will
probably want to go up one degree of choke from what you are used to.
Equally obviously, if the target is a driven showing the whole belly, or a
fully turned battue, it will not need one pellet in each 1.67 sq" and you
can afford to open up quite a bit.

Looks can be deceiving. An 80% pattern on the bird means that
if you center the target, you will often puff it. It is going to look too
tight, but it isn't. You are not worried about the center of the pattern.
You just want the biggest effective fringe possible. As the Technoid has
told you repeatedly, the center of your pattern will always break the
bird. Ignore it. Concentrate on maximizing the fringe and getting that
full 24". Due to central thickening, this will always mean that the center
of your pattern is too hot. No way around it. If your center is just
right, your fringe will be too thin and your effective pattern smaller than
it should be.

The fact that Brindle insists on patterning into the traditional 30"
ring is confusing. If optimum pattern size for #8s lies at about 24" and
#9s at about 27", why doesn't he use the Technoid's 27" patterning
circle and just study the pattern in the 20"-27" annular ring? Sniff.
N.I.H. (Not Invented Here) probably. You, however, are under no such
constraint.

Bottom line? Brindle says that you are not maximizing your
fringe unless you are getting 70-80% of your pattern into a 30" circle at
the distance at which you are breaking the bird. This will insure a
properly filled 24" circle and that is all that you can hope for. The rest
of the pellet distribution outside of the 24" circle is not dense enough to
always insure a broken edge-on target. All this will certainly mean full
choke from 35-40 yards out and may well mean modified at 30 yards,
light modified at 25 yards and improved cylinder at 20 yards. This is
probably one degree of choke more than you are used to using.

Previously, the Technoid had recommended skeet (.005") to 20
yards, light modified (.015") to 35 yards and improved modified (.030")
thereafter. These are still good all-around chokes for the wide variety of
targets we encounter. That said, when the bird is edge-on and you just
have to break it to win, remember the mathematics of the situation and
choke down.

Many people happily go through their shooting careers using less
than optimal choke for the edge-on birds. They break enough targets to
have faith in their choke selection. When they do not break a bird, they
assume that they have simply missed. They never consider the fact that
a little tighter choke might have given them a slightly larger effective
pattern and that might have given them the bird. Remember the words
of John Satterwhite, US Olympic Skeet Team 1976, who was quoted
here before: "I want the best pattern I can get because when I miss, I
don't miss by much."

Do a little experimenting on paper and warm up your calculator.
Do not be misled by the heaviness of your target breaks. If you center
the bird, you should puff it. If you center the clay and just crinkle it
into five or six pieces, you pattern may be a little too open to give you
the most efficient outer ring possible at that distance. It does not sound
right, but it is. Just always think in terms of filling out the fringe as
much as possible. The center will take care of itself. You want to get
your full 24" of effective coverage to ensure the hit you deserve on a
edge-on target.

So, after wading through all of this (The Technoid makes Brindle
much clearer, right?), you should come away with one lesson: Use extra
choke for edge-on targets.

Next month we will go into what happens to the effective part of
your pattern (that 24") before and after it reaches optimal range. You
may be in for a surprise. Bet you just can't wait.