Pattern testing at actual shooting distances with actual pheasant loads is the only way to determine how your shotgun will perform in the field. Photo by Mike Schoonveld.

It's the weekend before deer gun season opens. You better get to the shooting range and get there early to claim your spot. Other shooters, all armed with their favorite deer-boomer will be there as well, tinkering with loads, adjusting their scopes, getting their guns dialed in perfectly for the opening day action.

On the weekend before the pheasant opener, however, the shooting range won't be so crowded. What shotgun shooters are there, are mostly tossing clay targets to whet their shooting skills rather than to fine-tune the scattergun.

There's certainly nothing wrong with a few practice sessions; in fact, the best wingshooters are those hunters who spend plenty of time busting clay birds on a year-round basis. Equally important as good shooting skills is knowing exactly how your shotgun performs on the patterning board with the shotshells you plan to use in the field.

TRADITIONAL PATTERN TESTING
Gun makers learned to put a "choke" in shotgun barrels more than a century ago. As we all know, a choke creates a slight constriction at the muzzle to produce less scatter from the scattergun.

The inside of a 12-gauge shotgun barrel with no choke measures .729 inches. How much "choke" is put at the end of the barrel can be measured two ways. Manufacturers simply measure the amount of constriction. The choke called "improved cylinder" has .01 inches of constriction. The choke called "modified" has .02 inches of constriction and the amount of constriction can continue right on up to super-full choke barrels having .05 inches of constriction.

An alternate way of determining whether a shotgun barrel is a full choke, modified or improved cylinder is to test the pattern on a large sheet of paper tacked on a target holder. A shot is fired at the target from 40 yards and then the real work begins.

The shooter "eyeballs" what he or she considers to be the center of the pattern and then draws a 15-inch radius circle from the center point. The result would be a 30-inch circle with some of the pellet holes inside the circle and others outside.

Using a table that shows how many pellets are in each shotshell (for instance 1 ounce of No. 6 lead shot contains 225 pellets), the tester counts the number of pellet hits inside the circle and then arithmetically determines what percentage of the pellets are within the ring. I've heard of chokes that put almost 90 percent of the pellets inside the 30-inch ring, but a standard full choke delivers about 70 percent. A modified choke delivers 60 percent and an improved cylinder pattern is one where half the pellets strike inside the circle and half outside of the ring.

So why all of this hubbub about chokes and patterns? Full chokes are for long shots, improved cylinders are for short ranges, and all a shooter needs to do is look at the choke stamped on the barrel or on the choke tube screwed into the muzzle to see what he or she is shooting.

Not so fast. Though the old maxim "every shotgun is different" is still somewhat true, the difference between most production guns of the same model these days is very slight. The materials and machining are so uniform that any patterning differences with like guns won't be pronounced. Provided, of course, identical shotshells are being used.

Head down to a well-stocked ammunition emporium and you'll soon have your head spinning when it comes to choosing a box of shotshells. That center aisle display of "pheasant" loads with 1 1/4 ounce of No. 6 shot seems a bargain against the same company's premium loads containing 1 1/4 ounce of No. 6 shot, but with a much steeper price tag. Is there that much difference? Then there are magnum loads and low-recoil loads and extra high-speed loads and on and on.

Each load is different and each load will probably pattern differently. The only way to find out exactly how much difference in performance is to pattern test. What you are likely to learn is the inexpensive shells pattern closer to the 50, 60 or 70 percent standard for improved, modified or full choke. The premium loads will probably pattern about one "choke" or about 10 percent tighter.

Only testing will show what will happen if you switch from lead shot-allowed for pheasants most places--to non-toxic shot required in a few places. In the non-toxic category, don't expect similar performance from all the types of steel shot that's available. Steel won't pattern the same as tungsten/iron, which will be different from bismuth and on and on. Some differences will be slight, others will be pronounced. Only time spent pattern testing will show those differences.