oh boy, the trusty 410 does that bring back memories. . i drug that thing for miles and miles and never got a bird when i was younger and didint now anything about it or why.. .. the most vivid thing i can remember in them days was my dad always cleaned averyones pheasants just before we ate lunch,(charles city iowa) , then ate his sandwich with all the fresh blood on his hands. . lots of it.. he was hardcore.. oh! and the 410, the only thing i ever got with it was a racoon we beat to death lying in a cornrow.. the 410 shot didnt do the job thats for sure.. i think it was its dying day anyhow, or it was sick.. stock is still cracked and my dad now in his 80s still has it.. dave..

ffffg:

I am of the old country boy practice where we hung a sheet and "patterned" a shotgun. My impression from those days (and I did it right down to 20 years ago was that shotguns sometimes had real holes in the pattern. At 30 yards I often had "blown" patterns that a pheasant could have flown through. Please understand me. I'm not picking an argument with you. I have been shooting a shotgun since I was 12 (410) and regularly since I was 14 and I'm 74 today. I shot Lefevre and Fox for doubles and Winchester and Remington for autos and pumps. I read where Gatogordo noted that he had fired some 750,000 rounds, registered and for practice at trap. I believe him. (I often shot on pick up squads with these fanatics and found out that they never stop!) It just seems that saying that 90% in a 30" circle at 40 yards is a level of performance of a shotgun that is not what gatogordo or I ever saw. Are you a liar?. Of course not. You have been blessed with owning some shotguns that performed according to textbook. I just don't think that most shotguns, regardless of price, ever throw the pattern as the choke might intend. (BTW, I was in Montana over 40 years ago. That's also God's country - but then I think the whole West is!