As soon as the dogs hit the ground, the subject of luck naturally arises. Napoleon was no man's fool. He knew "lucky" generals had a way of making their own luck.

Making your own luck -- The knowledge which follows has been artfully concealed from you by a generation of rifle-shooting writers who would have you believe that rifle marksmanship technology is transferable to shotgun use. It is not. These guys think that the sun rises and sets with windage and elevation -- which limits their perceptions to pretending that by staring at shotgun patterning boards and imagining they are performing some useful function. Drawing conclusions from a stationary target with both heels dug in is ridiculous on the face of it. Mary Russell sums it up nicely in A Letter to Mary by Laurie R. King, when she says: "My dear Holmes, this verges on deductio ad absurdum."

All a shotgun patterning board does is confirm what you already know: a load of shot passed through it and that some chokes have tighter patterns than others. Big deal. Worse yet, it's misleading because it reduces a three dimension event to two dimensions, thus concealing from you the single, most important dynamic of shotgun usage -- the shot string.

Luck starts with know-how. If you want to be lucky, then you need to learn how to use the shot string to your target's disadvantage. If you think of your shot string as a projectile (Gough Thomas refers to it as a "stumpy sausage"), it might help you visualize what happens when a doves comes whistling across an alfalfa field, heading toward the stock tank. What you are fixing to do is throw that projectile in front of the dove. Your plan is, more or less, to have the dove fly into the shot string and commit suicide.

Nowhere is this demonstrated better than in the accompanying illustration from SHOTGUN SHOOTING FACTS by Gough Thomas and Published by Winchester Press. It captures that drama of the instant. Note that the first 3 or 4 feet of this 12-foot-long shot string contain more than half the pellets and an even greater percentage of the energy, which determines the penetration and killing power of the charge. In this unusual drawing -- in which the shooter has over-lead the target -- the bird is going to fly into the tail (and weakest part) of the shot string. He will be exposed to only those pellets contained between the parallel lines. And maybe keep right on going.

Shot string smarts. You can go to school on this illustration. Long shot strings are bad. Short shot strings are good. Cheap shotgun shells, which are made with soft (chilled) shot deforms easily and is often irregular in size and weight. If you cut open a "promotional" load of, for example, No. 8's -- do not be surprised to find a mixture of shot sizes that range from Nos. 7-1/2 to 9. Those that are deformed upon ignition (maybe as high as 20%) may leave the pattern altogether and go cart-wheeling off into space (a greater danger to your dog than the bird). The heavier pellets will elbow their way to the head of the shot string. The lighter pellets will bring up the rear -- trailing maybe 15 feet behind the leaders and probably lacking in energy to get their job done. An "unlucky" set of circumstances for a wing-shooter. Have your ammunition maker blow on the dice for you. Higher priced shotshells are worth every penny you pay for them. They use hard shot ("Magnum" or "Long Distance" shot usually means about 5% antimony content and sometimes nickel- or copper-coated) that is rounder, more uniform in size and resists deformation. The wads have better cushioning and shot protection built into them. The care and quality control work that goes into today's high grade ammunition does everything possible to insure the maximum payload into the shortest possible shot string. You do get the bigger bang for the bigger buck. This drawing shows that even if you shoot too far ahead of the target, at least you have a chance to score. Obviously, if you shoot behind the target, you have no chance at all. And the amount of lead increases with distance from the target. Lucky shooters know that, when in doubt, too much lead is better than not enough. The rising bird -- the correct position for placement of the shot string projectile for a just-flushed, 15-yard bird is above it. We know that clipping tail feathers or seeing a leg drop on a pheasant is the result of shooting under the bird. If that just-flushed pheasant was perched on your front sight when you fired, it's likely the shot string passed under him. The correct sight picture on a rising bird is to cover -- blot out -- the bird with the muzzle. Your plan is to position your shot string above Mr. Rooster and let him fly up into it.

Note that in this shot string portrait, 75% of the pellets are in the first half of the shot string and that the pigeon will be exposed to only those pellets enclosed within the parallel lines. Source: SHOTGUN SHOOTING FACTS

The shot string is cylindrical in shape with the diameter controlled by the choke constriction at the muzzle. At 15 yards -- a not uncommon distance for a just-flushed pheasant -- the pattern diameter of Improved Cylinder will be about 20 inches.

But when he's on cruise control -- say 30 yards out and heading for the next county -- you'll want to position your shot string a foot under him so that his flight plan and your shot string converge. The pattern diameter from your Modified barrel will be about a 30 inches at 30 yards.

As we have seen . . . being lucky afield is directly related to the application of shot string technology or, more simply stated, shooting where the bird is going to be. So when a shooting partner calls out "Nice shot!" or your dog gives you an approving glance, it doesn't matter whether you ascribe it to "beginners luck" or "luck of the Irish" or "it's my lucky day" or "luck beats skill every time." When Napoleon comes to your name on his list . . . the answer is "Yes!"

 

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