Pattern Testing - the moment of truth!

Sunday 15th April 2007.

Must mow the grass but before I do I will shoot a quick pattern test. Nothing really suitable around but drag an empty Dyson box out of the garage. Mark two horizontal strips across it with Securicor diamond Tape. Ideal stuff, 2" wide and black in colour. Decide to take two shots at bottom strip with bottom barrel and two shots at upper strip with top barrel. At 25 yards this will provide a dense enough pattern to clearly identify the centre of the pattern. Chokes in the barrel left unchanged at 2 and 3, at this range it will not make any significant difference. Cartridge used is Hull DTL 300 in shot size 7 (2.4mm). Stack beads figure of eight and bring the front bead just up to the horizontal line. Shoot and register that I pulled a little left. Amazing how hard it can be to shoot at a stationery target and flinching becomes a real problem. Fire the rest without any repeat. Analyzing the target shows that the top barrel is indeed 50/50 and right on the mark.

Normally this would be considered a little low for trap but I have often felt that a second barrel shooting right on like this could be very useful in the UK. The second shot is generally at a flatter target and often it is one that is already being pushed down by wind. Bottom barrel is very close to 50/50, perhaps more 55/45 and a lot flatter than I am used to. I have always picked up my bottom barrel to be more 75/25 or even 80/20 so 55/45 is very flat compared to what I have shot in the past. That said I should not have missed targets with that pattern so I was almost certainly quitting on the target a lot of the time. So what to change? I could pick both up by lowering the rib at the front but I would really like to shoot a bit more with the second barrel exactly where it is. After all I had to use the second barrel eight times in the line and connected well with 7 out of the 8. I had shot at quite a few pieces and centered them convincingly in the pattern. Make the decision to change the factory fitted #5 hanger to a #3 or even a #2. I will then shoot another line and concentrate on keeping the gun moving. Stock length I will leave for now as I make it a rule to only ever change one thing at a time. Once I have re-built the muscle memory the length may be ok anyway.

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