doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Hypothetical question re spreader loads

Yes, Rob. A spreader will enlarge the pattern more, even when shot out of a cylinder barrel. Some believe that the tighter the choke, the more a spreader opens. I.e., whereas a IC choked barrel may shoot a SK pattern with a spreader, a XF choked barrel may open up to a M. I've never seen proof, nor disproof, of that contention. So, I accept it as a possibility until I am shown one way or the other.

SRH

I haven't seen flyers with handloaded bismuth. My Alabama friends who come up for woodcock and grouse said they wouldn't use spreaders for fear of hitting their dogs. My guess is they may have been referring to softer shot of years ago---and were keeping a factoid alive.

Even if one shot a large surface and if the first shot didn't show flyers, how many more shots would it take to satisfy the issue?

I tried spreader loads a long time ago, and the only time I would consider using them again would be if I absolutely felt the need to shoot a very tightly choked gun, and didn't wish to alter the original chokes. And I don't like the idea of altering original chokes either. There is a better solution to both problems. It is more fun and more interesting too. Just buy more shotguns. Don't try to turn a duck gun into an upland bird gun, or vice-versa.

I have a choice of several open choked guns for early season grouse, and I have a number of tightly choked guns for turkeys or late season pheasants. And I have guns that are choked in between those extremes. I do not golf. But if I did golf, I don't think I would try some clamp-on accessory that enabled me to use a 9 iron as a putter. And I don't know any golfer that would either.

My only pattern testing of the spreader loads I used was some informal shooting at large sheets of paper or cardboard. I don't recall any wild extreme flyers, but my patterns had some large enough holes to concern me. I also don't even recall what brand I used. I can tell you what I do know... from shooting a very large amount of objects from a slingshot as a kid... from perfectly spherical ball bearings, to fairly round iron ore pellets, to round stones, to misshapen stones... objects that I could actually see in flight. I would be much more concerned that a dog or fellow hunter might get struck by flattened or reclaimed shot than I would by flyers from well outside the pattern of a spreader load. Misshapen projectiles can and do have some very erratic and unpredictable flight paths. These tales of a poor dog getting raked by dozens or up to 100 pellets are either horrible accidents or careless shooting. I would not question the possibility of one or two flattened pellets going well outside the bulk of a pattern.

Spreaders loaded with either the BPI 'X' wad or the Polywad inserts work, and work very well. I use both to good effect turning the modified choked left barrels of both 12 and 20 gauge field guns into usable barrels for skeet doubles.

I have not found a reason to employ them in the field, and I likely would refrain.

I'm convinced there is really no safe place in front of the muzzle plane of a shotgun. Pellets can and do fly all over hell.

Even behind one is no guarantee of safety. Pal of mine had to have a pellet dug out of his nose, the result of a bounce off an overhead going away target.

I've never been fond of shooting directly over a dog, I'd not want anyone shooting directly over me...

Exactly....I was patterning a turkey gun once with an extremely tight choke. I was shooting large pieces of cardboard at 40 yds. I had a can of black spray paint I was painting an aiming point with between shots I threw the can over to the side about 10 or 15 yards from the target each time. A stray pellet struck the can and let all my paint out.

Myself I wouldn't fire a shot with a person or a dog anywhere in front of the muzzle.

I bet a big load of those TSS #12 pellets loaded in a spreader would play hell on a rabbit target.

Just saying...

Speaking just from my experience. Spreaders work well in all chokes for up close pointed birds.
My current go to quail gun this year was one of my RBL�s 20 gauge with Skeet and skeet chokes. Shooting 2 1/2� Spreaders.
I shoot this combination for one reason, because it works for me.

Skeet chokes with spreaders is a pretty "open" situation, GR. If I had a gun with SK and SK I wouldn't bother with spreaders. I'd be concerned that if I were faced with a longish shot on a quail I wouldn't have enough choke to take it. I get lots of (second) shots on quail that are in the 25-35 yd. range, and always going away. Personally, I like something like LM for that.

But, if it works for you that's the important thing. We don't all have the same situations.

Thanks for the reply, SRH

Mention of disc shot was made; it was known as plumbago(sp?)and commercially sold & loaded, at one time. The use of that particular name may have been to mean 'flower' or it may have been because the leadwort flowers are generally flat; I never could run the etymology down and even the spelling is open to argument w/marketing hardly being new. Remington's 'Shure Shot' ammo has caused me to misspell 'sure' much of my life. Ha! I've posted on making purposely deformed flat disc shot before, so won't repeat that, but it WILL produce wide & unpredictable patterns that deteriorate rapidly.

On cubed shot; it was the Russians who won the Olympics at International skeet some years back using specific cartridges for each station; before some rule 'refinements' were made. Their station 8 rounds were loaded w/cubed aluminum shot! More pellets within then allowable weight limit + erratic flight for a quick & close bloom. Station 8, being the position half way and in line w/the two houses, so the closest shots taken in a round or 'box' of skeet.

I've witnessed a person being struck by a pellet while shooting skeet. Shooter was on station 4. That's the outer station in the centre of the field, for those unfamiliar with the game. Only plausible explanation is that the pellet did a 180 degree turn running on the inside periphery of the target's bottom just prior to the target coming apart and it came back to hit another person on the squad. Have also been told of a similar instance where one of the shooter's lenses was broken from a pellet coming back and striking it during a registered shoot on the W coast many years ago. Had a friend who was on the squad when it happened. Just saying.

The French at one time used 'Raye' boring in some shotgun bbl.'s, ostensibly to affect an earlier pattern bloom; it was like a paradox, i.e., a bit of rifling toward the muzzle, but smooth bored behind or between the end of the forcing cone forward to where the rifling occurred. I've owned & patterned some French double guns w/that feature as well as trying the assorted 'diffusion' & rifled factory & after market chokes in several semi-auto shotguns. All of it on grease plates and when using modern hard shot w/plastic or card wads found they pretty much all produced IC type patterns! It was an eye opener for me at the time. Others have reported similar findings since.

Bit of a ramble, but its a fun subject, spreaders. And we all know that patterns open more at sea level and in the swamp than they do at higher elevations, right? :-)