How can you disagree with #2 and #3 Don, when they make no hard statement about any general principle? They are two of MY purposes for patterning a shotgun. If you read closely you will see that neither make a broad, sweeping statement about patterning, in any way. They are MY purposes. You may not agree with my reasoning for having these purposes, but you can't reasonably disagree with my opinions for myself. You can state that my principles are at fault, but my decisions on the level of accuracy necessary for me are mine. I have killed a limit of doves without a miss, a limit of 6 ducks with 6 shells, and have shot two 100/100 on sporting clays courses. Do I have to do each 10 times to have a valid statistical reference about my loads in each circumstance? I guess the answer may be "yes", and that without 10 replications it means nothing.
I just cannot see how determining the APPROXIMATE percentage of a load requires 10 shots, over 5? Remember, I said approximate. (The expectations here are the key. Actually, the expectations are the real reason for choosing 10 over other lesser numbers, are they not?)
