I have been thinking about single pellet clay breaks as discussed by Dr. Andrew Jones in his new patterning book. Having looked at his photos and his data, I have become much more observant of target breaks. I have noted that some targets break pretty much in half and believe this is a pretty sure sign of a single pellet break. Couple of weeks ago I did some crusing of a skeet field "landing zone." Following are photos of some of what I found.
A single pellet hit that "almost but not quite" broke.
Inside of the previous clay. Note the lack of penetration by the pellet, yet the extent of the "reverse" damage due to the brittle material getting hit with a shock load force.
Looks like a one pellet break, although I don't have the other half to prove it. Note the break goes across the pellet hit and the extent of fracture.
Inside of previous clay. Note the reverse side damageand the fracture lines.
A case of a pellet skipping off the edge of the rim, yet fracturing the clay.
Extensive inside damage.
I think a test desinged to maximize single pellet hits is in order. A large sheet of plastic in the major landing zone should aid recovery of targets and fragments. As noted in a previous thread, we need field data that indicates the % of single pellet hits that result in a scorable target.
