Im a doubting Thomas, but still barely with Greener and Brister, and all the others that have grasped for the grail of better patterns.
And I do think some reconciliation of science and art of choking shotguns can be made.
Even Dr. Jones looks at the corrupted patterns of spreader loads and makes exception for those.
And while W.W. Greener certainly was a good promoter, he believed in himself, and wasnt a fraud. Neither was Brister or Eyster. They all recognized all patterns have a bit of the roulette wheel to them. They said patterns were the result of science, art, and chance.
If you have an old gun with a Polychoke, its easier, but in these modern times you can take any shotgun above .410 gauge that has interchangeable choke tubes, and conduct this simple test on a patterning plate, or on butcher paper.
Take a box of shotgun shells, all the same load, factory loads leave less to chance, and a shotgun with a device to vary the chokes,,,thats the same type of choke. Measure exactly 30 feet back from the pattern plate. Make a mark on the ground. Put the end of the muzzle directly over that mark and fire a series of patterns at the plate, from true cylinder bore (threads for a choke tube gun) to the tightest choke you have.
Heres one I did with an Auto Five Light Twelve with a Deluxe Polychoke.
https://imgur.com/a/DFGJ3Heres another using six extended choke tubes with an SKB 685, top two rows, the bottom row other guns.
https://imgur.com/gallery/RZMkdWhat will always happen, every time you try this, will be as the choke constriction gets tighter the circles shrink. You dont need to average patterns or make calculations. At ten yards 40 thousanths of choke makes a smaller circle in the plate than 25 thousandths which makes a smaller circle than 20 thousandths, on down to cylinder bore, which will have the widest circle.
This is the ten yard patterning shortcut Jack OConnor wrote about in The Shotgun Book, but he didnt claim to discover it.
Now, if the scientists are right, it should be possible to shoot a wide cylinder bore pattern at ten yards, of whatever size circle the choke and load shoots, say 15 inches, and then put in a full tube (or screw the Polychoke down to full) and start stepping back to where theres a 15 inch full choke circle pattern on the plate, and there wont be any differences (except normal distribution) between the 10 yard cylinder patterns and (lets say) 15 yard full choke patterns.
Ive tried to do that, but when I try it, the full choke pattern can be made to shoot an identical size circle, at some further range, but it will have a denser core and not be as evenly distributed as the identically sized pattern from the cylinder bore shot at closer range.
And if you shoot the cylinder at 15 yards, and step back far enough with a full choke to duplicate the same circle, the differences are even more apparent.
The scientists may either deny thats so or say thats merely normal distribution, and Ive not actually duplicated the circles.
But try it and see, and I think youll cling to the faith that its possible to have better patterns, not just tighter ones.
Brister named his book well.
Patterns are the result of art, and science, both.
