My family and I spent the weekend at our old home place this weekend. My uncle went down and cut the grass Friday and it was to windy to do any control burning so all that was left to do was shoot stuff! I spent all of Saturday shooting clays and patterning. My kids got to shoot all they wanted also. The kids are getting pretty good at birds going away.
I was shooting the Fed 4 packs in 7 1/2's and finally got my point of impact adjusted to where I wanted. I then started working on patterning percentages when I made a startling discovery! Federal Lied!!! I started counting pellet strikes and was getting WAY too many strikes. I cut a shell open and counted the shot inside. I counted 485 pellets in a 1 1/8 ounce load of 7 1/2's. I double checked the box and shell and both were labeled 7 1/2's. The count should have been around 394 according to my chart. That is 123% of what it should be and really screws with your patterning percentages. There were quite a few pellets that were stuck together. That explains some of the funny strike marks on the paper and should make them twice as good as 6's.
The 4 packs are cheap and soft shooting making them fun to shoot, just don't use them to gauge pattern percentages.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
Are you sure they were not 8's instead of 7 1/2's, the reason I ask is because there are 460 # 8's in a 1 1/8th ounce load. Next thing I would do is weigh the shot charge to see if it's 1 1/8th ounces or more? Next I would check the dia of these pellets with a pair of dial calipers. Just because the box says they are 7 1/2's does not mean they are; there might have been a mixup at the factory.
Bob A.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
Are you sure they were not 8's instead of 7 1/2's, the reason I ask is because there are 460 # 8's in a 1 1/8th ounce load. Next thing I would do is weigh the shot charge to see if it's 1 1/8th ounces or more? Next I would check the dia of these pellets with a pair of dial calipers. Just because the box says they are 7 1/2's does not mean they are; there might have been a mixup at the factory.
Bob A.
Hey Bob,
I did double check the box and hulls and all said 7 1/2's. Some pellets were tiny like 9's and others were larger and some welded together. There were all sizes in the shot I opened. I didn't check the weight or pellet diameter. The way I was patterning was to shoot 4 shots and then count so to get better sample. By shooting 4 times at one piece of paper you can see the a lot of detail in the pattern that is missed in one shot patterns. The four round's count in the 30' circle and the others around the circle added up to more than 1 1/8 oz of 7 1/2s were supposed to have. That is what got me to looking closer.
This will not stop me from shooting the 4 packs. However, I will use better quality rounds for my patterning experiments from now on.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
Oh yeah, BTW, I cut open a Nitro 27, 1 1/8oz, 7 1/2 load and the pellet count was 416. I suspected it would be higher than the reference count of 394 as the antimony is higher in the magnum shot.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
My chart shows approx 388 7 1/2's in a 1 1/8 ounce load but I can believe in some shells you can likley get up to 416 as I think they are dropped automatically and some will have 388, 395, or 416. I don't think every shell has an exact number of pellets.
On some the El Cheapos I bet they sweep up all the excess shot on the floor to load em.
Bob A.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
Two charts I use show me there are 410 pellets per ounce in #8. That would make a 1 1/8 ounce load with 461. Your 7.5's were actually 8's by volume and weight but you would have to mic them to know for sure. Most likely the result of poor quality control when it comes to marking the shells and boxing them but the skeptic in me wonders if it is deliberate so as to fool anyone who patterns them. From you report I consider those shells junk. When I decide to shoot 7.5's, usually for 27 yard trap I want to be shooting 7.5's. I use all reloads for crows and use Lawrence magnum #6, kills them DRT (dead right there) through the full effective range of a shotgun
I can believe what you say about finding 485 pellets in a box marked 7 1/2's if indeed not all of them were 7 1/2's to begin with. Especially if the shot varied between 7 1/2's to 9's in dia.
Bob A.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
I can believe what you say about finding 485 pellets in a box marked 7 1/2's if indeed not all of them were 7 1/2's to begin with. Especially if the shot varied between 7 1/2's to 9's in dia.
Bob A.
Bob,
I am guessing on the size I found in the shot cup. There was no consistency to the shot size. I would be curious to see others open a shell or two of the 4 pack loads and see if they get the same results or if it were just an off batch I got. My guess is that everyone would find the same thing I did. It still wouldn't stop me from using them as they pattern well enough for what I use them for.
The Nitro load I opened was very consistent in size which is what I expected. I did not expect the size variation to be as great as I found it in the 4 pack load.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
I spent all of Saturday shooting clays and patterning. My kids got to shoot all they wanted also. The kids are getting pretty good at birds going away.
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