THE TECHNOID PATTERNS AD NAUSEAM... For the past two
months the Technoid, your Wizard of the Widget, has been inundating
you with irrefutable data (even including a genuine drawing!) concerning
choke and shell performance at longer distance. The bottom line was
that, contrary to the opinions of the "experts" (you true believers know
who the only real expert out there is), you need all the choke you have
when the bird gets way out there. It is absolutely absurd to believe that
there is no place for the full choke in sporting clays. Trust the
Technoid. He has absolute absurdity down to a science.


Since we have covered the long stuff, we will now deal with the
short shots. Sporting clays targets in Travelers' territory tend to be a
good bit longer than the ego salving layouts so popular elsewhere. That
said, we do usually have one or two shots within 20 yards at each match.
The average Traveler is often not ideally prepared for these shots, even
though he knows that he will get a couple of them at each shoot. Listen
up! The advice that follows is going to save you a couple of birds every
now and then.


The Technoid strongly believes that a shooter competing in a
Travelers match should equip himself with all three sizes of shot and at
least three degrees of choke. The shot size and choke operate as an
inseparable pair. The combinations are: #9 shot and cylinder bore
(.000") or skeet (.005") for shots inside of 20 yards; #8 shot and light
modified (.015") for shots from 20 to 35 yards; and #7.5 shot and full
choke (.035") for shots over 35 yards. Your mileage may vary, but you
get the picture. The important part is that the shell and the choke work
as a team. You rarely split them up for normal target presentations.
You just estimate your distance to the target breaking point and the
distance automagically decides the shell/choke combination for you to
use. Specialty targets and odd presentations require adjustment, but you
will never go far wrong with the above recipes. We have given the
above advice before in this column, but it bears repeating. The choke
and the shell are an inseparable pair. It almost never makes sense to use
#7´s with a skeet choke or #9s with full.


Now for those close shots. If the acknowledged experts on edge-
on targets at over 35 yards are the trap shooters, it stands to reason that
the experts for edge-on targets at 21 yards and closer are the skeet
shooters. Skeeters shoot hundreds and hundreds of birds without a miss.
Twelve gauge skeet (and 20 gauge too, for that matter) has become a test
of endurance in the higher classes. These guys really know how to kill a
20 yard edge-on target. Skeet shooters wrote the book on the short shot
and they wrote it with #9 shot and skeet chokes.


Credulous as he is, it is not overly difficult to amaze the
Technoid. He is consistently stunned to hear sporting clays shooter after
shooter state that he never uses #9 shot on the course because it really is
not as good for "sporting" targets as #8 or #7´! This shooter is not
smart, he is just lazy.


Ignorance of the advantage of #9s is not just a novice mistake.
Some of our very best shooters carry only #8 and #7´ shot and a few
use almost entirely #8. They may be such good shooters that they are
moved by the spirit of fair play to give their opponents a bit of a break.
So be it. You do not have to be that sporting at sporting and are entitled
to be a bit wiser. You only win or lose that trophy by one bird. Why
handicap yourself?


Why are nines so good? Simply because, at the proper distance,
they allow you to choke for a larger effective pattern than #8s permit.
Larger effective patterns kill more birds. Period.


Last month we showed that the optimal effective pattern results
from putting about 75%-80% of your shot into a 30" circle at the
distance at which you take the bird. No legal load has enough pellets to
properly fill a 30" circle, but a 1 1/8oz load of hard #8s should get you a 24" killing circle. Switching from #8s to #9s gains you 43% more pellets (658 #9s vs 460 #8s).
Although the #9s have less energy than the #8s, at 21 yards the #9s have
enough. Two hits with #9s at 20 yards will break the bird almost as
well as two #8s at 30 yards. Since there are a lot more #9s, this 2
pellets per five square inches (target area) fringe area can extend, not
just to 24", but all the way out to 27" and a bit beyond. That extra three
inches of pattern can mean the difference between winning and losing.
Skeet shooters know this and they do not use #8s. They use skeet chokes
and #9s. You should too when you are shooting similar targets.