How you hold the shotgun...

[Unobtanium]

I was shooting yesterday with a female friend of mine. It was her first time shooting a shotgun with full-house buckshot and slugs. She loved it. Yay!

Aside from that, I noted that when we fired 9-pellet FC reduced recoil, at 25 yards, I got a solid 8-12" pattern. She on the other hand sent 2 pellets into the mid-portion of the nearly 2' target, and the rest were "off paper".

How could this happen?

It is a theory of mine that how you hold the shotgun will affect patterns, especially from slower ammunition, and Flite Control. The shotgun recoils nearly 1" during the time the load is in the barrel. If it is moving a lot, it is my THEORY that it could "tip" the wad and "string" the payload, in the case of a FC wadding.

I plan to test this theory, and will update it with patterns fired from a loosely held shotgun, and a very tightly held shotgun, using the same ammunition. I posted this to see if others have noticed the same/etc? I will update in a few days with actual data.

[Shotgun]

I was shooting yesterday with a female friend of mine. It was her first time shooting a shotgun with full-house buckshot and slugs. She loved it. Yay!

That is absolutely awesome. It's always nice to get someone new interested in shooting.

Regarding lateral stringing, please take a look at this exchange: https://shotgunreport.com/2013/10/11...-and-swinging/ It is not generally thought that any significant lateral stringing occurs when swinging a shotgun. But, your tests may bear out differently. Shooting over water might be a good idea to see if you see lateral stringing when intentionally swinging through a shot.

I think the load you and your friend were shooting has a muzzle velocity of 1145 fps. That load is in a 30" barrel for only about .00218 of a second, not much for lateral stringing, especially when your friend was trying to shoot a stationary target rather than a moving one. However, all of that runs contrary to your direct observation. It will be interesting to see the results of your tests.

A wild guess, in anticipating recoil, your friend may have a terrible flinch (not uncommon in new shooters) which may explain missing the target with the majority of pellets. The two pellets in the mid-portion may have been very wild fliers. But, I grant you, that would be extremely unusual to have Flight Control have fliers like that.

[Unobtanium]

That is absolutely awesome. It's always nice to get someone new interested in shooting.

Regarding lateral stringing, please take a look at this exchange: https://shotgunreport.com/2013/10/11...-and-swinging/ It is not generally thought that any significant lateral stringing occurs when swinging a shotgun. But, your tests may bear out differently. Shooting over water might be a good idea to see if you see lateral stringing when intentionally swinging through a shot.

I think the load you and your friend were shooting has a muzzle velocity of 1145 fps. That load is in a 30" barrel for only about .00218 of a second, not much for lateral stringing, especially when your friend was trying to shoot a stationary target rather than a moving one. However, all of that runs contrary to your direct observation. It will be interesting to see the results of your tests.

A wild guess, in anticipating recoil, your friend may have a terrible flinch (not uncommon in new shooters) which may explain missing the target with the majority of pellets. The two pellets in the mid-portion may have been very wild fliers. But, I grant you, that would be extremely unusual to have Flight Control have fliers like that.

That is what I thought. I have had a pellet or two stray, but these were both significantly outside of any "pattern", which missed the target somehow. I am curious what my testing bares out. I also wonder if the flite control wad is more prone than conventional wads, as it actually has the capacity to "sling" things based on geometry, were it to tip.

[Erick Gelhaus]

What sighting system do you have on that gun? And is she cross-eye dominant? If I'm understanding what you describe correctly, could see be sighting with the off eye?

[Unobtanium]

What sighting system do you have on that gun? And is she cross-eye dominant? If I'm understanding what you describe correctly, could see be sighting with the off eye?

Ghost rings.
I don't know.
How would sighting system radically alter patterns?

[03RN]

MGS

Magic gun syndrome

Weird stuff happens but that is really weird. Did you shoot it afterwards? Maybe the magazine tube was getting loose?

Maybe she was jerking the gun down, shooting the ground and happened to have a couple bounce up into the target???

[Unobtanium]

MGS

Magic gun syndrome

Weird stuff happens but that is really weird. Did you shoot it afterwards? Maybe the magazine tube was getting loose?

Maybe she was jerking the gun down, shooting the ground and happened to have a couple bounce up into the target???

We shot it after that, and patterns were normal. It could be a fluke.
Or I could be on to something.
I'm not championing any concepts at present, but I wanted to look into this further. I need to buy some posterboard, and steel myself for loosely holding a shotgun and limpwristing it against my sensitive wee shoulder.

[Shotgun]

I need to buy some posterboard, and steel myself for loosely holding a shotgun and limpwristing it against my sensitive wee shoulder.

Don’t forget the recoil bruise (and pain) you develop on your cheekbone. Don’t worry, that bruise and pain will likely go away in a week or two, maybe three in the outside. But, the flinch you may develop from shooting a loosely held shotgun, well, that may last awhile.

[Wondering Beard]

Aren't there some sort of shoulder/pectoral pad one can buy to mitigate recoil?

[HopetonBrown]

Ken Hackathorn demonstrating Rob Haught's technique. After some practice it works amazingly well.

As others have mentioned, she's just flinching.

https://youtu.be/7jncWh1BPzw