Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Major Sir Gerald Burrard considered the average distance from gun to quarry to be about 20 yards. But if you are consistently shooting pheasants at this distance they more than likely aren’t wild. Planted birds will hold but usually will not and if a wild bird holds for the dog it is usually a hen.

“ Now the power of a gun is really governed by the limit of its effective range. It is quite possible for two guns of different sizes to be equally effective at 20 yards from the point of view of killing a single bird. The bird will be killed by both, and the fact that it was shot with a bigger gun does not make it any more dead that if it had been shot with the smaller. But what about 40 yards and 50 yards? Will the bird be killed with equal certainty by both guns at these ranges? It is the answer to this question which determines which of the two guns is more powerful.
The limit of effective range is dependent, as we have seen, on pattern and penetration. Pattern is governed by the type of boring used and the number of pellets in the shot charge: penetration by the initial velocity of the shot charge and the size of the individual pellets.”

“ The great advantage of a large bore is that it enables one to increase the size of shot, and so obtain better penetration at long range, without incurring any loss in density of pattern. And this is an advantage which should never be forgotten, especially when long shots are essential to success.”
Major Sir Gerald Burrard – “The Modern Shotgun”-1964(1961)

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse