20 
HIGH PHEASANTS : 
The patterns made by No. 4 (No. 3 need not be considered), 
with a full-choked gun, at perpendicular targets at 40 yds. 
were often so open or patchy that a pheasant might have flown 
through them in two or three places without being struck, even 
allowing that all the charge reached the bird's altitude at the 
same instant, which, as I have before pointed out, does not 
occur. 
A charge of No. 4 shot has a superior striking-velocity to 
a charge of No. 6, but this attribute is of no use in helping 
us to kill our game at a long range unless we also have a good 
pattern. Striking velocity is all very well if one chance pellet 
happens to penetrate some vital part of a bird, but with the 
very scattered pattern No. 4 gives, even in a full-choke, such 
a piece of luck may not occur once in a score shots. If we are 
to place sufficient pellets on a pheasant 38 to 40 yds. high to 
kill it with No. 4 shot, then we require a pattern in the 30-in. 
circle of at least 165 at 40 yds. horizontal. This 165 would 
give a perpendicular pattern in the selected 30-in. circle of 
about 150 at 40 yds. ; and, after deducting a percentage of 
the slower pellets of the charge, a fast overhead bird at this 
height should be struck by an average of five to six pellets. 
There are 183 pellets in i^^ oz. of No. 4 shot, and 194 
in oz. In the first case, supposing a pattern of 165 at a 
horizontal target at 40 yds., there would only be eighteen 
pellets outside the 30-in. circle, and with oz. there would be 
twenty-nine. No full-choke gun ever made — and no other 
form of boring need be considered if No. 4 shot is used — could, 
however, put every pellet of i|- oz. of No. 4, less twenty-nine 
only, inside a 30-in. circle at 40 yds. horizontal, and its failure 
would be more pronounced at the same target and distance 
when perpendicular. 
