February 18, 2006
When the Ignorati Attack
As I thought might happen, some gun-ignorant liberals are concocting stories about Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of Harry Whittington one week ago today.
Their basic argument is that Cheney must have been a lot closer than 30 yards when he shot Whittington becuase of the way the shot patterned.
Dan Riehl deconstructs and debunks their argument rather well.
The only slight discrepancy in Riehl's post is that jumps out at me is that steel shot is only made for waterfowling loads, not birdshot sizes. Steel has too little mass to be effective in such small sizes.
And so Dan got me thinking... WWCS? (What would Cheney shoot?)
To get such a dense pattern, you need shot that hold their spherical shape very well when exiting the barrel. Shot (pellets) that deform are aerodynamically unstable, will wobble, and will cause pattern spread. Extremely hard shot keeps its shape and enables the shot string to pattern better.
I present to you, Federal Cartridge company's 28-gauge # 7 1/2 Premium Wing Shok Hi-Brass copper-plated lead birdshot. The copper-plating makes the pellets harder, enabling them to hold tighter patterns at longer ranges.
Of course, if Taylor-Marsh wants to be thoroughly humiliated, I can deconstruct her articles one-by-one, but I think liberals are against torture.
All I have to say is: consider the source's motivation. Hate has a way of twisting facts to make any argument seem convincing.
Most double barreled field shotguns are choked full and modified. Mine is and so is every other double hunter that I ever hunted with. Someone in so much brush so as to restrict shots to the inside of 30 yards may choose a modified and improved cylinder choke combination, but that is certainly an exception.
I've killed many a rabbit, squirrel, pheasant, quail and woodcock at 30 and more yards using my 20 gauge. Of course some have just kept on going after my expertly aimed shot, too. But then the game in New England aren't human sized, so pattern holes would have caused many more misses than kills at that range if my shot spread was so greatly expanded.
Unfortunately, hate is a powerful moticator.
Posted by: Old Soldier at February 18, 2006 05:47 PMI am an avid hunter and I can say that is possible to take down a bird with a shotgun at 50-60 yards. Beyond that, the pellets don't really stick, though with the right wind conditions, who knows?
Posted by: Leonidas at February 19, 2006 11:00 PM
