Barrel Length and Shot Spread
Shortening the length of a shotgun barrel does not significantly affect the pattern or spread of the pellets until it is decreased to under 50% of a typical barrel length. The pattern is primarily affected by the type of cartridge fired and the choke, or constriction normally found at the muzzle of a shotgun barrel. Cutting off the end of the barrel removes the choke, which generally only extends about two inches (about 5 cm) inward from the muzzle. This results in a cylinder bore, which causes the widest spread generally found in shotgun barrels. For an even wider pattern, special "spreader chokes" or "spreader loads" can be used, that are designed to spread the shot farther. (See choke for more information on the impact of chokes. See shotgun shell for information on spreader loads.) See details on shot patterning.
Read more about this topic: Sawed-off Shotgun
Famous quotes containing the words barrel, length, shot and/or spread:
“I was born a mechanic, and made a barrel before I was ten years old. The cooper told my father, “Fanny made that barrel, and has done it quicker and better than any boy I have had after six months’ training.” My father looked at it and said, “What a pity that you were not born a boy so that you could be good for something. Run into the house, child, and go to knitting.””
—Frances D. Gage (1808–1884)
“You will, I am sure, agree with me that ... if page 534 only finds us in the second chapter, the length of the first one must have been really intolerable.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
“Next to a shot of some good, habit-forming narcotic, there is nothing like travelling alone as a “builder-upper.””
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)