One last post on this subject before beating a dead horse that should lend credence to patterning. Just before a chukar hunt in the Steens mountains of eastern Oregon, I set out to find the best load for my O/U at 35-yards. For a shell load, I settled on 1 1/8ou. of #6 hard lead shot over 19 grains of clays powder. Surprising, the shot distribution was so good with skeet-chokes in both barrels, that it what I used. It was my best chukar trip ever, and I have had many. On one day, I had 3 doubles and 11 birds (my partner was a poor shot), all in flight. Incidentally, we had no dog on that trip, just a lot of walking. Many upland bird hunters are still over-choked, especially when a quick shot at close range is needed.