[fabsroman]

To answer your question, the larger pellet sizes in steel or lead will pattern tighter, so you do not need as tight of a choke to shoot them.

Along that line, steel patterns tighter than lead because it experiences hardly, if any, pellet deformation from pressure upon firing. When a lead pellet gets deformed under the pressure of firing, its aerodynamics gets screwed up so that you have pellets peeling off the front of the shot column quicker. That is why lead provides longer shot strings. Hevi-Shot patterns tighter than steel, because of its hardness (i.e., harder than steel) and the small deformity on it that gives it a tear drop shape. Tear drops or rain drops, are more aerodynamic than round balls (i.e., steel), so they fly straighter through the air. Hence, Hevi-Shot patterns tighter than steel. I have even tried it on paper and the difference was incredible.

Here is some more knowledge for you. The first (i.e., lead, not so be confused with the metal lead) pellets out of the barrel are not the first ones to the target. The lead pellets slow down first because they are the ones meeting the air resistance. The pellets behind the lead pellets are sheltered from the air by the lead pellets. Once the lead pellets start to slow down, the pellets behind them push through, pushing the lead pellets aside, and then the second group of pellets begins to slow down. As the second group of pellets begins to slow down, the third group pushes forward, and this continues all the way down the shot column.

For those out there that think shot column and strings don't matter, it'll take an extreme example to show how they do matter.

If we could shoot a 1 1/2 oz load out of a .410, do you guys think it would be anywhere nearly as effective as a 1 1/2 oz load out of a 12 gauge? I am willing to bet that you would say no. The same thing applies to a 12 gauge versus a 10 gauge. However, most shooters are not good enough to use a 10 gauge gun (i.e., they have not shot at that range enough times to be able to effectively use the 10 gauge over and over again). So, most people think that the 12 gauge 3 1/2" shell is just as good as the 10 gauge 3 1/2" shell because they both hold the same amount of shot.