Balanced Load

A shotgun cartridge where the distance at which the kinetic energy of the individual pellets falls below the threshold required to reliably kill the quarry is approximately the same as the distance at which the average pattern density of the load falls below the threshold required to reliably kill the quarry. The term is necessarily imprecise as energy and pattern density thresholds are dependent upon many factors, including but not limited to the performance of the gun and the quarry sought.

« Back to Glossary Index