Let's look at some facts and figures.

I weighed the load of #6 shot on my Pacific reloading scale.

It would not go high enough to weigh the whole load, so I split it into two parts and added them together.

The total weight of the shot was 598 grains.

We'll round it off to 600 grains.

I then weighed 16 dimes, the most I could get into the shell, and they weighed 560 grains.

That's close enough to expect the powder charge to work okay.

Another small digression, if I may.

I weighed 10 of the individual #6 shot and they weighed a total of 18 grains.

That means each pellet weighs 1.8 grains.

Now we were ready to go to the range.

First we will test for pattern at across-the-room distance.

We set up a target at 12 feet and gave it a shot.

It made a pattern that was about 6 inches wide at 12 feet.

Not as much as some thought. But it did cut nice, round holes in the paper.

Next we set up the Waterbox O' Truth, with gallons of water, behind some cloth.

We will try a shot at about 15 feet.