description referring to fig3 and 4 an embodiment of a perforating gun in accordance with the invention has shaped charges that are arranged in a helical or spiral pattern to produce perforations in a sandface 40 in particular in some embodiments the shaped charges are arranged to produce a corresponding spiral pattern of perforation holes 50 perforation holes 50 a 50 b 50 c and 50 d as examples in the sandface 40 in this manner the spiral pattern may include wrap around the sandface 40 several times i e include several windings for the exemplary pattern depicted in fig3 the pattern wraps around the sandface 40 three times it has been discovered for the case where the spiral pattern includes approximately three or more windings around the sandface 40 four distances l 1 l 2 l 3 and l 4 between adjacent shaped charges as indicated by the corresponding perforation holes 50 need to be considered to maximize the distances between adjacent perforations in a formation more particularly the phasing of the corresponding shaped charges may be optimized by phasing the shaped charges at an optimal phase angle that causes two of the l 1 l 2 l 3 and l 4 distances to be approximately equal to each other for example a perforation hole 50 b of a first winding may be selected for this selection.