shot?

[kayja]

which do most people shoot?, copper plated or plain lead?

 

[Dave K]

Plain magnum lead. Little harder than the non-magnum stuff.

 

[paulvallandigham]

For upland game, plain lead will do. For waterfowl, non-toxic shot is required. For Turkey, plated shot is often used, to gain every advantage for better patterns with open cylinder guns, and to provide a harder pellet to strike the bird's head or neck for a clean kill. There is a dispute about how much difference in power plated shot gives over ordinary lead shot, but there is no dispute about the fact that plated shot survives the trip out the barrel with less distortion than does lead shot.

 

[Roy]

Plated shot seems to work a bunch better on pheasants than lead shot. Not too worried about the Grouse and quail, but a wild pheasant can be a tough bird.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Roy:

I use #5 shot on Pheasant, and it kills them dead out to 30+ yds. with my 12 gauge. I shoot a 2 3/4 Dram load, ( 76 grains 2Fg) with a 1 1/4 oz. load of shot. I have not killed a pheasant yet with plated shot, so I can't tell you if they make a difference. I suspect the difference would be seen more easily if you are using #6 shot, which is a common choice of shot. I moved up to #5 after reading about Commercial Duck Hunters on the Illinois River in the 1870s and '80s, in a reprint of an article from those days in The American Rifleman, about 15 years ago. The original article had been printed in a predecessor magazine of the NRA, but I have forgotten the title of that earlier magazine.

I also talked a a couple of friends who have killed more pheasants than I can possibly kill the rest of my life, and both concurred that #5 shot was the choice to anchor a bird. Both liked how the shot patterned in most guns, too. And both encouraged me to go the extra distance to find the shot size and buy a couple of bags. I found a distributor in Bloomington, Illinois that had some of the shot, and bought 2 bags.

I have used the loads shooting Annie Oakleys at trap ranges, to reach out and smack those long range clay targets with my full choke trap gun. Works like a charm. Starbursts, when I do my part.

I have a bottle of plated shot from Ballistic's products to try in my ML shotgun. Again, it will only be used for hunting, and to check the patterns before I go hunting. I do intend to try it in my 20 ga. fowler, too.

 

[Roy]

When I go out to Iowa we run into alot of quail too. I should have added that I like the 6's for putting a few more pellets in the air. One 5 or 6 in a quail and its a done deal. Your right about the 5's working great for pheasants, if thats all I was hunting that would be what I would use. :thumbsup:

 

[paulvallandigham]

I use #8 when hunting dove, and I would use the same size shot hunting quail. I think #6 would tear up the tiny breast on a quail if the shot were 20 yds or closer, which is so often the case. We don't have quail living here, simply because quail are a little fussy about habitat. They need pretty equal parts cover, water, food and open space. With the current farming practices, there is too much open space for quail to survive. Cover is lacking, and food availability it doubtful in many areas. Once in awhile we find a pocket of quail, but they are more likely found in Illinois South of Interstate 70, which goes from Terra Haute to St. Louis. The ground is rougher, you see more hedge rows, and smaller fields, there is a lot more edge cover and brush, and water in ditches on a couple of sides of every field.Also, the iron in the soil in S. Illinois makes Pheasant egg shells brittle and collapse during incubation, making it next to impossible to raise pheasant populations there.

 

[Roy]

This is going to be fun :haha: I would use 8's for quail too, that is what I use for snipe. When we hunt in Iowa you never know what is goin to flush up. So far I have had pheasants, quail, rabbits, turkeys, deer and cats all hold for a point :grin: . Its alway a shock when a turkey or a deer pop out from a point :shocked2: Anyway we are allowed the pheasants, quail and the rabbits. Most of the time you only get on or two pellets in a quail when using 6's, its amazing how well they can slip a pattern so the meat is rarley mangled. I have been using a cylinder bore when I hunt, so I try to keep the shots fairly close. :v

 

[rabjr]

My old .20 got a steady diet of 7 1/2's on the dove field growing up. Used that load on pheasants, grouse as well. Think the only time I used 6's was on squirrels.

 

[Roy]

I do use 7 1/2's for grouse :haha:

 

[Hoyt]

I like nickle plated for gobblers and plain lead for squirrels.