Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Effect of shot velocity on pheasants ?

JB, you shootin an Ugartechea 28 yet? They are so sweet, you feel like you are cheating on your wife when you go out with one - it's prolly a sin. ;-{>

I felt so guilty, I got one for her!

Got side-tracked with some other shotgun stuff--but just recently have been thinking about a U. 28 again. You must have picked up on it!

I am sure you have heard it before, but never from me. --- You won't regret it.

We both have perhaps had thoughts about or from the late M. McIntosh. I was always going to have a single malt with him. I can't believe how much I miss him already. I helped him with a couple of professional matters a few years back and he was very gracious and appreciative.

I met Michael in 1987, if I recall correctly, when the founder of SHOOTING SPORTSMAN magazine threw a shindig in Holly Springs, Mississippi for the people involved. At the time I was also a staff writer for SS, and had a great time with McIntosh and some of the other people. We kept in touch and saw each other now and then over the years, and he was always gracious and helpful. He was also one of the best WRITERS on shotguns we've ever had, hence his column in SS was one of the bright spots of the magazine.

MD those nickel #5.5's are just the ticket 1 1/8th oz in 16 gauge at 1220. It is an awesome late season load. I too love #7 shot. I load it at 3/4 oz in 28 and 7/8ths in 16, it kills pheasants shot properly in the front half easily to 35 yards. Everything around 1220 fps. My go to pheasant gun is an Italian Rizzini 16 GA O/U that weighs in a 6lb 6oz with 28" tubes I run cylinder and IC early and IC IM later in the season and cyl/mod after the snow flies as they will either jump way wild or sit tight. I hunt pheasant from October to late Jan over pointing dogs.

Pheasants aren't excessively hard to kill but where one shoots them or at them is critical. In a dead crosser 50% of the bird is tail. You have to shoot them in the head no matter the direction of flight, rarely are pheasants ever in level flight even when they are going dead away. If you are a walk up hunter using #4 and a 12 gauge has a place. Other than that I find #4 gives too low a pattern density at the ranges where their mass becomes more useful than that of #5, which has useful range longer than the effective range of even full choke. Pattern density and multiple strikes kill not shot size alone or velocity. My 3 rules of pheasant hunting: Shoot them in the head, use a load with between 225 and 300 pellets to begin with and shoot them in the head.

I'm somewhat gratified to see that the consensus here fits pretty well with my own experience. I have 35+ years of banging away at pheasants over flushing dogs, and really haven't changed my approach to loads & guns in the last 30 or so.

I shoot doubles, mostly 12-gauge, but I've lately picked up a nice little Spanish 20-gauge SXS that I've found busts clay birds pretty well, so it will likely see some use early this season. In early season I load my 12's with 1-1/8 oz of #7-1/2 in the I.C. barrel, and 1-1/8 oz of #6's in the modified barrel. These are my handloaded shells, loaded in AA hulls & wads over enough Red Dot to give roughly 1200 fps. I like the 7-1/2's because I spent the bulk of my early hunting career in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, and I love the game (and eating!) qualities of Hungarian partridge. I also learned that if I get my first shot off within 25 yards or so, 9 out of 10 pheasants are gonna fold, too. Later in the season, depending on where I'm hunting and how wild the birds are, I'll switch to #6 loads in the IC barrel and #5 in the Mod barrel.

I'm using 7/8 oz loads in the 20, at about 1200 fps. I've patterned it with #7-1/2 shot and it's very even out to 35 yards, but more ragged with #6. Might have to tweak the #6 load a bit yet.

A funny story was that my brother and I bought 870 Supermag shotguns when they first came out. I hunted mine to death while my brother the city slicker only hunted a couple of times a year with his.

Most times when I am out Pheasant hunting, I give him my Browning Gold Hunter 3 1/2 shotgun and I use his Remington Super Mag Shotgun. He likes to buy those expensive 3 inch magnum shells and I use my reloads.

One day I ran out of reloads and I went to the Walmart and I bought a box of those cheap Remington field loads. I was using a modified choke tube in the Browning and I loaded the gun for him to shoot.

He brought his gun from home and never looked at the barrel - or he would have seen that he still had his Turkey Super Full choke tube in the barrel. He wanted to take the choke tube out and shoot it and I told him that it would probably mess up the threads in the barrel and to just shoot mine and I will just walk along.

Well - they kicked out a flock of turkeys and he shot once and two turkeys fell down dead. The range was about 16 yards.

When he asked what shells I was shooting, I hit the magazine cut off and pulled the shell out of the chamber. 1oz low brass #6's
The funny thing was - there was still two more shells in the gun. Dad tagged the one turkey and he tagged the other turkey and I don't know if he ever bought anymore of those high brass 3 inch Nitro Mag shells ever again.

Its not the shell as much as it is the choke that you shoot it out of and the range of the game that you are shooting at.

The old live picgeon load - 3 1/4 x 1 1/4 (1200 fps) is superb in the 12 gauge, my favorite pheasant load w/ #5s (Federal makes them, and they are cheaper than the "Premium" stuff). That's w/ about a modified choke. With IC or so, I like #6s better.

Just killed a crosser tonight at about 40 yards with:

20 gauge
Improved Cylinder choke (from a Deerslayer barrel)
1 ounce of #6 shot

I assume one pellet in the head, as there was not any damage anywhere to the body.

That's a good way to kill them!

Spent the resident opener last weekend hunting with my flatcoat and an inexpensive M870 20 ga I've had for awhile. It fits and shoots real well, so I like to use it occaisionally. No where near as nice as any of the Sweet 16's that I have, but it works well with a modified tube in place with 1 oz of sixes or 5's even better at 1220 fps. I don't care for 7 1/2's on bigger birds, period.6's work till 11/1 generally when the birds have developed heavier plumage and fat layers. When you start finding more pellets that haven't penetrated that yellow fat I go to heavier shot 5's and 4's. I like 1295 to 1330 fps range and have been known to use hammer loads upon occaision.Depends alot on how good a dog I have with me.People should use what they have faith in as one size don't fit all.Best to luck to all . Magnum_Man