Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game 16 ga pheasant/sharptail load

Anyone used the Fiocchi 16 Gauge Ammunition FI16HV5 High Velocity 2-3/4" #5 1-1/8oz 1300 fps on pheasants or sharptails? Working on sporting clays this summer with mine and wanting to pack it afield early season at least.

Hi 30338,
I haven’t but have used those Fiocchi’s a ton in both 20 and 12 ga on pheasants. The 20 with 1 oz loads and the 12 with 1 1/4 oz loads which bracket the 16 ga. load are fine shot shells and very good on pheasants. So those 16’s will be too. No worries.

Ironically, though I haven’t had one since, my first worthy shotgun was a 16 and I killed my first pheasant with it probably at age of 13.

I shoot 16's and Fiocchi's mostly 1 oz on grouse and woodcock, took the 16 to South Dakota once and killed several with 7 1/2 in cylinder barrel my left barrel is mod and I shot 6's in it, the 5's will be plenty , I use smaller shot so I have better chance for getting 1 in the head.

The Fiocchis seem to have a good reputation. Appreciate the feedback guys. Going to order a flat of those shortly.

B AND P are good also.

Early season sharptails load is an ounce of #6 shot through whatever 12, 16, or 20 ga gun I feel like carrying. Early on the birds typically hold well and are not bunched up and wary as later on. Once the pheasant season opens I switch to 1 1/8 oz of #5 shot as a minimum. I find that to be more reliable on pheasants than #6 though if pheasants are not commonly ounce no the area I will stay with #6 as a primary size.

I keep velocities in the 1200-1250 fps range as higher does little other than increase recoil. I reload so that is a viable option for me but if having to use factory one's options are rather limited.

Agree, 1300 FPS 1 1/8 out of a light 16gauge is not for the recoil shy and especially not all that conducive to getting back into the gun for a follow up.

Winchester makes a SuperX 16ga load of 1 oz of 5’s or 6’s at 1200fps that is more than adequate, but not as glamorous as Fiocchi and B&P.

Downrange at 40 yards the FPS difference between a starting 1200 vs 1300 is not worth the recoil.

Federal makes 16 gauge loads, both normal and high velocity, that are every bit as good as anything out of Fiocchi or B&P. In addition, for every box of their Pheasants Forever sold, they donate a portion to Pheasants Forever. Win, Win, Win....If you want velocity, they give most all any want. Federal components and shot pellets are as well made as any in the business.



https://www.federalpremium.com/products/shotshell?page=0&facets=computed_skugauge_s=16%20Gauge

The fps facts when it comes to shotgun shells.

https://www.shotgunlife.com/shotguns/tom-roster/does-speed-kill.html

Okay, so maybe something like this for earlier season sharptails and chickens. Federal 16 Gauge Ammunition Game Load H1606 2-3/4" 1oz #6 1165FPS

And then could bump up to 5s at higher velocity if I decide to use the 16 on pheasants.

My current pheasant gun is a 12 ga Franchi Affinity which thanks to the stock adjustability fits me well despite being tall with long arms. I use heavy #4s on the public land roosters I am hunting thru mid January and had good success even with some longish shots last fall.

Another question while talking 16 gauge. If I am hunting an area that is 80% quail and 20% roosters, thoughts on what you would carry in the gun? Just those #6 Federals or drop down to 7 1/2?

why I like a double 7 1/2 in open right barrel, 6's in tighter left barrel

I’ve killed a slew of roosters over the years with a 16 and with 7 1/2s. I think 7 1/2 is my favorite shot size for general upland use and the Remington Express Long Range load is a good one, in both the 12 and the 16.

I killed 8 roosters last year with 8 shots. 6 of them were with 1oz of 7 1/2s out of a 20. Get the bird centered in the pattern and shot size isn’t as important as we make it out to be sometimes.

That game load from Federal at 1165 is a good load with good shot and the bar I use for value/performance. They will kill any grouse or pheasant dead enough. I would shoot the sixes if pheasants or prairie grouse are anywhere on the list of possibilities.

Great to know! I have a pheasant/quail hunt in Kansas this season. My 16 throws absolute gorgeous patterns with this load. I was thinking about loading the first round or two with this in my A5 and follow up with higher velocity 6's or 5's. My thoughts were this would cover quail if they flush or tight holding roosters.

Guy that introduced me to pheasant hunting always used 3” 12ga #5s in a 28” 1187. He always said that those loads would kill quail just fine and I saw him do it plenty of times. Not something I normally do but he was a one load kind of guy in pheasant country.

When hunting mixed bag, load for the tougher bird, not the more fragile one. If my main quarry are pheasants, I load with 5s and make do with them if I run into quail or grouse. If my primary quarry are quail, il load up with #6 if there is a reasonable chance of finding a rooster. There have been times I've had low possibilities for roosters and then used 7 1/2 shot and was willing to pass on opportunities that would have been fine with larger shot.

This was dogma in NW Iowa when I was a kid (60’s) — magnum shells, larger shot, 30” barrels choked full were the real pheasant guns. I Started out with a full choke H&R 16 ga and then came a Stevens 20 ga SxS ( probably mod/full) and I began to realize it wasn’t true as I was regularly putting birds down. Even with the mod choked barrel. I realized then that most of these older guys were not real upland hunters and hunted pheasants once, twice a year, mostly out of tradition and weren’t particularly good shots which began to explain how tough pheasants were. 😉

I lived in Kansas and Nebraska for about ten years in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I hunted upland birds--quail, pheasants, prairie chickens and sharp-tailed grouse--from the day the first season opened until the last one closed. I always shot a 12-gauge in those days and I always started the season with 2 3/4" 7-1/2 shot. By the end of pheasant season, when all the other seasons had closed, I was shooting Magnum 4s with a full choke as the birds were getting up much farther away, and anything less resulted in too many wounded birds.

Since then, I have been primarily a quail hunter. However, each year I do one or two late-season preserve hunts for pheasants, as well as some mixed bag hunts in Montana, using my little 20-gauge double. I have found that 6s put the birds down more reliably than 7-1/2s.

A lot depends on how you hunt: with or without dogs, with pointing dogs versus flushing dogs. etc.

I guess 7.5's are good pheasant loads if you like eating bird shot. Can't see any reason to choose them otherwise.

Used my Browning Citori 16 GA for my last pheasant trip to Kimball SD. Used Fiocchi #5 lead and Federal #6 lead, both 1-1/8 oz. shot. Could tell no difference in effectiveness between the two loads (shooting the factory IMP CYL tube in my bottom (first shot) barrel and MOD in my top barrel). I think both factories listed the load at around 1300 fps. My kill ratio was the same as when I shoot my 12 GA with #5 lead there.

One rarely seen shot size, at least in the U.S., is #7--which is the same as the British #6, apparently the most popular over there for shooting driven pheasants. The nominal diameter is .10, and there are approximately 300 per ounce, as compared to 350 for 7-1/2's and 225 for 6's. That 350/225 gap is the biggest in popular American shot sizes, and 7's fill it neatly.

Bought some high antimony 7's from Ballistic Products a number of years ago when working on handloads for the 28-gauge, and was very impressed. A load of 7/8 ounce in the 28 killed wild roosters well out to 40 yards, using a typical modified choke, and when processing the birds for the freezer found they definitely penetrated better than 7-1/2's.

Have always suspected 1 or 1-1/8 ounces of hard 7's would make a great pheasant load in the 16, just as it does in light 12's in England, but so far haven't tried them in any of our 16's, apparently because of having too much factory ammo on hand. :-)

Great info, MD! I am interested in beginning shotshell reloading for the 16ga, with 7 shot as one of the loads I really want to try.

I have often wondered how high antimony 7 shot would work for dove hunting here. I suspect the larger mass as compared to 7.5/8 shot will serve well for hunts where we have high flyers on windy days, and the pattern density is still high enough to give uniform patterns at the longer ranges.

Your experience with 7 shot in the 28 ga really has me thinking.

I shoot a ounce of 6’s at pheasants from my 16. The Federal Gameloads.

They are noticeably softer shooting than the Remington 1oz #6 loads.

I used the Fiocchi 16 Gauge #5 1-1/8oz nickle plated loads for turkey hunting and it worked fine on several gobblers.

Top
A buddy is a firm believer in that load of 7s for pheasants in a 12 ga and talked me into buying a couple of bags years back. I think it is the perfect shot size for the vast majority of grouse, both woodland and plains, and in the smaller bores it would be a better choice for anything one would use 6 shot but I don't see myself switching to it any time soon.

The 7s look like a handloading only proposition? Not finding them in stock.

Never hunted sharptails but my pheasant hunting is heavily pressured public access wild birds that more times than not get up at the edge of shotgun range. I've settled on nickle plated 5's in both the 12 and 16 gauges. I load 1 1/8 oz at around 1240 fps in the 16 and it hits pretty hard. Cheesy tried his 100 year old German SxS last fall so I loaded some 1 oz 5's at 1200 for him. He lucked into two 30 yard shots on the same pass through some CRP and was half way to his limit. I'm hearing that with all the flooding during nesting season this year I might as well carry a single shot 410 to make the hikes easier.

I've found an ounce of 6's out of my 16 or 20 gauges crushes early season pheasants and puts all the shot in my birds that I care to pick out. 7.5 shot makes them look like a spaghetti strainer and too many end up practically inedible because of it. Late season I switch to 1 1/4 oz. of 5's in one of my 12 gauge guns.

[quote=30338]The 7s look like a handloading only proposition? Not finding them in stock.

As mentioned by mule deer, look at the English brands that are marked as six shot. The English use a different base pellet size than the United States to determine sizes. Their six shot is the equivalent in size to you nine it states number seven shot.

If you look at United States or even just north American brands you will not find number seven shot except by the small specialty companies

Most of my 16's are older guns with tight chokes, for the first shot I use shells loaded with fiber and nitro card wads 6's or 5's for grouse and pheasants ,it gives me a better open pattern under 30 yds. 2nd barrel or next shell up is one with plastic wads for tighter pattern. I have some 7 1/2's loaded for dove ,I never use them on bigger birds because I get damned tired of shooting up my eating. That Herter 1 1/8 oz of 5's is a good load that is inexpensive, the Fiocchi's are top notch.MB

Glad to read that.

No doubt.
IC, Mod, shot sizes cause me minimal fret.
Birds?

So true. I’d happily tote a 410 stoked with 9s if it meant the bird population in NW OK and SW KS would be like it was when I was a teenager.

A lot depends on when and under what conditions you plan to hunt pheasants.

Opening weekend with a pointing dog, sure #7.5 work great except the bird will have a lot of pellets in the meat.
Two weeks in when the non-residents have pressured everywhere, #6 is light.
Late season, pressured, flushing dog, #5 is minimum, with #4 in a tight choke far more useful for all-around.

The 16 gauge 1 1/8 #5 load is a great all-season pheasant killer.

I once bought a case of 1 oz ( i Think) # 7 shot made buy Westly Richards loaded pretty stout.also 2 1/2 "