Home Forums Reloading 16 Gauge Society 1 oz vs 1-1/8 oz of shot

The 1 1/8 oz Golden Pheasant in 5 shot is my favorite pheasant and late season chuckar load.

I use the Golden Pheasant in 16 and 20 ga guns. None better, IMO. (when I can find any)

I lucked into a couple cases of 1oz #5 20ga a bit ago, and a case of 1 1/8oz #5 16ga last year. Those shells plus several flats of Remmy 16ga 1oz #8 and #6 in my stash has been the reason for renewed interest in the 16.
My pre war Ithaca 37 has made quite a few empty black beauties, but I have enjoyed getting into the old double guns this season.
I do wish Fiocchi made a 1 oz 16ga golden pheasant loaded to 1200-1250 though..

I can see your wanting more shot, however the extra starting speed around the 50 yard line has mostly gone away. While the recoil remains.

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

So, you're trying to tell me that tiny lead balls aren't ballistic wonders?


Here is a photo of some chuckar we shot today and where they fell when shot from the peak in the background. We lost two birds here, also. We looked for 45 minutes, then we came back down the mountain hours later and looked again.

I didn't have my little Griffon chuckar dog, Rosie. She's in heat, can't smell her front feet, and acts goofy when on the rag. Besides, the snakes are out in this hot weather.

Sorry for the photo quality from Owen's phone. It's terrible since he dropped it down a mountain.

I mostly squirrel hunt with my 16's and Im usually shooting long 30-40 yard at a tough (small target) in thick tree tops on the side of a mountain. So I opt for 1 1/8oz loads generally. If Im bird hunting or rabbit hunting then Im fine with 1oz loads.

Yeah, I'm down here in the bottom right corner near the KY/TN/VA line. I can step foot in either state within about 30 minutes either way.

I know what you mean hunting on hillsides and in old growth trees. Some squirrels, you would do better using a surface to air missile to be able to get in range of some of them. Especially if you are standing on the down hill side of them.

Even now with as many leaves that have turned and fallen, there's still a lot of stuff that just absorb pellets. So, launching as many pellets as possible does not have any down side where that is concerned.

My usual squirrel loadout is 1-1/8 remington express long range. Though, I've taken a lot using winchester super x (which I haven't seen in years) and federal hi brass.

An ounce of 7-1/2's for targets and forest grouse. For prairie birds I use one oz of 6's mostly, and if I find I need a larger shot size I also up the charge weight to 1-1/8 oz if shooting 5's or 4's. I have an old hammer double that I just took hunting for three days on wild pheasant, sharptails and huns. It is choked cylinder and full. Put an ounce of 6's in the open barrel, 1-1/8 oz of 4's in the "choke" barrel. A rather odd combination of chokes and shot sizes that in practise worked very well.