Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game Your ideal pheasant-with-dogs shotgun ???

They have changed over the years. My first favorite was a Quail Unlimited 28 gauge Beretta 686 with 3/4 and 7/8 ounce nickel 6s. I had both loaded and grabbed whatever was handy. Might give a slight edge to the 7/8 ounce. I used SK/IC chokes.

My 1938 16 gauge Ithaca 37S, 26” IC with one ounce 6s gets a fair bit of time afield now. I shoot it as well as any of my O/Us.

I have a Beretta Blackwing 20 gauge with choke tubes. It saw some ptarmigan and grouse work in Alaska. I need to get it out this next season. I’ll use SK/IC or IC/M and 7/8 ounce 6s

My current favorite is a Jackson, English boxlock 20 gauge. It’s choked CYL/IM. I think. I know the right barrel is cylinder bore and pretty sure I recall the seller saying it was IM on the left. It’s tight looking at a splatter plate. At 5 pounds 4 ounces it’s a carry all day gun. 7/8 ounce 6s. Nickel if I get time to load some.

The more fortunate one is to be around a lot of Pheasants, the less choke becomes important. In that it isn't necessary to shoot at everyone that gets up. Also agree, that few of us have the skill to consistently be stoning Roosters at 40 yards plus. Although many seem to think it isn't all that difficult. Also waiting and deliberately riding out a Rooster, to where a Mod plus choke is needed, is a skill that few have.Those that can, get a tip of the hat from me. When it comes to Roosters, I'm mostly move, mount, shoot . The eyes tell me if they are in my range. I like to see red heads and white necks to let me know. 35 yards and in is about perfect. Hanging on is almost a guarantee for a miss.

“Ideal” in your scenario is going to be a pretty subjective. Dogs vary highly as to type, ability, and training. Then there’s the cover — death march CRP, chest high, with a bird flushing up your nose, or a clean cornfield inclining birds to sprint a 100 yds or further and get up a quarter mile away.

As BK, and Battue mentioned, don’t dither over chokes because ranges will vary from bird to bird and shot to shot. IC, LM, HM, and F will all work. I also don’t see any use in loading different shot sizes in doubles or pumps or SA’s assuming a first closer shot than the second. I’ve never been clever-fast at the correct barrel selector-safety choice on doubles to account for different range birds and the bigger or smaller shot. I load the same shot shells in both barrels or magazine.

So, no ideal choke. Most will pick size 4,5, or 6 shot for big roosters. I usually go with 5’s but probably mostly 6’s.

As to shotguns, I’ve used the 28, 20, 16’s and 12’s. I’ve killed a few with a H&R single shot 410 to see if I could. By far a M choke was the most often used. Now, the biggest factor for me is the shotgun. Notably weight. Handling qualities, reliability and quality all follow. I have no use for a pheasant shotgun weighing much over 7lbs. 7 would be max for a 12 for me if it was superlative in all other areas. Make that 6 1/2 lbs for a 16; 6lbs max for a 20 and under that for a 28. 26-28” barrels are more the norm although I’ve used 24” barrels with no problems.

Weight often becomes the issue when smaller gauges are built on the same frames used for larger gauges which is a common economic maneuver for all makers of all action types. Until you get into higher dollar guns. Many folks don’t seem to care as much about this as I do now.

When I was a junior (1969) in college, we had a particular snowy year in Iowa. My buddy and and his two GSH’s cut too many classes that fall and our Government Acres (called CRP now) were loaded with birds. I alternated between a clunky Savage 311 20 (M/F) and a Rem 870 12 gauge (M). With legal daily limits and possession limits, I killed about 90 wild birds that year and my bud killed just over a hundred. I even wrote my biology term later on the plant and animal content of their stomach contents. Of course, understandably, this required a lot of field work..

Both those guns worked fine though Im a bit more choosy now. Anyway, that’s the present view from here.

Amen. how many on here hunt pressured wild pheasants on public lands?


Ive pretty much use a Beretta or rem 11 87 semi auto full choke for 90 per cent of public land pheasant hunts . I have ou's., sxs's , pumps .love the older sxs's



I do it for my dogs

Since we have pretty much covered the variables of guns and chokes....At what range do you lose confidence in your ability to hit a Pheasant hard enough for consistent kills, with a good gun point?

Not what you have done once, twice or rarely. Where will you say, "I best hold off."

OK that's a good question. I'll have to think on it some but its a good question. Lots of variables

Most definitely there are variables...The biggest one most likely would be....How much of the vitals are being exposed. A going away Bird is harder to kill at 30 than one flying head on.

The question then becomes....On day in day out opportunities where is one running out of ability. Which also will give an idea of which choke may be optimal.

However, to give some idea of where I'm coming from. I've watched literally thousands of shooters shoot at 40 yard clays....and at all angles. For the average shooter their hit percentage would be 30 percent at best. And clays are easier to kill than Pheasants. And this would be on opportunities you are ready for...."Pull".

A World Champion Sporting clay shooter who makes a living teaching, told me this....."Most hunters are not as good of a shot as they think they are. And they have proven it to me over and over."

Another vote for the Sweet Sixteen. Made in '57, like me.

You have to love the little Bob White....Nice pic!!!!

40 yards is about my limit on fleeing, unwounded birds. A hit bird is a different story if I still have a round left. With three shooters, if I’ve exhausted two rounds unsuccessfully, it’s rare that I ever fire the third. Exceptions would be wounded birds, a covey of quail or huns, if they haven’t exceeded the 40 yard limit and incoming ducks and geese within 40 yards. On pheasants I try hard to keep myself in check on the 40 yard limit.

I call it clinical judgement. In face-to-face medicine, care givers with hundreds or thousands of patient encounters or cases, develop the “eyeball test”. That is, in a scant second upon walking in the patient’s room, and having read the patient’s chart beforehand, they “size up” or develop a medical judgements of the patient as to the challenges present. Certainly true in surgery and anesthesia.

But the analogy transfers to the field easily…with a lot of upland experience. Outside of outrageously out of range birds, with experience, there comes an immediate discernment of birds flushing “on the edge” of doable range. There is an immediate no-go or go judgement.

Getting pinned to the mat, for me I would say I would not knowingly shoot at an over forty yard bird. Ideally 25-40 yards would be good. It’s not necessarily based on a lack of confidence in hitting the bird, but that of quickly killing it.

Related, is the situation now of buying these “magnum upland loads” to extend your range. I’m against them. For instance, in 12 ga, they are of the 1 3/8 oz at ~1400 fps type fodder that will cause you to flinch eventually, are hard on the gun, unnecessary, and may actually wound more birds than kill them soundly. Don’t use them in any inertia SA or double gun for awhile or you will start to question the issue of proportions.

Edit: IMO of course, 😉.

Agree completely…..
And in the same thought, there are those that can use a case full of 4’s—- I’m not one——who can pound a Pheasant at 40 plus, and do it consistently.

They would rarely be your average or even above average hunter. They would be individuals who shoot much more than the average hunter. In campfire language they would be the players and not the fans. Those who have paid their dues in shells shot, while being a serious student of the shotgun.

The old myth of they can’t hit clays worth a damn, but are deadly on Birds…would be the rare exception. Very rare….

Sounds good to say…”Dad rarely missed with his old Model 12..” Fact is he didn’t shoot enough to “rarely” miss.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that. And every time I’ve bird hunted with someone who said that they were no better on birds than they were on clay targets.

In my instance, hunting over my long since departed Britt, where I held off was from point-blank to around 25 yards. Hence my setup of IC and #7 1/2 shot. I'm no phenom wingshooter. Probably somewhere in the vicinity of "meh" or "average" or "so-so". But I can HONESTLY say that I cannot remember ever missing a rooster over a point. But when my shots are at 25 yards..........not much of a bragging right. If a bird flushed wild........ I didn't shoot. If the dog bumped........ I didn't shoot.

WAAAAAAY back in the day, I did do some hunting over an American cocker we had at home. Whole different story. Hunt with tennis shoes on and bust ass toward a wagging tail. Missed plenty back then. I probably would have held off on anything past a 40 yarder back then.

Have shot a lot of Pheasants and Ruffed Grouse over English Cockers and Springers under 25.

Have also missed more than a few over Pointers. Some close…. And some out there. Every Bird a good Dig points is not always close. .

I like the clinical judgment answer. Sometimes I base the decision on where my dog is at in relation to the bird and cover, e.g. "retrievability." I shoot alot of birds between 15-25 yards, the more that I think about it.

Most of the Wild Birds I and friends have shot in SD are in the 25 and under range. Some even over Pointers.

All of which goes against some of the often expressed wisdom one hears repeated about SD Pheasant hunting.

However, we are not hunting the traditional group cornfield march one many think is “the way”. It is more of a one or two person small cover type hunt.

A lot of truth to this. And, I'm sure, a whole lot more with wild birds. But the vast majority of PA stocked ditch chickens in the 1990's were not particularly squirrely for a pointing dog. You'd get the occasional runner. Hold..........run.........hold..........run......... But a good dog figures those out pretty quick and will squat them down and a close flush will follow.


Having never hunted truly wild birds in traditional areas, this DOES come as a surprise to me. I guess I can't believe everything I read anymore.

In three years may have shot maybe four that were over 30, using English Cockers.

Friend has an English Setter that has produced a bunch that got up under 30. And some within steps.

Some obviously get up wild, but enough don't. Find some in the thick covers there is a good chance some will get up close. Cattails being one example. Find them in a small out of the wind cover and again your chances increase.

Exactly. We hunt alot of big grass with dry or frozen sloughs. Crops are often out by the time we are hunting in earnest.

On a typical Sunday afternoon trip, I and my party will flush 500 birds. 200 will be roosters, 150 of them will flush wild, and we can only kill three a piece. Focus on those three (or 15 or 18), not the other 497 (or 485/482).