Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game Additional 1/8 ounce or additional 100 fps ?

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Which is more beneficial on pheasants ?

An additional 1/8 ounce of shot ?

Or an additional 100 fps of velocity ?

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Which ever one patterns better.

Best answer, for lead shot at least.

An additional 1/8 oz of #4 gives about 17 more pellets, 152 rather than 135/oz

Ballistic coefficient of bird shot sucks so any benefit of the extra 100 fps diminishes pretty quickly.

Not much difference as a practical matter but the extra 1/8 oz makes me feel better.

If one doesn't point well neither works. If one does, they both work well. The extra 1/8 will give you a few extra yards of core. 30yards and in, it makes little difference.

Definitely best answer, but if I had to guess I'd always choose a denser pattern with more pellets over velocity.

When back in high screwl, I always used to think magnum #4's at HIGH VELOCITY at ducks or pheasants was necessary. It finally occurred to me that when I'd kill something with a single pellet in the bird's neck i was just lucky!!

Combine that with multiple-pellet hits at a modest velocity always resulting in a kill, regardless of size or specie of bird!

I rarely have need for anything bigger than a #5 or 1250fps, whether 12 or 20gagg.

What exactly is the question supposed to be? What gauge, what shot size or shot sizes, what distances, preserve birds or wild birds? 100 fps more velocity compared to what? Have you actually done any pheasant hunting, or is this just supposed to be a theoretical?

Mr. Wakeman, you haven't been paying attention! Hammer1's normal modus operandi is to occasionally pop-up with an inane question; not sure if it's when he's lonely or just off his meds. But he IS an expert on the 3-inch 28 gauge!

Oh, well. The individual gun, specific shell, and specific choke combination means a lot more than strictly payload or muzzle velocity, and you net far more downrange by upping the lead pellet size than a small muzzle velocity increase. At 25 yards, lots of things work, you can't kill a pheasant much beyond dead, etc. Fifteen yards is a very long ways for a shot cloud and at 40 - 45 yards the differences between shells can be huge.

I know most folks dread patterning, it is like watching paint dry and all that. But patterns are what drop pheasants, not gauges or payloads, so if we don't pattern we are just shooting blind. We like to assume that shotguns shoot to point of aim, but many do not.

Hello Art,

Thank you for taking the time to e-mail. Here goes:

Neither the velocity nor the payload change is meaningful, automatically. It is all in the precise combination.

We have sphericity of the shot, consistency of the shot size, shot hardness, etc., etc. and to top it all off, stated velocities can vary by up to 75 fps and still be within SAAMI guidelines. The choke constriction can change MV by 50 fps or more. Unless we chronograph the shells and actually weigh our payloads and count pellets, you won't know what we are getting exactly. Just because it is printed on the box doesn't make it so.

Neither increased velocity or increased payload automatically means a better shell. 20 Gauge Pheasant Loads Compared .

One recent example, albeit 20 gauge, is a Kent 1-1/4 oz. of #5 shot (1300 fps) vs. a Winchester 1-5/16 oz. #5 (1200 fps) out of a Benelli M2 @ 40 yards, Trulock Precision Hunter Extended Choke, actual constriction .015 in.

The lighter, faster Kent shell is a far, far better patterning load than the slower, heavier Winchester shell.