16ga Rooster Medicine

onpoint

onpoint

Active member
This I believe will be my go to load for Roosters with my 16ga's. 1.25oz's of #5
 
Yup, that'll do it all right! Dumped plenty with that load. It's hard to find 1.25 oz loads though but I assume you're reloading.
 
You can have my boxes. 1 1/4 oz at 1260 fps is not my cup of tea; not in my nice Sterlingworth. I don't relish getting hit harder than the birds on the other end. If you need more than 1 1/8 oz, you probably should move up to a 12 gauge 3" auto. But at $27 a box be my guest.
 
Quote Sneem

"You can have my boxes."

Now your talkin...Really, if you want to get rid of them let me know. Just shoot me a deal
 
While I'm sure the 1 1/4 oz. loads do work well for some I just don't see the need. 1 - 1 1/8 oz loads are optimum in the 16 ga. and will throw better patterns. Again, you just don't know which loads will perform the best in your gun until you pattern them. You might find the 1 1/8 loads put more pellets in the killing zone that the 1 1/4's.

I've found the above true when doing some pattern work with 12 ga. 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 oz. loads. The 1 1/4's consistantly patterned better.
 
It's an American male thing, bigger, stronger, faster, is always better. We try to make everything a 3" 12 ga. Next will be 3" 16's with a 1 1/2 ounce payload, shoot everything from hummingbirds to elephant with one gun. Just kidding, but in reality, payload will never compensate for shot placement. Old British formula used by H&H, Westley Richards, Purdy, et.al. was a squared load, which was loaded with a shot charge no bigger than .16 the weight of the gun it was intended for. So a 6 to 6.5 pound gun, approximately a 1 ounce load, a 7 pound gun would get you up to about 1.25. In fixed breech 12 bore guns recoil became objectionable and patterning suffered beyond these parameters. These guns were custom bored to produce a specific pattern with a specific load at a specific distance, and were regulated and shipped with the pattern "as shot".
 
I never truly bought into the "bigger is better" theory when it comes to shotguns. And a couple years ago I pretty much disproved the theory when I switched from a 12 ga. to a 16 ga. for pheasants. With my 12 I was using Federal Premium PF loads with 1 1/4 oz. of #5 copper-plated lead shot at 1,500 fps. Great load and I had great success with it. When I got the 16 ga. I started shooting Federal Game-Shok (blue box) with 1 1/8 oz of #6 lead at 1,295 fps. I shot both the above 12 and 16 loads through an IC choke. I found I was killing just as many pheasants with the 16 at the same ranges and I was saving $6-7 a box. I recently bought a case of B&P 16 ga. 2 5/8" with 1 1/16 oz. of shot. I got some 6, 7 & 8 shot. I used the 7 shot at a recent NSTRA trial and was absolutely smokin' the chukars. Can't wait to try the 6 shot on pheasants this fall.
 
The problem with pattern boards are. They are one dimensional. They do not measure shot string length. There's many anti magnum load shooters among the shooting sport. Also, full feathered late season far flushing roosters are tougher to kill dead because of ranges and the additional plumage they are carrying into winter. I admit to being a person who carry's a magnum load much of the year. Nothing worse then wounded birds. Speed comes into play with many of today's loads also. It's not all that common for me to carry more then a 1.25oz load in a 12ga, until late season. I'm also not much on seeing somebody carry what amounts to a trap load into the late season pheasant field with me. 11/8oz 16ga load will do the job nearly always but nothing wrong with having a full range of loads on hand for each and every gun I own. It becomes a personal preference.

Onpoint
 
One other thing, it's not uncommon for many on here to recommend a 3" 20ga 1.25oz load for pheasants. I have read it many times. The 1.25oz 16ga load is more of a square load then the 3" 1.25oz 20ga load. In theory it should pattern better, at least on a pattern board. I'm not a person who puts all my confidence in a pattern board though. The number of dead birds in ones game bag is hard proof to argue with. That's what counts to me.
 
onpoint said:
The problem with pattern boards are. They are one dimensional. They do not measure shot string length. There's many anti magnum load shooters among the shooting sport. Also, full feathered late season far flushing roosters are tougher to kill dead because of ranges and the additional plumage they are carrying into winter. I admit to being a person who carry's a magnum load much of the year. Nothing worse then wounded birds. Speed comes into play with many of today's loads also. It's not all that common for me to carry more then a 1.25oz load in a 12ga, until late season. I'm also not much on seeing somebody carry what amounts to a trap load into the late season pheasant field with me. 11/8oz 16ga load will do the job nearly always but nothing wrong with having a full range of loads on hand for each and every gun I own. It becomes a personal preference.

Onpoint
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I agree with most everything you say. It really boils down to what works the best for you. That's why they sell so many different guns and loads. :) And if you don't put the shot in the right place it doesn't matter if you're using a 10 ga. or a .410.
 
Dakotazeb said:
And if you don't put the shot in the right place it doesn't matter if you're using a 10 ga. or a .410.
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Amen to that. Practice makes perfect. Honing your skills with a more than occasional round of skeet, trap or sporting clays will do more for your wingshooting than the best ammo or gun on the planet, bar none.
 
Clays are fine but hardly match the speed, maneuverability or unpredictability of a game bird. Nothing replaces time in the field on real birds. I have spent most of every fall in the duck blind or upland bird field nearly every single day of the season for the past 30 years. Something many of you could not imagine but I have quit many jobs over the years because they got in the way of my hunting. I once told a boss in the late spring after just starting. I would be gone 10 days for deer hunting in Nov. He told me, oh no you won't. There have been employee's here for many years that go deer hunting. It will be years before you get that time off. I told him, you don't understand. I wasn't asking, I was telling you I won't be here on these days. Come Nov. I left and didn't return to the job. I instead hunted the full 21 days of the deer season. I was looking for a job when I started and I would be looking for a job when I left. Hunting and fishing is my career of choice. I never seen any grave stone marked. I sure wish I would have worked at my job more days, hours or years. When i go to my grave I will have no regrets. I have lived life to the fullest. Not many will be able to say they enjoyed the outdoors as much as me.
 
onpoint said:
Clays are fine but hardly match the speed, maneuverability or unpredictability of a game bird. Nothing replaces time in the field on real birds. I have spent most of every fall in the duck blind or upland bird field nearly every single day of the season for the past 30 years. Something many of you could not imagine but I have quit many jobs over the years because they got in the way of my hunting. I once told a boss in the late spring after just starting. I would be gone 10 days for deer hunting in Nov. He told me, oh no you won't. There have been employee's here for many years that go deer hunting. It will be years before you get that time off. I told him, you don't understand. I wasn't asking, I was telling you I won't be here on these days. Come Nov. I left and didn't return to the job. I instead hunted the full 21 days of the deer season. I was looking for a job when I started and I would be looking for a job when I left. Hunting and fishing is my career of choice. I never seen any grave stone marked. I sure wish I would have worked at my job more days, hours or years. When i go to my grave I will have no regrets. I have lived life to the fullest. Not many will be able to say they enjoyed the outdoors as much as me.
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Onpoint, while I will agree there is nothing like hunting to make us a better wingshooter, most of us as you stated don't have the luxury of hunting everyday or even every weekend. So for the rest of us we improvise. You can simulate hunting while shooting skeet or trap by having the trapper release the target at his discretion while you stand there or walking up. There's any number of ways you come up with that will simulate hunting. The point being, you are honing your shotgun pointing and handling skills on moving targets all of which will improve your wingshooting in the long run.
 
birdshooter said:
Onpoint, while I will agree there is nothing like hunting to make us a better wingshooter, most of us as you stated don't have the luxury of hunting everyday or even every weekend. So for the rest of us we improvise. You can simulate hunting while shooting skeet or trap by having the trapper release the target at his discretion while you stand there or walking up. There's any number of ways you come up with that will simulate hunting. The point being, you are honing your shotgun pointing and handling skills on moving targets all of which will improve your wingshooting in the long run.
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I agree 100%. Each of us have to use what is at our disposal to hone as you put it our skills. Not a thing wrong with any of it.
 
I don't think there is any doubt that if your goal is to be a great bird shooter, you had better hone your skills on a lot of wild birds. Endless assortment of subtle angle as mentioned by Onpoint, is sure one reason, followed by the fact that targets slow down fast, as they go, wild birds accelerate, and you have to deal with conditions of the hunt, brambles, obstructions, uneven ground, as well as simple conditioning, huffing across the uplands and being ready for a shot from any direction, at anytime. I am convinced that this is the reason so many "famous" trick shooters routinely look ordinary, to put it kindly, missing pheasants on outdoor shows, but can shoot 7 quarters thrown in the air off the cuff. Even if not ideal target shooting is worthwhile for upland shooters, as is almost any shooting, to develop maintain and sharpen the reflexes, while re-enforcing mechanics. Great wild bird shooters have simply had experience with a whole lot of wild birds. I speak this as another upland bird shooting bum, for most of my late teens, 20's, and 30's. My hunting partner in 1978, delayed surgery for a torn retina in his non-dominant eye, risking further damage, bleeding, and sight loss, because it would have interferred with the sharptail opener. We limited all three days and the surgery was successful, enboldening, rewarding us for our bad and reckless behavior! What's the old saying? God loves and protects children and idiots!
 
I've never heard of this ".16" formula x the weight of the gun. Great stuff !!! Your never to old to learn.
 
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