4, 5, or 6 shot for you early season pheasant hunters? And what choke are you shooting?

This will be my first trip to South Dakota. Have hunted Kansas for many years. Shot 6s way back in the day. Have shot 5s for years. Used an IC up until about three years ago and screwed in a modified. I may prefer it. Shoot a 16 gauge.
 
We hunt 6 days end of November or beginning of December. I've gotten one box of #6 heavy shot and then have lead #5 after that. This year I will be getting two boxes of #6 heavy shot and then have my lead for back up. Sometimes I even use #6 lead if it's not windy and on the warmer side. IC choke all loads.
 
#5 lead all season, but #4 occasionally later on if I feel the need to really reach out & touch someone.

#5 bismuth early, or until I'm out of Kent shells. #4 bismuth after about a month, or when I run out of Kent shells, whichever comes first.

If public land birds are being particularly uncooperative & my family risks going hungry, I may break out some of my few remaining & highly cherished #5 tungsten-matrix.

MOD all season long. On rare occasion, I may switch to FULL.
 
Depends what type of dog you hunt over. Pointers you usually get close shots, my first 2 shells are 7.5s and my next 2 shells are 6s early season as most shots are between 15-25 yards. Later in the season I'll bump it to 6s and 5s.

I'm a firm believer that most people have too large of shot. I used to shoot the 3s and 4s and I would miss more often than not. I scaled my shot sizes down (and stopped shooting 3" shells and only shoot 2.75") and the last 4 or 5 years I've shot much better.

Edit: IC choke year round
 
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Munster927 said:
I'm a firm believer that most people have too large of shot. I used to shoot the 3s and 4s and I would miss more often than not. I scaled my shot sizes down (and stopped shooting 3" shells and only shoot 2.75") and the last 4 or 5 years I've shot much better.
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Sounds like you may have been shooting loads that, for whatever reason, didn't pattern worth a crap in your gun. Wouldn't be the first time that ever happened. Or you're a significantly better shot now.

I've never missed a pheasant because my shot was too large. Everyone has his/her own comfortable range. Some won't take a shot beyond 40 yds. I want killing penetration at 50+, at all times, a slong as it's not a straight away. Occasionally at longer ranges, I may wish my pattern was denser, but that wouldn't be effectively remedied by smaller shot, as they wouldn't penetrate adequately. The solution, obviously, would be a heavier load. Conversely, I've never felt large shot (4 or 5) was inappropriate at 20-40 yds. They seem to kill, tend to exit the bird, & there aren't so many that the meat is torn up. To each his own though.
 
SHoot what you are confident in. That is my best advice. and BTW i see no difference between 6 and then 5's or straight 5's or 5's and then 4's. Just depends on the mood I'm in. :ROFLMAO:
 
Semi auto I usually just run 5's. Double barrel with different chokes 7.5 or 6s first barrel shot 5 in the second barrel. Picked up some Winchester AA diamond grade 7.5 copper plated shells at 1250 fps. I think that will be my go to first shot this year.
 
Matt D said:
SHoot what you are confident in. That is my best advice. and BTW i see no difference between 6 and then 5's or straight 5's or 5's and then 4's. Just depends on the mood I'm in. :ROFLMAO:
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You must not prefer bismuth 4s, but still have hundreds of dollars of 5s (which are fine much of the time) that you want to shoot, hoping to either run out of 5s because you've shot so ungodly many pheasants, or that you switch to the 4s early enough in the season that there were really only a couple times up to that point you really wish you'd had them. See the difference now? It's really very simple. 😉😆
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Some won't take a shot beyond 40 yds.
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I don't even raise my gun if a rooster flushes that far out. My dog (british yellow lab) is trained to stay extremely close to me. Within 20 yards, unless she's on a runner. Then I can't do much other than try to keep up.
 
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