Ammo for Clays

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DizzyLead

New member
Just curious, how are you choosing ammo for skeet or trap as "practice" for pheasant season? I'm not necessarily talking for shooting round after round with your sporting gun, but shooting your upland gun, are you selecting brands or loads similar to what your using on birds? Or cheapest high quality you can buy to kill clay?
 
The cheapest I can find normally. They are always slower than my hunting loads. Im starting to think the fps doesnt need to be the exact same, slower is probably better to practice with so your lead is slightly farther ahead of the bird. Im sure some one can break down the math of how much your lead will change at 40 yards with like a 1350 fps vs 1200 fps.
 
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That1uncle1776 said:
The cheapest I can find normally. They are always slower than my hunting loads. Im starting to think the fps doesnt need to be the exact same, slower is probably better to practice with so your lead is slightly farther ahead of the bird. Im sure some one can break down the math of how much your lead will change at 40 yards with like a 1350 fps vs 1200 fps.
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The faster load is going to get to the target a 40 yds. approx. 0.012 seconds faster. I doubt the lead would change much, maybe inches. And your pattern at 40 yds. would certainly cover any difference. Just my quick calculation. :)
 
Most organized trap, skeet and sporting clays facilities won't allow anything larger than 7.5 shot at 1 1/8 oz at 1300. I'd say federal or fiocchi promo loads of 1 1/8 7.5 at 1200 would be good for pre season practice.
 
Unless you like to shoot at birds 40 yards or more, the extra velocity is not needed. In fact, all the faster loads do for you is add more recoil and less effective patterns. As for leads, a 22 yard skeet crosser on station 4 will seem much faster than a live bird. I load both target and hunting 20 and 12 ga. loads around 1200-1250 fps, and they work fine for both. I've hunted with some Rem. execs that had big-time champion skeet/clays patches all over their vests, but couldn't hit wild birds. I've also seen some old farm boys hardly ever miss a wild bird, but couldn't hit clay targets.
 
uplandokie said:
Most organized trap, skeet and sporting clays facilities won't allow anything larger than 7.5 shot at 1 1/8 oz at 1300. I'd say federal or fiocchi promo loads of 1 1/8 7.5 at 1200 would be good for pre season practice.
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Grabbed some 1oz 7.5 at 1180 to kill some clay with this weekend. Should be fun!
 
CRP said:
Unless you like to shoot at birds 40 yards or more, the extra velocity is not needed. In fact, all the faster loads do for you is add more recoil and less effective patterns. As for leads, a 22 yard skeet crosser on station 4 will seem much faster than a live bird. I load both target and hunting 20 and 12 ga. loads around 1200-1250 fps, and they work fine for both. I've hunted with some Rem. execs that had big-time champion skeet/clays patches all over their vests, but couldn't hit wild birds. I've also seen some old farm boys hardly ever miss a wild bird, but couldn't hit clay targets.
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How often do you hunt wild pheasant?
 
Actually, I only hunt wild birds, and mostly late-season. My style of hunting is point a good lab into the wind and stay with him. Because a lot of hunters don't like that style, I tend to hunt alone or with one buddy that understands.
 
CRP said:
Actually, I only hunt wild birds, and mostly late-season. My style of hunting is point a good lab into the wind and stay with him. Because a lot of hunters don't like that style, I tend to hunt alone or with one buddy that understands.
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I do the same thing except I have a GSP rather than a lab. The “point” gives me little chance to keep up!
 
I pretty much shoot 1 ounce loads, whether I'm busting clays or busting pheasants or grouse. Sometimes I use 1-1/8 ounce when hunting. I like sub-1300 fps loads regardless.
 
DizzyLead said:
Just curious, how are you choosing ammo for skeet or trap as "practice" for pheasant season? I'm not necessarily talking for shooting round after round with your sporting gun, but shooting your upland gun, are you selecting brands or loads similar to what your using on birds? Or cheapest high quality you can buy to kill clay?
Click to expand...
I reload my shells and due to laziness, I shoot all upland birds with the same load as I shoot trap and skeet. I shoot 1 1/4 oz of 7 1/2 shot and use HS 6 powder. I can't for the life of me remember how much powder I use.

Drew
 
Most ranges and all registered skeet, trap and sporting events limit you to 1-1/8 Oz. Backyard trap has no limits.
 
Like most, I practice with whatever trap loads I can get on sale during the winter. I'll also pick up some of whatever I'm using for hunting. I prefer to practice on my own property with my own clay bird machines.

With a remote operated, battery powered trap I can set up whatever angles and distances I want. It's not those straight away/shallow angle climbing birds I usually miss in the field, it's the 45 yard crossing bird with his afterburners lit that give me fits...
 
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