New Pheasant Hunter - What Loads?

T

treehugger49

New member
As a Georgia boy new to the sport of pheasant hunting, I will be in Freeman, SD for the pheasant hunting opener over the weekend of October 20, 2007. We will be a group of four hunting early season wild birds over pointing dogs on private property, consisting mostly of CRP. I will be using a 20 gauge Benelli Cordoba, and would appreciate the sage advice of forum members regarding the best load for that gun under those conditions: specifically, high brass or no, shot size (I'm guessing # 6's), choke, etc., and reasons for your choice. Thanks, and I look forward to meeting you good folks up there.
 
****I have not stayed at a Holiday Inn Express for quite a while****


I use a 20ga in either a SxS with Improved and Modified chokes, or an Ithaca M37 with a Modified choke. I use 7 1/2's and 6's. With the double gun, I keep the 7 1/2's in the first barrel to fire (Improved) and 6's in the Modified.
With the Ithaca, I use 7 1/2's in the chamber, and 6's in the magazine (actually, that is the same as I do for my repeaters in 12 and 16 ga also).

I find this gives me a less destructive pattern at close range (first shot) and a tighter, more penetrating pattern for the second and third try. I don't load more than 3 rounds, not because of any law, but just to prevent me from wasting ammo. Sometimes I can follow a miss with a hit, and rarely on the third shot, but after that, I don't think a belt fed would help make up for 3 misses. Plus, it doesn't alert everyone that a bad shooter just missed a bird (think about it, you hear one or two shots, you're going to think they connected - you hear 4 or 5 and you pretty much know that there is still a bird over yonder)

I don't hunt over dogs, so my flushes are fairly close, so I go with low brass most of the time.

Hope this helps.
 
treehugger49 said:
As a Georgia boy new to the sport of pheasant hunting, I will be in Freeman, SD for the pheasant hunting opener over the weekend of October 20, 2007. We will be a group of four hunting early season wild birds over pointing dogs on private property, consisting mostly of CRP. I will be using a 20 gauge Benelli Cordoba, and would appreciate the sage advice of forum members regarding the best load for that gun under those conditions: specifically, high brass or no, shot size (I'm guessing # 6's), choke, etc., and reasons for your choice. Thanks, and I look forward to meeting you good folks up there.
Click to expand...

Treehugger - In my opinion, the bigger load the better results, better eating game, less bb's in the bird and less field tenderization rather than picking out lead/steel out of the bird. I use a 12 gauge Benelli SBEagle & I always use 4's reguardless or early or late season. My parents neighbor has been hunting pheasants for 30 years and he claims he throws BB's in his 12 gauge early and late season.

As far as brand: I used to use Winchester Supreme Hi Velocity at 14.99 a box. I find the cheaper stuff (Estate) works just as good.

This guy has an excellent article on Shotgun Physics (Start your reading at the bold "generally, the math works out like this" headline) :
http://www.thecheckcord.com/archives/scattergun.html

Here is an excellent point:

"I have long felt that the popular #6 shot size is too small for pheasant hunting, in general. This is based on a number of seasons hunting in South Dakota with some very large groups on a number of occasions over the years. I took a cue early from some of the large family groups of resident hunters residing in this, one of the most pheasant rich areas of the country. Alot of these folks don't bother to keep or hunt with dogs. There are so many birds there, they don't really need dogs. Their hunting is done mostly as a large social gathering of the family on someone or another's farm. At times, there are so many birds that dogs are more of a distraction to getting a 20 man limit killed in any kind of an orderly fashion. This type of hunting at times is actually more pheasant shooting than it is pheasant hunting."
 
I have been guiding in South Dakota for 12 years and there is nothing worse than chasing cripple birds around the field all day. I use and recomend a 12 ga with 4s or five and nothing less than a mod choke and a quality shell I recomend copper plated fedral premium #4s 1 1/4 1500 ft per secongif hunting wild birds. I have seen these birds take a full pattern in the back and keep flying and they will eventually die.
 
Wow, I've heard that the wild birds are tougher than what I'm used to here, so treehugger, I would suggest that you ignore my advice about loads and listen to the other posters.

Not saying I'm wrong, for my part of the country, just that it's different here. With 6's or even 7 1/2's, everything I've hit has fallen. Those that got away have been to my error. Like I said, I'm hunting stocked birds without a dog, so my shots are pretty close. Anything I flush beyond 30 yards I let pass. Most of my flushes are within 10 yards.

I may forgo the 7 1/2's though, after thinking about picking less pellets out with the bigger shot sizes.

The only time I carry anything bigger than 6's is when turkey season overlaps the pheasant season, and I think I've got a chance of ambushing a turkey. Tried it last year, knowing there was a flock nearby, and called them in. I didn't have a turkey tag, but I think it would have been funny for a guy in orange to bring down a turkey, which would have been easy, since the whole flock was withing 15 feet of me.
 
I also use 4's and 5's. I have lost pheasants with 6"s. They are one tough bird and they can run so far after being hit that I have even had difficulty recovering the odd bird with a dog.
 
I'm convinced

Okay, okay, you've changed my mind. My thanks to those who responded with more insight and information than I had on the subject, and I will be bringing to SD my SBE Benelli in 12 gauge rather than the Cordoba 20, and I'll be looking for an appropriate pheasant load #4s at Cabela's in Mitchell on Friday.

Now, if you could just do something about all that rain!!!!

Thanks again.

Steve
 
Chamber 3 Rounds

TUNA, I had to laugh> We have a little in common? I'm going out tomorrow with 3 buddy's and I just wanted to check this forum, cuz I don't hunt pheasant that often, curious if I had the right load, I have 2,4,& 6's, mainly cuz the only bird I get a crack at is grouse, no biggy! If you hit em good, thats it! But I seem to always need that second shot on a bird? it seems I'm testing the first and make the compensation the second? I do on occasion put them down with the third too. But I don't want to make a seen either! So 3 rounds is enough! Still laughing!
 
Chasing a wounded running bird sucks. Thats why i also use 4's or 5's. If the bird comes up close and u dont want to hammer it with the heavier load let it fly for a sec but not 2 secs cause then it will be gone. Good luck on you hunt
 
Shot Size for Pheasant

I use no. 5s through anywhere from skeet-improved to modified-full chokes (dbl barrel) depending on time of season and conditions. My most frequent set up is improved and modified but always no 5s. I keep 7 1/2s or 8s in my pocket in case we flush a covey of quail (not a concern perhaps in SD).
 
A good friend of me showed me how much my gun (Benelli M2) didn't like 6 shot. He asked me to pattern it with 4, 5, 6, 7.5 . I found that the pattern with 6's was all over the place but with the 4 and 7.5's I had very few gaps. So for this shooter, it will be 4 shot with my benelli. The only change I will be making this year is to Steel shot. I really don't believe all the hype about poisoning effects, but if it saves one from getting poisoned, then I need to do my part to conserve or just learn to be a better shot!
 
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