Pheasant Loads

Upland4Ever

New member
So I wanted to see the which pheasant load, has the best knock down power, for the best price. Winchester Super Pheasant, Federal Pheasants loads, Remington Pheasants loads?
 
I bought a case of #5 Golden Pheasant loads from Cabelas a few years ago. They work great and I believe they costs around $11 a box. Likely they are a little higher now, but you get a better price by the case, they show up on your front porch and you don't have to worry about having enough shells the night before you go hunting.
 
shotshells

killing power comes from energy from the mass. ie: it takes about 3 ft. #'s of energy to kill a bird, pheasant, the effect of the shot is cumulative. the number of hits is a better bet than one big one. you can get energy from either mass or speed, a little bit of both is nice, for many years i shot 7.5's in my imp. cyl. barrel and 6's in my mod. barrel and they were going the standard 1200 fps. now i am shooting in my 28 ga. just 7.5's out of both barrels and the shot is going just under 1600 fps. what i have done is increased my density with the 7.5's and have the killing power of 4's. that's a winner. on pheasants my lost bird percentage is right at 5%. folks, that's really low, i do have dogs but it is really low
 
I shoot 5s too. You couldn't pay me to pick 7.5 out of a pheasant. But I center 'em pretty well so there would be a lot of shot. :laugh:
 
shot size

hope you realize that the pheasants don't really care what they get hit with. if you are worried about picking shot out of the body and you shoot well enough to center them, maybe, just maybe you ought to start aiming at a different part of the pheasant. over many years i have always been amazed at how few pellets i find in the breast, very likely cause many of them are going away, over the years i have shot thousands of birds, gotta be hitting them someplace, mostly probably it is a crap shoot but the head is the place to be looking
 
I shot over dogs. Use 7 1/2" nickle plated shot in Golden Pheasant. I use it because I hunt quail and I shoot pheasants along the way. I will tell you, the 7 1/2"s are fabulous for quail, and I have not shot a pheasant which isn't dead in the air. Loss, zero. I used #6's #5's in Kent tungsten matrix, and had rodeo retrieves. The nickle plated shot keeps most of it's shape, is easy to clean out. It is a worthwhile compromise rather than watch quail fly through a #5 pattern, or become rubble with a clean hit. If I hunted in South Dakota, in late season, I would use a full with #6's -#4's. Virtually no quail! Hun's are bigger. the Britts use #7 shot, and most make killing shots at spectacular distances with those 1150 FPS 1 1/8 ounce loads. The sell the meat on the market, so presentation is paramount.
 
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pheasant loads

those golden pheasants are classy loads, i shoot generally copper but have increased the speed of the golden pheasants about 300 fps. also i didn't mention that i am shooting 28 ga. dbl. and the 7.5's cover my butt if some quail get in the way, i also need the 7.5's for density, they work wonderful
 
Quail/Pheasant

I hear your guys that are hunting quail & pheasant at the same time. My hunting ends up being one or the other. For quail, I go with federal classic #8 low brass loads and an Imp cyld choke on my semi auto 12 ga. For pheasant I use the #5 golden pheasant loads in a 12 ga o/u. I start the season with improved cylinder/mod chokes and switch to two modifieds after two or three weeks.
 
quail/pheasants

i'm really jealous of you. while i have shot several thousand pheasants in my life, mostly in colorado and west. kansas, it has alway been a treat for me to shoot a few quail. very few quail exist where i hunt. for a number of years i hunted a great deal around norton and sometimes would see up to 8 coveys in a day and those days produced limits but even then i could not target them, i was really pheasant hunting and the quail got in the way. while i have about 20 bird guns counting some fine muzzle loaders i have never been in position to take one gun or the other just for quail or just for pheasants, i switch guns as they all need to go for a walk once in awhile or they pout
 
brittboy

in as much as you change chokes, what i have gone to in one of my 28 ga. guns is to shoot mod. lite (skeet two) and improved mod. and leave them in year around for just about everything. full choke is just about useless but think about the other two combination, you'll be impressed
 
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