Upland Shogun Shells Good for Both Public and Private

dogrunner said:
Once you speed lead up over 1300 fps the patterns are not very good. Much better to stay between 1250 to 1300.
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That can be true, particularly with factory loads in a gun without aftermarket choke tubes. But I don't feel it's an accurate generalization. I've shot MANY lead loads in the 1350-1450 range that patterned quite nicely. Granted, these were mostly handloads, some of which required a lot of tweaking & testing w/ different gun/choke combinations before an acceptable outcome was achieved. But "high" velocity lead is definitely doable. It just doesn't have much of a place in pheasant hunting. As long as your load weight, shot size & range make sense together, 1200-1300 is usually plenty.
 
There is an interesting article on non-toxic loads in the Fall 2017 Pheasants Forever magazine. The thing that stood out to me the most was that both gentleman prefer larger steel shot for pheasant. The article references an experiment that was conducted by the CONSEP (Cooperative North American Shotgunning Education Program) 20 years ago. The purpose of the study was to find the most effective steel shot. During the test, hunters killed more than 300 pheasant at distances ranging from 20 to more than 60 yards. They used factory loaded number 2, 4, and 6 steel shot at 1375 ft. per second. The study found that number 2's performed better than number 4's and 6's and killed or immobilized birds at a much higher rate. My plan is to give it a try this fall. I am going to shoot steel number 2's and see if I see similar results. Along these lines Cabelas has Federal Black Cloud ammo on sale right now and they are offering a factory rebate of $7.50 per box, on every box you buy. You have to buy a minimum of 5 boxes. The limit is 20 boxes per person. For 3" shells at comes out to about $11/box. That is an amazing price considering they are typically $18-20 /box.
 
Wow! Using 2's and 4's one has to be right on the bird, perhaps with a head shot. With 1oz. a #2 has 125 pellets and #4 192. A 6 jumps to 315. Wonder what the pattern board looks like with so few pellets...
 
jonnyB said:
Wow! Using 2's and 4's one has to be right on the bird, perhaps with a head shot. With 1oz. a #2 has 125 pellets and #4 192. A 6 jumps to 315. Wonder what the pattern board looks like with so few pellets...
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jonny -- You need to go read the research Roster conducted that dog referenced, just google it up.

Yes, there are fewer pellets in the #2 and #4 steel loads but that doesn't mean you have to make head shots with them to be effective. The research shows that the #2 pellet resulted in fewer cripples (at all ranges) primarily due to its ability to "penetrate" to the vital areas even on going-away shots (a common angle for pheasant shooting).

There are two basic performance parameters important to shotgun patterns:

1) Sufficient pattern density -- enough pellets in the pattern, at a given range, to ensure multiple hits on the target’s vital areas.

2) Ample pellet energy -- enough per-pellet energy to reliably penetrate the target’s vital areas at a given range.

Pattern your gun/choke/load and make sure they will attain the pattern minimums established by this research and you and be confident that the pheasants will fall, IF you can put the pattern on the front end of the bird!

Good luck.
 
jonnyB said:
Wow! Using 2's and 4's one has to be right on the bird, perhaps with a head shot. With 1oz. a #2 has 125 pellets and #4 192. A 6 jumps to 315. Wonder what the pattern board looks like with so few pellets...
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Have to agree with Joe Hunter. If we were hunting ducks, especially large ducks ala Mallards, most people wouldn't hesitate to use #2 or #3 steel. It works quite well, so why would the same not be adequate for Pheasants? Both are approximately the same size. It's all about putting the pattern in the right place and if you do that there's plenty of pellets in the pattern to get the job done.

Just another tidbit. I read a study some years ago about the most effictive lead shot size for Wild Phez conducted at a popular outfitter operation in South Dakota. Wish i could still find it. At the end of the study it was revealed that hands down #4 lead resulted in far fewer cripples and more dead birds when recovered than any other shot size by a large margin. Over the course of the season hunters were given an equal sampling of #6, #5 and #4 lead loads. Each bird hit was recorded by whether it was alive or dead when recovered, if recovered and what shot size was used. Overwhelming #4 was supreme.
 
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If you were to pose this question on a Waterfowl forum, I think you would see most guys shooting 3's first then 2's around 1300-1400 fps for their times when they aren't duck hunting.

Don't forget to pattern your loads too, steel is definitely tighter than lead so your usual Mod becomes IC and Full becomes Mod. This topic gets a lot of discussion at times on those sites as guys making trips out of state want to pheasant hunt a little when done duck hunting......
 
dnj21 said:
Don't forget to pattern your loads too, steel is definitely tighter than lead so your usual Mod becomes IC and Full becomes Mod. This topic gets a lot of discussion at times on those sites as guys making trips out of state want to pheasant hunt a little when done duck hunting......
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Yes, pattern your gun/chokes at the distances you plan on shooting your birds.

I try to set up my O/U chokes so one barrel/choke is giving good 30 yard patterns and the other barrel/choke is good for shots out to 40 yards.

Here are some of my 20ga pattern numbers to give you an idea of the kind of pattern density you can get from a 3" 1-ounce loads of steel No. 2s & 3s.

Pattern results from a 20-gauge Browning Citori with 28" Invector-plus barrels and Briley flush chokes to give you an idea of what you might find (patterns average of five, 30" post-shot scribed circle, yardage taped muzzle to target, and in-shell pellet count average of five).

20 GA 3" WINCHESTER DRYLOK STEEL LOAD
1 oz #3 steel (145 pellets) @ 1,330 fps
30 YARDS – SK / pattern 114 (78%)
40 YARDS – IM / pattern 106 (73%)

20 GA 3" REMINGTON NITRO-STEEL LOAD
1 oz #2 steel (118 pellets) @ 1,330 fps
30 YARDS – SK / pattern 101 (86%)
40 YARDS – IM / pattern 99 (84%)

Here are some of my 12ga pattern numbers to give you an idea of the kind of pattern density you can get from a 2 3/4" 1 1/8-ounce load of steel No. 2s.

Patterning results from a 12-gauge Browning Citori with 28" Invector-plus barrels using Briley flush chokes (patterns average of five, 30" post-shot scribed circle, yardage taped muzzle to target, and in-shell pellet count average of five).

12 GA 2 3/4" REMINGTON SPORTSMAN HI-SPEED STEEL LOAD
1 1/8 oz #2 steel (139 pellets) @ 1,375 fps
30 YARDS – SK / pattern 116 (84%)
40 YARDS – M / pattern 114 (82%)

Good luck.
 
I have never tried anything larger than a #4 for pheasants. The Hevi Pheasant loads
are really effective for me and I am not sure that I want anything smaller than a 4.
 
theuplandlife said:
I have never tried anything larger than a #4 for pheasants. The Hevi Pheasant loads
are really effective for me and I am not sure that I want anything smaller than a 4.
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IMO #4 whether lead or tungsten is probably the largest shot size one should consider for Pheasants and still attain a decent size pattern that puts at least 3-4 pellets on the bird for a clean kill. In fact a load size smaller that 1 1/4 oz. with #4 should not even be considered in a 12ga. and 1 3/8oz or 1 1/2oz being better to allow enough pellets in the pattern to do their job.
 
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