10 Ga. Mixed-Size Shot Load Performance On Pheasants?

[Dave Rosenthal]

I will be taking my SxS 10 Ga. Pedersoli afield again this weekend. I'm thinking about mixing some #6 and #7.5 in equal weights to give me a 1 3/4 oz. load for Saturday's pheasant hunting trip. Does anyone here have any experience with doing that sort of thing, and if so, what were the results as compared to just staying with a 1 3/4 oz. load of #7.5?

I'm figuring that I might get an additional 5 yards or so of range with my cylinder bore due to the additional down-range energy transferred to the birds :idunno: ? With the straight #7.5 load I've taken 'em cleanly out to 25+ yards while working with a good dog.

And since I'm working all the rest of the week, I won't have the time to test the new load, so save your typing for that one :wink: .

Thanks to all in advance for any help or thoughts you have.

Dave

 

[roundball]

I haven't done that in a 10ga...but from some limited experimenting I've done along those lines in a .20ga, one thought that comes to mind is this:

Instead of "equal" amounts of #6s and #7.5s...knowing the pellet count will drop with the #6s taking up part of the charge, if I was going to do that I'd probably be inclined to split the charge a little more in favor of the #6s: IE: 1oz #6s and 3/4oz #7.5s

The overall payload should be a tad lighter, therefore a tad faster but I can't imagine it would be anything you could notice in the field.

 

[Bosteldr]

I have a 12ga New Englander. I found that 7 1/2 do not make clean pheasant kills. 6 or 5 do a better job out of my shotgun.

 

[Twice boom]

I have a 12ga New Englander. I found that 7 1/2 do not make clean pheasant kills. 6 or 5 do a better job out of my shotgun.

I'm strictly a #6 shot guy with my modern breech loaders. But I hand load them 1240-1300 ft per second. I've never been able to load my ML to do better than 1040-1075 (chronoed) and do it consistently. For that reason on Pheasant if I want similar energy as I get out of #6's with my modern loads I have to drop down to #5's. with my ML. But that just me thinking that way.
Remington had a shell with mixed shot some years ago .I don't know that they still offer it for sale nor do I know what kind of results they were claiming..

Still, I think if your main intent was to fill in the patterns gap by adding more shot count with the 7 1/2's I think you will succeed ,but you might suffer a bit in the killing power with the ML. . Just my opinion.

Twice.

 

[Jason Lewis]

i'm not for mixed shot loads. it just kills your pellet count and i really don't think it does much for your lethality either. it also can makes some blotchy patterns too. at least that was my experience. you also have to carry two shot sizes in the field too.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

To Bill & Co.:

It seems as if the concenus is that #7.5's are a little weak for pheasant. So maybe I should just pour a 1 3/4 oz. load of just the #6 shot?

One additional thought: Since I'm using a volume measure, should I increase the load another 1/8 oz. (10 grains according to the charts here on the forum) to make-up for the additional space between all of the pellets? It might help to fill-in what ever pattern density is lost to the larger shot size.....

Gentlemen, your thoughts please! Thanks!

Dave

 

[Hoyt]

I've killed several gobblers with a mix of 6's and 4's in 12 & 20ga.

 

[roundball]

My personal thought is that 7.5's could be a little on the light side to penetrate into the vitals or break wings...particularly if any distance is involved...ie: I'd use #7.5s for close range turkey head & neck shots, but not at distance or for any body shots...but that wasn't the question you asked and I didn't offer unsolicited critique.

Speaking only for myself, I would vote for all #6s unless the birds are running / flushing at distance, in which case I'd use #5s to carry the energy. And yes, if I dropped to #5s I'd definitely bump up the shot charge with more of them...I do the same thing with my #5s for squirrels out of a .28ga.

If you're OK with the velocity of the load you've been using, you could scale-weigh your #7.5 shot charge, then match that scale-weight with #6s then with #5s...jot down the weights and also determine what powder measure volume they represent for ease of use in the future...you can even glance at a shot chart and quickly see what your pellet count would be in all cases.

Roundball's conclusions only...other's mileage may vary :wink:

 

[CoyoteJoe]

I wouldn't go smaller than sixes, pheasant are tough birds and you seldom get any shot except straight away where their vitals are best protected. I wouldn't worry about pellet count, with 1 3/4 ounces you are throwing plenty of pellets. You don't mention choke and that does make a difference. If you have even a bit of choke you'd do fine with fives or with a full choke maybe even fours.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

O-K guys, I'll make-up some heavy #6 loads and keep the #7.5's for clay birds!

Thanks to everyone for the help! I'm do to go this Saturday, so I'll post my results.

Dave

 

[Britsmoothy]

All this talk of energy :yakyak:

Thems birds don't need any more energy,they go like hell anyway, what ya wanna give hem some more for :idunno:

Them 7&1/2s will be fine, Their heads and necks are weak.

Last time I used them the dog had some fun making retrieves, about the same fun the last time I used 5s.

Don't worry about it.

Brits.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

O-K and thanks.

 

[410-er]

Try #7 1/2 in one barrel and #6 in the other.If one works better you can load both with the size that is working.Before I got a muzzy double my pheasant load was 20ga Dove&Quail #7 1/2.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Tom,

That's also a good idea! I should have had a V-8! :shocked2: :haha:

 

[ebiggs1]

When you only kill one pheasant with a muzzle loader shotgun (ever), you are not much of an expert. So that is where I am coming from. But I have shot many pheasants with my Wingmaster 12 ga. That said I certainly would consider 6s to be the smallest, unless for some reason your pheasants a more fragile than western Kansas are! The one I did get last season I had a 1 ½ oz load of 6s, so I am going to say a bigger load of shot is better. My gun has a bore and IC barrels on it.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Thanks!

I've been out two or three times with the 10 ga. pheasant hunting. Working close to a pointer results in a quick clean harvest with #7.5's and the meat isn't blown to heck. Longer shots knock the bird down but you need to "give it a twist" if you know what I mean. That's why I'm thinking about a 1 7/8 oz. load of mixed #6 & #7.5 being the best of both worlds. Some more punch from the #6's but I won't blow the bird up working close to the pointer. That's my take on this experiment.

Dave

 

[rabjr]

When I was beating the brush way back when, I used 6s for just about everything but doves, woodcock and quail, those I used 7 1/2s or 8s.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Well, I made-up my so-far-as-of-now untested customized combo shot loads of 80 grains of #7.5's and 60 grains of #6's, which comes out to approx. a 2 ounce load of shot going by the chart on this forum. My usual black powder charge of 72 grains was increased just 10% to 80 grains, so I'm not too worried about doughnut holes in the pattern since I'm pushing more lead out the front. Bottom line is that 2 oz. of lead in the air is still 2 oz. of LEAD, so I'll probably do well. My Phaser will be set to KILL instead of STUN :haha:

I'm going this Saturday and I just can't wait to get out there! Thanks to everyone for all of your suggestions and input :bow: .

Maybe I'll save some of the pre-loads for some clay birds soon!

Dave

 

[Jason Lewis]

just a suggestion, but bump that load up to 90 grn. 80 grn load is gonna go kinda slow.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Forgot to say that it's 3Fg Goex, not 2F or single F :redface: . So 80 grains of 3Fg is about 88 grains of 2Fg? So is that still sort of slow? Should I bump it up to 85 grains of 3Fg?

I used to use only 72 grains of 3Fg with my 1 3/4 oz. load of #7.5 shot. Very effective for clay birds and critters smaller than pheasants. So I guesstimated a 10% powder increase for the weight of the additional 1/4 oz. of shot. I figure it's enough to get the load moving about the same speed as before, without causing a doughnut hole in the pattern. 3Fg is the only powder I have, so I'm "making due" with it. The gun is rated for 109 grains of powder (2Fg?) pushing 1 3/4 oz. of lead shot, so I figure I'm under the Max Charge pressure wise.

So am I O-K? Thanks for the help!

Dave