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05-26-2018, 10:30 AM | #23 | ||||||
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I think that #$8 is the shot you should use. You have confidence in it and that means a lot. Not sure what was happening with those clay birds. I use 7 1/2 or 8 on quail because 9's put too many pellets in the bird. I like 5's for early season pheasants for the same reason and it is the perfect size shot late in the season as well.
We all have our preferences based on individual experience. But I admit I am a bit passionate about #9's for grouse because I have taken so many birds with it and never had any problems. I hardly ever lost a bird. It just didn't happen. But I do remember two that are burned into my memory. Both birds, years apart, were hit on a sharp flushing rise out of cover only my dog could get through. Both birds flew almost straight up after hit, flying very slowly and gaining altitude while drifting with the wind. They reached an altitude that was astounding to me. All of a sudden, both birds died and dropped like a rock back into the thick cover. I carefully marked them down and got the dog to the spot. But he never found either one. I don't know why this happened but I'm thinking only a pellet hit each bird in the head and something screwy happened. |
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05-26-2018, 02:15 PM | #24 | ||||||
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Tom i have had the same thing occur twice both were hit in the head and towered going slower and slower until wings still beating they came back to ground. Both hit by 1 pellet in the top of the skull. Have looked for a bird a long time when i was without a dog to no avail until my son said look in that alder about 8 feet up. Dog never would have got him but may have marked it.
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05-26-2018, 02:33 PM | #25 | ||||||
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I think I recall Dean saying something about cold clay targets not breaking in one of his experiences, which is pretty rare for where I live. I think the targets I was shooting were stored in a barn that was dry but obviously humidity got to them and moisture content was up in the targets. It was also cold and windy that day and froze night before so maybe the dang targets were frozen. They were tougher than a porcelain pot and none of them would powder but would break if you hit it hard enough. My only point is that demonstrated to me 8's were a good compromise for pellet count and carrying power.
Believe it or not I have killed a good many pheasants actually shooting 9s in a 28 gauge, but nothing more than 10 to 15 yards, which clearly is NOT typical pheasant hunting. I don't knowingly hunt pheasant with that small of shot. Generally prefer 6's. But there was this one time and yes in close range 9's can be effective and actually did not tear birds up to badly. A preserve that I hunted for quail and chukars is next to a place that also runs continental pheasant shoots, but I only brought and hunted with 9's since only thinking quail hunt and that is only size shot I had in arsenal. Seems a couple of days before the nearby property had a big week of continental pheasant hunts for some corporate crowds toward end of season and bunch of them pheasant got away. Turns out them boys could not shoot for shit and all the ones that got away, and the way the wind blew the survivors, they all seemed to assemble in a thick covert. The guides were even confused for a minute but quickly deciphered it. At first we hit the edge of a bean field next to a plot with some overgrowth sagebrush, briars, and mixed in 8 to 12 foot volunteer pine trees and scrub oak sandwiched between another soybean field on other side. Dogs go on point but did not lock up and we were thinking covey of quail was running so we walked into the edge. Nope not quail, instead about a dozen pheasant were huddled up and jumped so we just shot em and I actually doubled. Guides said before we started that they get a few stray pheasants and said just shoot em since they were free birds and predators would get em anyway.They were just considered bonus birds. They did not realize at first how many birds were in there. We quit quail hunting and waded into that field after the few birds that we jumped. Turns out there must of been a hundred or more of them in this small 5 acre patch that we jumped. It was such thick cover they would hold tight and burrow into the thorns and sagebrush and hold for the dogs, it was almost like shooting woodcock because of trees and the soggy soil. The cover was so tight and luckily pheasant when they jump is like slow motion woodcock until they reach altitude the 9 shot put a whuppin on them that day if you hit em before they flatten out. We did not even have a shot after 10 to 15 yards due to the cover. I would say alot of my shots were no more than about 7 to 8 yards. At that distance the wad was smacking some of the birds. We thought once the birds got up they would sail off across that big soybean field but they did'nt. Dang birds had probably been chased enough by some predators they did not want to leave that plot and would cut back in on far side and some would even circle around behind us. I go back to that preserve every once and a while and the guide that I hunted with is still there and we chuckle like kids every time we talk about that "one time". Seems that is the only time that has happened. Come to find out they hunted that plot and another for two days straight afterwards and got about a 200 birds more out of it before season ended. Heck I know I shot 30 of them. They still get a few stragglers in there as far as they know and they try and keep dogs out of it because once they get in there it hard to get the dogs out. The volunteer pine has taken that field so that its almost impenetrable and that area is bogie enough they even get a late flight of woodcock through there during quail season and woodcock nest in there. They still know there are pheasants in there but you almost cannot get at em to even shoot em anymore and the foxes, coyotes, bobcats and hawks probably get em now. |
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05-26-2018, 02:41 PM | #26 | |||||||
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