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05-22-2019, 11:19 PM | #3 | ||||||
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Dean I gave all of the birds to the guys working at the Dairy and did not dress any of the birds.
I am headed up in a few weeks and will try and do a video as well as well as skin some pigeons to show the results. Unfortunately I was delivery pecans to a customer and was trying to stay clean as possible on this trip. |
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The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Phillip Carr For Your Post: |
05-28-2019, 01:14 PM | #4 | ||||||
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Dean, one year I decided to try #9's on grouse and woodcock, as I had been given a couple cases of 20 ga AA 9's by the widow of a friend. I had to basically just throw away alot of birds as they were so shot up as to be inedible. I have since gone back to 7 1/2 and 8's, or even straight 7's. I use the rest of the 9's on clays.
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"How kind it is that most of us will never know when we have fired our last shot"--Nash Buckingham |
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The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to Harold Lee Pickens For Your Post: |
06-22-2019, 08:47 AM | #5 | |||||||
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Quote:
I’ve used 9’s on grouse since I was 13 years old and rarely had a bird that was too shot up to eat. It all depends on where you hunt them. My coverts are very thick with shots averaging 15 to 20 yards. The thick cover absorbs a lot of the shot and you hope to get a few through to the bird. It’s all instinctive point shooting. You rarely get a clear shot. I use 9’s because of the larger number of shot in the shell. It increases the odds that some will get through to the bird. I’ve also hunted them in Saskatchewan incidental to sharptail and hun shooting. The woods around the fields are loaded with grouse but the cover is much more open than at home and the shots longer. They are not concentrated like they are at home and you have to walk more for each flush. I use 6’s for them there since that’s what I use for the sharptails and huns. I suppose that if I used shells for that specific cover, it would probably be 8’s since the shots are more open and the range longer. However, if I was chewing up the birds, I don’t imagine that 8’s vs. 9’s would make much difference. I would probably go to 7 1/2 ‘s. |
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The Following User Says Thank You to Tom Flanigan For Your Post: |
05-28-2019, 02:29 PM | #6 | ||||||
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My opinion of 10’s is about the same as yours Harold. I use 8’s on woodcock and grouse and if they’re close I try to make head shots if I can. Most of the birds I kill have very few, if any pellet damage to the breasts.
- No, I’m not really that good but I will try for head shots and I’m often lucky. .
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"I'm a Setter man. Not because I think they're better than the other breeds, but because I'm a romantic - stuck on tradition - and to me, a Setter just "belongs" in the grouse picture." George King, "That's Ruff", 2010 - a timeless classic. |
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05-28-2019, 03:32 PM | #7 | ||||||
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I shot a few woodcock with those loads and was barely able to scavenge a wing to send to the USFWS wing survey.
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"How kind it is that most of us will never know when we have fired our last shot"--Nash Buckingham |
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05-28-2019, 03:52 PM | #8 | ||||||
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I don't use #9's on any gamebirds but on pigeons, either out of a trap or hand-thrown, they are deadly. As Phil found out that small shot is the ticket.
I shot a live bird shoot this weekend over 8 Barnaby type traps. The first 5 bird race had me scoring a 3 which won't even get you an honorable mention. I checked the bottom choke in my K32, thinking I had .015 constriction when it was really .027. DUH, my bad. Switched it out to .015 and using 3- 1 1/8- 9's followed by a top barrel with .043 and 3 1/4- 1 1/4- 7 1/2's. Ran the next 13 birds only having to use my second barrel twice to anchor the bird.
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Wag more- Bark less. |
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The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Daryl Corona For Your Post: |
05-28-2019, 04:22 PM | #9 | ||||||
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Some guys say their experience is that it’s unsportsman like to shoot birds with 9 or 10 shot as it won’t kill over 15 yards.
Others find it devastates birds. Lots of variables I suppose but like many of you I’m retired and hunt with my dogs for quail every chance I get. Season starts in early October and ends in February. I enjoy eating quail and use what works. For Mearns pointed by my dogs I shoot 9’s spreaders and open chokes. I can only think of two birds I could not salvage this year. One that flew right at me and I should have never shot, the other where a covey flushed close and I shot at less than 12 yards, something I should not have done. I do not find my birds are horribly shot up. Then again I don’t mind two or three pellets in the breast. Most are very easily and cleanly removed with a tool made from a nail. |
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The Following 9 Users Say Thank You to Phillip Carr For Your Post: |
05-28-2019, 04:41 PM | #10 | ||||||
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I think that big hairy Newfoundlander shot some of those birds in the last pic ...he cleaned them too , found very little damage of note ...very tasty little birds
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The Following User Says Thank You to chris dawe For Your Post: |
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