I have used 8s forever but have been trying 7 1/2 lately. I used 6s once with good results too.

Daniel , I just posted on Hunting with Parkers. I mention some of the loads I use. I'm big on 8s in everything I load, I'm bigger on #9 & #10 in my 2 1/2" 410 loads.
Chris Robenalt

Observation in 12 ga:

Last week limit of doves with Federal 3-1 1/8-8 1200 fps lots of cripples to dispatch.

Today limit of doves with Win. AA 3 1/4-1 1/8-7.5 1300 fps all doa.

7 1/2 is the choice.

Good job Jerry! I posted this earlier, but my buddy and I shot 410 on Labor Day. We each shot less than a box of AA 2 1/2 #9, 1200FPS. No lost birds, I even shot a couple Eurasions. Something about a 1/2 ounce of #9 or #10 that gives us the perfect recipe for bringing these critters down. These loads are deadly year around. I'm going to do an Eurasion only hunt here in a couple weeks with 410.

My question for the "small shot" advocates is: Would you rather eat a dove or a quail with fifteen #9s in him, or a dove or quail with four #6 or six #7 1/2? As Jerry says, they will be dead with a sufficient load of bigger shot, not so much with #8 or #9. Chris, I'll bet your little .410 has some serious choke in it, and you know how to shoot it. Congratulations on a great shoot.

That makes sense Bill, I never thought of that, but then again Ive never had a mouthful of shot in my birds. We filet the breast meat, and usually it's very clean. You do make a good point though.

This has always been my thought. I know there's a lot of different thinking on shot size, but my preference has always been to use the bigger, easier to find shot sizes. 7 1/2s being, IMO, the perfect shot size for doves.

/http://shotshell.drundel.com/pelletcount.htm

This chart is pretty useful. I didn't realize that there is only a 0.005" or 0.12 mm difference between #7.5 and #8.

Some years I am blessed to be able to shoot at a lot of doves. If I expect there to be more mourning doves, I reach for #8 and if whitewings then #7.5.

Although when I was low on shells last week I shot RST #6 copper plated out of my Trojan 16 and it dropped the birds DRT. Not the most economical load but it worked well on an assortment of mourning, whitewing, and Euroasian.

Chris,

I also use a .410 in a skeet gun with 9s or a 28 with 8.5 if it is opening day and there are lots of stupid young doves flying like crazy and coming in close. Use the smaller shot because not enough 7.5 or 8 for good patterns at 25 or 30. I've even killed my limit with the 1/2 ounce 9s in January when it was so cold one could not stand it and the doves were flying like crazy to decoys. But now they are flying like jets over the freshly shelled cornfields and I don't want to cripple them so I have stepped up the gauge and load to a gun that reaches out to thirty-five yards, sometimes a little more. Going again in the morning as it is cold now and the birds (all males) are here in good numbers. We can hunt until October 27. Then two more seasons later. We have nothing but Mourning Doves here.

I just checked the chokes in my 410 Bill. Using the Galazan choke gauge they measure MOD/IM. I usually choose a shot from 25 to 40 yds. Other gauges and chokes will vary of course. I believe everyone has a load that gets the job done. I'm happy somewhere between #8 & #10.