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I am out to buy some 12 GA RST loads to hunt pheasant this season. What is the best? I see they have the Best Grade, Premium Grade, etc. Right now I do have a couple of boxes of 1oz, Best Grade number 6 shot. I see it has a muzzle vel. of 1175. I am told that these shells are good enough for pheasant hunting. Looking for some help from any one that has hunted with these loads.
Last edited by William Maynard; 09-04-2010 at 09:28 PM..
Hello William ,Last season about the only gun I carried for Pheasant was a little PH 20 Ga.,the shells I used are 20 Ga. 2 1/2 ",7/8 Oz. shot # 6 ,from RST LTD .Now I am not hunting Wild Kansas Roosters ,but I do hunt Pheasant regularly here in Pa. and Shoot 95 % of my birds over points ,so with that said ,the shooting is inside 25 Yards ,for sure ,but didn't have a cripple all season ,fantastic shells with very minimal recoil and seem easy on the gun ! Russ
The Following User Says Thank You to Russ Jackson For Your Post:
William,
I've used RST's in all gauges and loads for years and love them. They fit all bills. The big question is the gun your using? What pressure will it handle and what is the chamber lenght? Fit the shell to the gun!
Bob Jurewicz
The Following User Says Thank You to Bob Jurewicz For Your Post:
Has anyone tried the RST 20ga. spreader shells? I have a 20 with L-Mod and Mod chokes I use on Quail and would like to shoot a more open pattern. I have used spreaders years ago but found them to leave large holes in the pattern so I quite using them.
I am out to buy some 12 GA RST loads to hunt pheasant this season. What is the best? I see they have the Best Grade, Premium Grade, etc. Right now I do have a couple of boxes of 1oz, Best Grade number 6 shot. I see it has a muzzle vel. of 1175. I am told that these shells are good enough for pheasant hunting. Looking for some help from any one that has hunted with these loads.
I hunt exclusively wild pheasant out here. The RST or any other good quality shell will work fine. Just look for a crossing shot and shoot for the head. I like the standard Federal Game Shoc loads for my fluid steel and damascus guns, but the RST's will work fine, too. Use a gun with some choke for most of the mid to late season birds out here unless you are lucky to get some snow and have them buried in.
I use the RST Spreader in my VH 20 gauge for Skeet. I'm choked Full/Lt. Mod and use the spreader for the incoming pair on stations 1,2,6,7 and both houses on station 8. I've yet to pattern the load but I shoot my Full barrel with the utmost confidence and absolutely dust the birds. I've also found Mr. Papp and his staff at Classic to be a pleasure to deal with as well.
I hunt exclusively wild pheasant out here. The RST or any other good quality shell will work fine. Just look for a crossing shot and shoot for the head. I like the standard Federal Game Shoc loads for my fluid steel and damascus guns, but the RST's will work fine, too. Use a gun with some choke for most of the mid to late season birds out here unless you are lucky to get some snow and have them buried in.
No. For upland hunting, in a 12ga, I use the Federal 1 1/8oz loads, 16ga the 1oz and 20ga the 7/8oz loads. All damascus, all spot on the dram equivalent ( DRE) recommendations of Parker for the gun weight, and all under (as best I can tell) the pressures used by Parker for working service pressures and listed in the tables in The Parker Story. There is a difference in the 16ga for me, as my Parker Small Bore Shot Gun tables list only the 7/8oz, 2 1/2 DRE load for 16ga guns, but I am aware that later, during the 1920's and 30's, Parker was suggesting 1oz loads in the 16. I have shot the 1 1/8oz loads in the 16ga, I am aware than they are beyond Parker recommended, and I can see why, so I don't do it anymore. My three 16's ( one P and two C's) are all 1 frame guns 6 1/2 to 6 3/4 lbs, but if I got a 6 to 6 1/4lb 0 frame 16 sometime, I think I'd want to keep the loads at 7/8oz. So far as I know, RST and reloading are the only sources of 16ga 7/8oz loads.
For clays shooting, I reload, and reload the hulls 1/8oz less than the nominal shot loads for each ga., and also drop the speed to a little below 1200fps to get softer recoil and less wear on the guns. Hodgdon Int'l is my choice for the small bores, its cleaner burning than the Hodgdon powder used by RST but runs a little higher pressure. RST tries to keep pressures much lower than Parker service limit pressures to account for unknown condition guns, those that are honed to thin barrels. My Parkers of all barrel steels are good condition with good wall thickness, they are generally later guns, and I follow the Parker new gun pressure and load tables.
If Bill Murphy reads this, I solved my 20ga 3/4oz loading problems by getting a new MEC progressive loader. The symptom was inconsistant ignition and the cause was varying wad seating pressure.
Hunting season is a-coming. The old dog is getting older, the young dog is in NoDak at doggy charm school and the trigger finger itchiness was not solved by the dove season so far. A few pictures of hunts past.
Photo:
1. Kansas, Jan 2010 closing day of the season. Bruce Day, Larry Frey, Josh Lowensteiner
2. Closing day, Josh, BD, Larry Chapman holding some sort of strange gun, Jim Hall, Larry Frey
3. Kansas, Bill Bolyard holding bird in hand and holding in his mouth something the dog picked up
4. A trio of CHE 20ga's at the cabin.
5. Nebraska Sand Hill. opening day duck season. Banging away with the 12ga GHE damascus.
6. December, Lon Morris , lunchtime at the Grizzly Bar, Absarokee, Montana
7. Jan Kansas. On the high plains information superhighway
8. Josh and Bruce
9. Doc Van and Bill Bolyard
10. Jim Hall, a little colder than back home in Virginia
11. Charlie Herzog, ducks and Parkers
12. Columbus, Montana, lunch break
13. The New Atlas, Columbus, something for the PETA people
14. The Jersey Lily, Ingomar, Montana. The county road crews have been lax in keeping up with paving for the last 100 years
15. The Jersey Lily, named after Lily Langtry
16. SoDak. Ron Garrido, Greg Dershem, Ron McDonald (from Tasmania), Larry Frey and Shortstop
17. Ron sharing a beer with his new found friend
18. Charlie Herzog. 16ga A grade hammer gun and pheasant
Last edited by Bruce Day; 09-06-2010 at 10:49 AM..
The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to Bruce Day For Your Post: