Quote:
Originally Posted by Harold Lee Pickens
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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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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