Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin McCormack
You will have a big advantage using dogs; nevertheless sharptails even holding at point can come up anywhere from 5 to 20 yards from the gun, and they get away fast! IMO, the same thing holds true for them as for wild TX and OK quail - speed kills! Prarie chickens, not so much. If you only have these 2 guns to take, I would definitely get some copper 6's for the 20 gauge. And if you have a longer barreled 12 gauge, I would take it as a backup gun in case there are any 'surprises.' Good luck and I hope you bag some of each.
|
I agree with everything that Kevin said except that I never considered the sharptail a 20 bore bird. Shots can be long, even using a good bird dog. I think the 16 bore is perfect with 1 1/8 oz. of shot. I have used this load often on these birds but my go to gun for sharptails is a 12 bore DHE, modified and full shooting 1200 fps, 1 1/4 oz handloads of #6 shot. If you are going to shoot a 20 bore, I would take some shots at paper first. You may be pleased or you may not, but it is never a bad idea to shoot at paper first with a small bore 20.