I was a guest of a "continental pheasant shoot" near home yesterday, 125 birds in the morning, lunch, then another 125 in the afternoon. All I had to provide was gun and shells. Not having any 12 ga. loads of shot sizes 6 through 4, I looked into what I did have. Found some 16 ga., 1 1/8 oz. of 4s, and a whole flat of 20 ga., 1 oz. 4s that someone had given me several years ago. So, out came Susie, my L C Smith with 32" inseams. She has very tight chokes, over .040" in each barrel, so I had no doubts that the loads for her would work fine, and they did. You never know how the birds will fly at these things, but these were unexpectedly good. I've only done this four times, and had seen mixed results in the past, but we had many, many birds that were pushing 40 yards high by the time they reached the peg, very strong fliers. The Smith did an admirable job, and took some very high and long birds cleanly. But, I didn't have enough shells for it for the afternoon shoot.
So, I used the 30" barreled Beretta 687 SPII Sporting, 20 ga. Now, I'll admit to having some doubts about 1 oz. of 4s on these high birds, but I guess it's just been too long since I quit shooting lead at ducks and I just didn't remember how effective #4 lead can be. I shot a M choke in the first barrel and a LM in the second (top). It hammered them so well I really could not tell much difference between the the 1 oz. load out of the 20, and the 1 1/8 oz. out of the 16. I don't propose to say that this is a great load for wild phez, having never shot at one in my life, but it was aplenty for these birds, even the big cockbirds. It renewed my faith in large shot, used properly. Some here may recall my fondness for choke, and the combination of plenty choke and the 4s worked really well.
One word of caution if attending a shoot like this, WEAR SHOOTING GLASSES and a billed cap. There will be shooters on the opposite side of you shooting upwards, but in your direction. Yesterday morning a shot came across the field, probably 200 yards, and bounced off my forehead above my left eye. It hit my ol' bony head so hard the other guy on my peg looked around to see what made the noise, and left a red spot where it struck. If it had hit an eye it would have been serious.
SRH
Last edited by Stan; 02/21/16 08:22 AM.
