doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com # 9 shot.......usefulness?

I have been given 4 bags of Lawrence Magnum (hard) #9 shot. I loaded a couple bags many years ago and used it on very early season doves and found that it worked fine within about 25 yards. These were young doves, early in the season, many only maybe 80% mature, but I found that it lacked the punch needed to cleanly kill past that yardage and also on later mature birds.

I have been loading .410 shells lately with a MEC 8567 Grabber. When I started out I was loading #7 1/2 shot and found that it had an aggravating tendency to bridge in the rammer (shot drop) tube and dump 1/2 oz. of shot all over the loader when the handle hit the top off the upstroke. This #9 shot flows through it perfectly, however.

Interested to know how many of you have had experience with #9s on clay birds and small game...... doves, quail, etc. Also any tips on handling the shot bridging problem would be appreciated. Will #8s bridge the way 7 1/2s do?

SRH

Stan,
#9s work fine on snipe which are considerably smaller than mature doves. Gil

I limit my use of #9s to skeet, for which it is well suited. I prefer 8s for grouse, woodcock and quail - it is a little more versatile. For those birds, you are not giving up much in the way of pattern density on the close shots, but get better results on the longer second shots. I suppose you could mix loads in the R and L barrels, but I haven't seen a reason to do that for the hunting I do.

Back in my youth when I lived in state that had dove seasons, it was all 8s and 7.5s. I don't recall ever using 9s - but that was open field shooting with few incomers like at the waterholes.

RST has been selling a #10 Woodcock load - it must work but that seems kinda light to me.

Stan,

#9s work just fine on clays to about 25 yds. #8.5s are noticeably more reliabl past that point. I'm told #9s work OK on woodcock. But in ME the WC and ruffed seasons overlap. So I have not gone smaller than #8s for field use. Even then, I prefer #7.5s.

Bridging in small .410 drop tubes is just a statistical function of shot size. Rarely, I've had #9s hang up with my 9000. #8.5s will more often make a mess. I don't try to load #8s in .410, as I lack the requisite patience. I'd rather just purchase factory loads in those larger shot sizes.

Sam

I use #9 exclusively in 20ga target loads. Our five stand course has a teal, and it's measured at 43 yards to the top. #9 destroys it. Likewise incoming targets at slightly over 40 yards. Not a hint of poor performance.

The .410 half ounce of 9's is at it's best at exactly 18 yards. It works with reasonable reliability at 25 yards. Beyond that, use more gun. Not the fault of the shot size though.

Bridging in the 410 loader is a problem even with #9. You will learn to tap the drop tube on the way up, and check for a full shell before raising the handle too far above the shell mouth. I've mounted my 410 loader in a plastic tray for the times when I get overconfident and things are just clicking along....

I've even used #9 at trap back to 22 yards. It works fine.

Tried it on quail and grouse. Went back to sevens and a half.

Found 9s and often 8s weren't dropping desert quail as cleanly as I like. 71/2s are much better but my favorite is 7s. The birds are dead in the air and don't bounce and run. Mostly I use a 20ga with 3/4 or 7/8 oz loads. Doves are easier and 8s work fine for them and for sporting clays.

Hard #9's are all that I ever reload for Skeet--prefer it to any other size. It sometimes does bridge in the .410 and 28-ga. P/W drop tubes, so I too; bump the loader with the heel of my left hand upon dropping the shot. I prefer 7 1/2's and 8's for Sporting Clays, 5 Stand and Trap and the same for Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock.

Don't trouble your brain. Send it to me and I will pay the postage. E-mail for details.

#7.5 shot in a .410 MEC drop tube will bridge much of the time irrespective of most remedies, as you have discovered. Sometimes I use a very small plastic faced mallet to tap the drop tube to jar them loose. Motor Mica or a smidge of graphite helps as does a high polish on the inside of the drop tube, but is not a 100% cure.

#9 shot is the norm for skeet, excepting the .410 when it is wet & damp. In the little gun [edit: under those conditions], you may find #8's or even #7.5's to be more effective. I'm not a particularly competitive skeet shooter, but stand by the remark nonetheless as it comes from both my own experience & some AAA shooters who arrived at the same conclusion through their own experiences; be your own judge on that. As the old question, "What is the dif between shooting a 98 and shooting 100?" is correctly answered, "About $20,000 per year." One has to pay the dues to get there, cost is a part of that. Sustained lead shooting and memorizing what the correct sight pic looks like from each station is another; continuous practice is the last component. A good coach helps too. If it is cold & damp, use a larger shot size when shooting the 'little gun' at skeet. For dove beyond 25 yards I would do the same, use a larger shot size.

In the field on dove, I have known outfitters in S.A. who swore that #9's were "the answer" to high overhead flyers and who stoned them at 120 foot heights with 20ga. guns using 25grams of #9's. Personally, I use #6's for that kind of dove shooting when they are available and never give it so much as a thot.

Anything larger than a #8 in most MEC .410 loaders is a PITA. An old coin-op bed vibrator mounted to your loading bench can alleviate most of the shot bridging, but you will have to recheck your powder drop w/a good scale as it will likely settle & increase the powder drop weight at the same time, even with dense powders like WW296. I know I'll take a razzing for mentioning this particular remedy. Its OK, I'll stand by it, having been tormented by a number of loading issues over the years.

If all else fails, place a cookie baking sheet under and between the loader and the bench; it will retain the spilled shot. Blot it up with a stick of modeling clay & then use it later wrapped in plastic wrap to stuff into a buttstock cavity to adjust the weight/balance point to your liking on some gun that is not quite right. You can place it forward or back in the cavity w/use of styrofoam(sp?).

You asked. Hope something of value here that you may find of use; it is my experience.

Best, tw

A good friend bought a flat of Winchester 12 AA skeet loads in No. 9 shot- a few years ago when the box price was $4.75/box of 25 hulls- He gave up skeet and offered the full flat to me for $50 even money-and I bought them- Assuming that Winchester used high antimony in that premium loading- and I shot them on crows, blackbirds, grackles and barn pigeons out of mod. or mod. and full choked doubles- I was shattering birds- crows are all wing and no body mass, barn pigeons are tougher, unless you love the incomers like I do- my favorite shot- the old Limey mantra of Butt belly beak- lead and Bang- if you see the bird when the Bang occurs, you've missed it or dusted its afterburner group--

Any bird flying head first into a dense mass of shots at 1200 fps muzzle- will die in the sky- years ago, long before the steel shot farce- I shot with an old time market hunter from the WW1 era- He shot a Winchester M1897 30" full choke pumpgun without any 3 shot plug, and used Federal paper champions 12 gauge 1 & 1/8th of No. 7 & 1/2 chilled- even on geese- but he only shot when he could "see their shoelaces" and learned by economics to be a incoming bird head shooter- you get a quick kill, few if any cripples- and the eatin' meat parts aren't all busted up--Now- take any of these birds going straight away, and all the No. 9 shots will do is give 'em a lead enema-not a problem on pest birds like crows and barn pigeons, but not sportsmanlike on game birds- Clay targets can vary in surface hardness too-shoot at one on edge from High house no. 4 and you might get a "chippie"- but shoot the same load at the No. 7 High house incomer-different story- IMO