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
