What a great bunch of posts. I guess I am behind the crowd, having never really tried 6s or 7s on doves. Guess the reason I never tried 7s is because they weren't available when I was a kid, in hardware stores, where most shells were sold here, and I didn't start reloading until I was grown. This is just the kind of personal information I was hoping for.
The energy numbers kinda speak for themselves, don't they? Huge differences in retained energy. I use loads all over the board from the beginning of the season to the end. I open the season with a .410 S x S, and usually don't even find the need for the 11/16 oz. loads on the young, close doves. If I use the .410 again later in the first half of our season(s) I will go to 3" shells. Then I fall into the groove with my 687 SP II Sporting 20 ga. and 7/8 oz. loads. This is more than adequate for most of the rest of the shooting I do, though I tend to lean toward the IM and LF chokes at the end. But, it's the big late season ones that get me up to the 16 ga. Elsie, with XF and XF chokes, and 1 oz. shot.
As some of you know, I grow corn and peanuts, among other things, and have access to a lot of fields other than my own. The late birds have left the sunflowers, here, and are in the peanuts mostly. This year I planted 10 fields in benne (sesame) for harvest, and have high expectations that they will yield some fine late season shoots. While I agree with George's concern about shot fall with 6s, I do a lot of this late shooting with just a handful of friends, and shot fall is much less concern than on a crowded field. I also shoot a fair amount alone, so I can manage that part of the deal easily.
What comparisons could we draw with using, say, a 1 oz. load of 6s compared to a 1 oz. load of 7 1/2s as far as choking down to have an equivalent pattern density? I.e., would the 6s, out of a full choke be roughly the same density as the 7 1/2 s out of a LM, in density of pattern? I don't believe I have ever seen that kind of data. In other words, if I can center a dove in my pattern of 7 1/2s with LM choke and kill him reliably at 50 yards, will the density of the load of 6s allow me to do it at 70 with the full choke, if I also center the bird in the pattern?
SRH
