doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Shot size 7 ?

7 nickel silver has become my standard for both early season pheasant and prairie chicken and all season preserve load

I could come up with all sorts great sounding reasons, but I will leave it with I simply like it, it works, and it appeals to my love of being a bit eclectic.

whatever I like, I like too much

# 7s wouldn't leave home without a box. Perfect size for prairie grouse while not being too much for quail and lethal on pheasant over pointing dogs.

So just to be clear, when a box of H&H or other British shells say "6" they mean "7", right?

No when a British box of shells says #6 they mean #6. The British use a different size system than we do. Their #6 just happens to be nearly identical to our #7. There was a time in the US back around the turn of the century last, that in the US in order to get the size desired you had to state not only the size, but also from which Tower. Finally sizes were standardized & sizes of the Tatum Tower of New York became the standard. Under this system an 0 size is .170" diameter & one simply subtracts the size number from this to find the diameter of any given size. Thus a #7 is .170 -.07 or.100". A #7� is .170 - .075 or .095"
Can't recall for certain, but that may be Tathum Tower.

1897 Hunter Arms catalog. And we think life is complicated today



A more readable version is p. 20 here
http://www.lcsmith.org/images/Catalog1897.pdf


SHOT SIZES

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���mm�...inches�.�mm��inches���mm��inches
4��..3.3��.0.13���..2.8��...0.11��.�3.1��..0.122
5��..3.0��.0.12���..2.67�...0.105��..2.9��..0.1142
6��..2.8��.0.11���..2.54�...0.10��..�2.7��..0.1063
7��..2.54�.0.10��.�..2.4�..�0.095��...2.5��.0.0984
8��..2.3��.0.09���..2.29�...0.09�..��2.3��. 0.0906

British 6's are slightly larger than American 7's: 270/oz vs 299. Just shot with a collection of folks who dispatched a number of British pheasants and partridge shooting 1 oz Brit 6's. I've used the 1 1/16 oz load of Brit 6's (Kent now, Eley in the past) for American pheasants over dogs. Very effective. Also an excellent prairie grouse load, although early in the season, RST's 7/8 oz 7's out of a 20ga works fine on sharpies and chickens.

Ah! Lovely No. 7 shot. Whay do I seem to be attracted by the odd numbers...#7, #5, #3...

I remember reading Ray P. Holland's book Scattergunning when I was a teen. He swore by #7's for most birds, even geese and ducks over decoys.

Sportsman's Warehouse seems to carry #7 shot regularly (In Anchorage; but that means the corporation will supply it to you.) Lats I looked it was $40 something a bag for hard shot.

Larry-B&P makes a "High Pheasant" 1-1/16 load of 6's for a twelve bore (2-1/2") That's very effective on American pheasants at reasonable range. I think they are also about #6-1/2 shot in truth. You'll like them if you can get 'em.

Larry-B&P makes a "High Pheasant" 1-1/16 load of 6's for a twelve bore (2-1/2") That's very effective on American pheasants at reasonable range. I think they are also about #6-1/2 shot in truth. You'll like them if you can get 'em.

3/4oz of 7s from my 20ga handloads or 7/8oz of RST 7s from the 16ga have been the best "killing" load for desert quail for the last 30 years. With 7.5s and 8s the numbers of these birds that bounced up and ran off was significantly higher even with heavier shot loads. But when I started using the 7s very few moved once hit. I think the penetration was enough better to cause the difference. Maybe it was just that they carried the range a little better. At any rate I prefer them.