Simon Ward is an English shooting instructor, regular 'Field' and 'Fieldsports' magazine contributor and often sited as being one of the top UK game shots.
I hope that both he and Fildsports magazine will forgive my reproduction below of part of his recent article in the January edition, which looked at killing high pheasants. His first paragraph gives his opinion on the best cartridges to use and I have included it for interest. However, I did find his remarks about the use of fibre wads in clay guns informative:
"I would suggest that 70 per cent of pheasants are shot between 20-30 yards, so 28g or 30g No. 6s are perfectly adequate for typical game shooting. A bigger load will not make you more accurate. Beyond that range, however, I would suggest 30g or 32g No. 5s. And then for the very high pheasants you will need 30g-36g No. 5s or even 4s. For an English gun, I would advise 30g No. 6s to 30g No. 4s. Shoot the best you can afford.
More and more shoots are specifying fibre wad loads only. There has been a great debate running suggesting that fibre wad loads are inferior. This is no longer the case. Until quite recently a lot of cartridges used for game shooting had plaswads and a shot cup, so the pellets don't touch the side of the barrel. Whereas fibre wads do not have a shot cup, so when the gun is over-bored (or back-bored) there is potential for loss of striking energy due to the gas seal being reduced as the shot charge travels up the barrel.
The idea of over-boring has come to us from the USA, where it was designed to reduce recoil. It has subsequently become a feature of production line guns and is used as a sales ploy. If you use fibre wad cartridges in over-bored barrels, the fibre wad load can lose significant pressure and velocity when the shot charge travels up the barrel. This can greatly reduce your chance of clean kills at over 35 - 40 yards. Many people in the game shooting field are using sporting clay guns to shoot driven game — often with over-bored barrels, thus giving the fibre wad loads a bad name, quite wrongly. However, not all new guns feature over-boring and bespoke guns have it only at the request of the customer.
My own guns are not over-bored and as a result I can and do use felt wad cartridges with total confidence and am at no disadvantage. Clearly if you use back-bored or over-bored barrels, then fibre wad loads will not match up to plaswads due to the absence of an efficient gas seal. Otherwise, fibre are mostly every bit as good.
Simon Ward Jan 2014 feldsportsmagazine.com"
Tim
