doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Effectiveness of #4 lead

I was a guest of a "continental pheasant shoot" near home yesterday, 125 birds in the morning, lunch, then another 125 in the afternoon. All I had to provide was gun and shells. Not having any 12 ga. loads of shot sizes 6 through 4, I looked into what I did have. Found some 16 ga., 1 1/8 oz. of 4s, and a whole flat of 20 ga., 1 oz. 4s that someone had given me several years ago. So, out came Susie, my L C Smith with 32" inseams. She has very tight chokes, over .040" in each barrel, so I had no doubts that the loads for her would work fine, and they did. You never know how the birds will fly at these things, but these were unexpectedly good. I've only done this four times, and had seen mixed results in the past, but we had many, many birds that were pushing 40 yards high by the time they reached the peg, very strong fliers. The Smith did an admirable job, and took some very high and long birds cleanly. But, I didn't have enough shells for it for the afternoon shoot.

So, I used the 30" barreled Beretta 687 SPII Sporting, 20 ga. Now, I'll admit to having some doubts about 1 oz. of 4s on these high birds, but I guess it's just been too long since I quit shooting lead at ducks and I just didn't remember how effective #4 lead can be. I shot a M choke in the first barrel and a LM in the second (top). It hammered them so well I really could not tell much difference between the the 1 oz. load out of the 20, and the 1 1/8 oz. out of the 16. I don't propose to say that this is a great load for wild phez, having never shot at one in my life, but it was aplenty for these birds, even the big cockbirds. It renewed my faith in large shot, used properly. Some here may recall my fondness for choke, and the combination of plenty choke and the 4s worked really well.

One word of caution if attending a shoot like this, WEAR SHOOTING GLASSES and a billed cap. There will be shooters on the opposite side of you shooting upwards, but in your direction. Yesterday morning a shot came across the field, probably 200 yards, and bounced off my forehead above my left eye. It hit my ol' bony head so hard the other guy on my peg looked around to see what made the noise, and left a red spot where it struck. If it had hit an eye it would have been serious.

SRH

One thing I've learned about shotgunning, is that if you connect the bird and the center of pattern at any reasonable distance - say up to 40 meters - there's precious little difference what shot size, load and choke.

#4 lead can be effective for just about anything. Lots of diehard waterfowl hunters over here use #3 lead for geeze over decoys, and swear if a goose is too far to be killed with #3 reliably, it's too far for any shot size.

And, lest I forget, congratulations with a great hunt!

Same in our province, until non-toxic regulation experienced waterfowl hunters, particularly subsistence hunters and poachers, used only No. 4 lead, and if I had choice of only one size it would be No. 4.

#4 shot kills turkeys like no other...I've shot crows so high with my Scott 10 it would make you think it impossible to knock them down.

Hello Stan:

Years ago, I loaded some 20 gauge shells with 1 once of number 4 shot and found them to be a great load for pheasants over a pointer! I would not hesitate to use them again.


Congrats on you hunt! Well done.

Be well,

Franchi

On an annual late season pheasant hunt to South Dakota, I've always used #5 shot in 1 1/8 oz load in my 16 ga's which has worked well. That is, until our Dec 2014 hunt. I took along my Ithaca 280 E and had some #4 shot in 1 1/4 oz 12 ga loads my brother had given me. Lights out on the birds!

My friend was working the dogs from one end of a shelter belt and I posted up on the other end. The birds were boiling out of the sides and end of the belt. One flew low overheard and being around -15 degrees, I fumbled around getting the safe off. By the time I finally did, I had second thoughts on taking the shot because of the distance, but did anyway. The bird dropped like a sack of spuds....I was impressed!

I had a couple of 16 ga's on this years hunt, but mainly used the Ithaca 280 using the same 1 1/4 oz loads, with the same results as the previous year. #4's used to be my go to load for any manner of duck hunting, but same as you Stan, It had been so long since I used #4, I had forgotten how effective they can be.

Congrats on the fun shoot!

I have a large coffee can filled with reloads of #4 lead 2 3/4" 1 3/8 oz duck loads, all left overs from pre-lead ban. They were deadly on our web-footed friends.

Best part of the story to me was it took you back. At the tail end of when I could use lead on ducks, a hunt I looked forward to was early Teal season. I'd carry an ounce of 7 1/2's for quail, because the pup and I would swing by ponds and jump Greenwings with the same load. No hesitation. Out in the field, it clunked the small ducks, fairly close, at least as well as the early #2 steel I had to use on later season bigger duck over dekes in nontox areas.

An ounce and a quarter of fours was my favorite duck load back in the day. And I shot a lot of ducks.

After a few days in Nebraska hunting pheasant, I put away the 16 shooting an ounce of sixes and brought out the duck gun and my favorite duck loads. Big difference.

craig,

I killed many a woodie with 7 1/2s, even a few "big ducks", as we called them back then. We never had the opportunity to kill many big ducks, so I never used a whole lot of 4s. But, I do remember that they hit like the hammer of Thor. I've been peppered many times with 7 1/2s and 8s on a dove field ............ even shot hard from close enough range that it bloodied me two different times, but that #4 that hit me in the for'ead yesterday was really packing some energy!

There is just no comparison between a #4 lead and a #4 steel shot. I was talking to Phil Robertson a few years ago when he was here for a speaking engagement and we were both bemoaning the loss of lead for ducks. I told him I suspected there were ducks in heaven and that we would be free to use lead. That got a big rise out of him, all said in fun, but with a twinge of hopefulness in our voices.

SRH