doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Upland Loads

Grouse: 1 oz RST in 7 1/2 & then 6's later in the season
Woodcock: 7/8 oz RST in 8's

7 1/2 for quail and dove. 6 for chukar 5 for pheasant.

11/16 or 3/4 oz whichever I can find in .410

I hunt pretty much just grouse and quail. For that purpose I use a 1 oz load of 7 1/2 shot in a 20b, 16b and a 12bore.

Yeah, you guys don't have any woodcock, but you do have a few sharptail grouse out there, which in my humble opinion, don't taste all that much better than woodcock, especially late season sharpies that are as wild as can be. It seems the wilder the sharptail, the worse they taste. In September, they don't taste that bad....maybe because they are young birds?

For general upland hunting (Pheasant, Chukar, Partridge), I use a 16 ga w/ 2 1/2" Gamebore felt wadded shells (even in a 2 3/4 gun)w/ 7/8 oz #7 English shot.

For quail (plantation), I use 28 ga #8 target shells.

I can't imagine using #10 on anything living. And, back in the day, when I shot competition International Skeet, 3/3/4 dram Federal 1 1/8, paper hull, felt wad #10s was a preferred load.

Talking about the taste of birds, my Lab would refuse to pick up woodcock, though she would go and stand next to the body. I also think woodcock tastes like liver and I don't care for liver. Last time I was hunting woodcock, in the Apalatchafaya basin in Louisiana a couple of Januarys ago, the guide took us back to his home where he prepared some woodcock "trails," which I declined to eat. I'll let you guess what "trails" were.

Gosh a 12 bore has gotta be hard to load that's only.120 diameter. A number 9 shot is .080. I guess you get about a dozen number 9s in a 2 1/2 inch shell. What do you use for a primer, a fire fly's ass?

I use 7/8 oz RST 8 1/2's for both grouse and woodcock early in the season. Once the woodcock are gone, 1 oz 7 1/2's for grouse.

Pheasants: RST makes a very good pheasant load: 1 1/4 oz 5 or 6 @ 1200 fps, which is very close to the old 3 1/4 DE-1 1/4 oz pigeon load (which is hard to get in a quality shell these days, at least with shot any larger than 7 1/2). But most of the time, hunting them over pointing dogs, I use 1 1/16 oz Brit 6's--Gamebore Pure Gold--in the R barrel. L barrel, reload 1 1/8 oz American 6's at about 1150 fps, 7,000 psi.

Early and mid season grouse and woodcock 7/8oz 1150fps #8. Late season grouse 15/16oz 1150fps #7. Pheasant, sharp-tails and huns 15/16, 1 or 1 1/16oz 1200fps #6 depending on which gun/choke combination I'm shooting. All my upland guns are 16ga SXS's.

Any thing I stuff in my pockets as I go out the door works just dandy.

Located by a good dog, shot at reasonable ranges and found if not brought to hand by the four legged part of the partner-ship,any modern shot shell will harvest any Upland bird flying between the coasts and the borders. They truly will.

If you can break clay birds on a skeet range with #10, I bet you can kill woodcock with it. Like KWill, I am curious about RST's new woodcock spreader #10 load and I bought a box to try this fall. When I started hunting woodcock a long time ago, I used skeet loads (#9s), but I haven't seen much around recently and have been using #8s, or 7 1/2s, if I'm in an area when bigger birds are in season in the same area as woodcock.