Game loads worth the $ ?

[Rob52240]

I'm an avid skeet and trap shooter and have been my whole life but unfortunately I have one of those fathers who refused to hunt.  Although when I was about 12 he would pretend to take me hunting but all we did was walk up and down railroad tracks with shotguns and have no birds to shoot at (by the time I was 13 I'd figured out that pheasants don't nest on railroad tracks).

So I've decided to participate in this years pheasant season and would like to know if there is much or any benefit to using expensive game loads.  I have at least a dozen of these which work fine for clays but I want to reasonably maximize my chances any way I can.



I have noticed that the cheap target loads that I usually buy will gunk up my shotgun to the point of not being able to operate the slide after I run 2 or 3 hundred shells through it.

Deer season is just around the corner too and I have a question regarding that.
Do Sabot rounds offer a benefit at ranges up to 100 yards?  I'm stocked up on 3" foster slugs but again, I want to do whatever I can to make sure I can eat what I shoot at.

[Rich46yo]

I wish I had a nickle for every rooster I shot on a rail road track. What happens is many of the train cans are loaded with grain which is why the pheasants like to hang by them. Also they are often the only source of cover in farm country. Heck Ive found pheasant in the middle of the city along rail tracks.

When I was hunting with this guy I almost never bothered with the pricey loads. I had other dogs almost as good a Caye too and they pin and put the bird up so close theres just no point shooting with anything but cheap #5 or#6 loads and improve cylinder chokes, or even skeet chokes. Heck I often used 7 1/2 shot when hunting over such an experienced visla at the club I guided him at.

When the pricey loads shine is on late season hunts for canny, wild birds. Most of all if theres a lot of wind. I always kept a box of copper plated #4s around for that kind of hunt.

So if you have a good dog then no, generally expensive shot isnt needed. If you dont have a dog or the conditions warrant it then I'd say yes, spend some money. For Turkeys I'd say buy the best shot you can. Wild Turkey is more like a Big Game hunt cause at most I can get out once or twice a year. Good hunting to you.

[bustr]

Years ago I used to eat lunch at a Fremont CA, McDonalds on the bay side of 880. I would always sit at a booth with a window looking at the salt Marsh past the executive park and shopping mall. Every day around the same time a pheasant rooster would stick his head up from the grass. Inland a few miles from Fremont across 880, Fremont then, 660 was some private land with game fowl released for hunting.

Was kind of strange the first time. I'm eating a McChicken staring out over the marsh. Then a rooster pops up and stares back at me. For about a month he popped his head up in the same area around my lunch time.

[mbailey]

I always use a high brass 6 shot when I'm pheasent hunting.....I  use an improved/modified choke early in the season when the birds tend to flush closer to me and the dog......later in the season when they are a little more wary and flush farther out I use a full choke.  Regarding the higher end shells I don't bother with them, my chokes pattern up the shot just fine in what ever I run thru the gun. I shoot an o/u and usually have my 2nd shot a 3" mag just for a little extra hitting power at a longer range ( should I miss with the first shot). Regardless you could do the same thing with a pump gun or semi. Just make sure it's your 2nd shot



Regarding the slugs. As long as you have a rifled slug bbl yes you can get longer ranges out of your slugs......that said 2 yrs ago I shot the biggest Whitetail of my life (dressed 216 11pnts 22 1/2"inside spread) with my 33yrold Mossberg smooth bore shotgun with plain old rifled slugs @80yrds (they were not sabots). I find if I'm slug gun hunting my shots are all well within 100 yards due to hunting thicker cover My monster at 80 was a fluke.  Most if my shots are 50yrds and closer. I use the Barnes X slugs......or as I like to call them, the fingers of God. They hit soooo hard it's like being zapped by the finger of god  

[flight17]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=vho5eTabWQI

How about that for expensive?

[Spikes]

I'm an avid skeet and trap shooter and have been my whole life but unfortunately I have one of those fathers who refused to hunt.  Although when I was about 12 he would pretend to take me hunting but all we did was walk up and down railroad tracks with shotguns and have no birds to shoot at (by the time I was 13 I'd figured out that pheasants don't nest on railroad tracks).

So I've decided to participate in this years pheasant season and would like to know if there is much or any benefit to using expensive game loads.  I have at least a dozen of these which work fine for clays but I want to reasonably maximize my chances any way I can.

(Image removed from quote.)

I have noticed that the cheap target loads that I usually buy will gunk up my shotgun to the point of not being able to operate the slide after I run 2 or 3 hundred shells through it.

Deer season is just around the corner too and I have a question regarding that.
Do Sabot rounds offer a benefit at ranges up to 100 yards?  I'm stocked up on 3" foster slugs but again, I want to do whatever I can to make sure I can eat what I shoot at.

At the store I work at, we sell Federal target loads for 6.99 a box, and slightly lower if you buy a flat (250rds).

Like mbailey said, it depends on what barrel you have on your shotgun. Fully rifled barrels shoot sabots, smooth bore use rifled slugs. Sabot rounds tend to cost a lot more too, around $3 a shell as opposed to rifled slugs which are normally a little under $1.