12ga pheasant load recipie

[punkur67]

Just got started loading my 12ga this week. Does anybody have a good pheasant load they use? I would be using longsot with winchester W209 primers and AA hulls. I have a hunt coming up in 2 weeks and nobody has pheasant loads on the shelf.

[kmca]

Are you using pointing dogs?

[sargenv]

Am thinking that this is a pheasant club setting? Most people use standard 1 1/8 oz loads of 7.5's @ 1200 fps. There are Longshot loads on the Hodgdon web site, but they tend to be of the higher velocity flavor. The least velocity for that payload is in excess of 1400 fps. Pretty stout for pen raised birds.

[alfred1222]

Lead Shot 12 1 1/8 oz. Longshot Win. 209 WAA12 32.1 9,200 PSI 1420

theres the load data

[punkur67]

I was going to do a #6 shot load. Should I do a 7.5oz load? I do have some 1-1/8oz 7.5 shot estates with 1300 something fps. They are pen raised birds.

[alfred1222]

idk about #6, ive always used 7.5, but when i say idk, i mean i have no experience with it. it could work, i just dont want to give my opinion on something that i am unsure about

[nothing4u]

I was going to do a #6 shot load. Should I do a 7.5oz load? I do have some 1-1/8oz 7.5 shot estates with 1300 something fps. They are pen raised birds.

I would not use 7.5. For doves at 30-40yd I get a lot of cripples. Plan on eating a lot of shot if you take down a pheasant with it for close shots or it's gonna be chasing down a cripple because the bird was too far. I wouldn't go smaller than 6. A pheasant is roughly about the size of a mallard. So I wouldn't use anything less than #4 steel equivilent.

[sargenv]

Most farm raised pheasant aren't that hard to kill. If you were going for wild birds that flush at 30+ yards, I'd go for a heavy, high velocity load of 4's.. Some pheasant clubs restrict you to target load 7.5's.. They don't want your heavy loaded larger shot to travel very far since there are usually a lot of people in the other fields.. hence my advice of target load 7.5's. I would contact the club where you are going to hunt and see what they reccomend.