Go to Pheasant Ammo

I like # 5 shot for pheasant but plain vanilla Fed 11/4 oz loads seem to do the job well at most ranges but in late season with wilder flushing birds I have used various 1 3/8 oz loads with the nod going to Win super pheasant loads in my guns. You should pattern your gun with the loads you want as I find my guns more finicky with high speed shot shells.
 
I use Fiocchi Golden Pheasant #6 exclusively for pheasant. The nickel plated shot penetrates better than unplated shot, and also doesn't drag near as many feathers into the flesh. I generally hunt pheasant with a 28 gauge, or 20 gauge.
 
Depends if you hunt with a dog or not, and if the dog is a pointer or flusher. I hunt with a pointing dog and my shots are generally all within 30 yds. No need for shot bigger than #6 or more than an ounce of shot. Most of my hunting is with a 16 ga. and IC/Mod but have also used a 20 or 12 and have done as well.
Friends who hunt without dogs or with labs and spaniels use tighter chokes, usually modified, or mod/full and heavier loads. Some use as large as 1-3/8 oz of 4's which makes sense if your reaction time is a tad slow or for wild flushing birds that must be shot as far as 45 yds. Beyond that is too far for any shot/load combination IMHO, far too many try to shoot departing pheasants at long range and see a few feathers fly, a leg drop, and the bird pumping on over the horizon to die slowly and be wasted. A going away and rising pheasant has its vitals covered by the hip bones/sacrum. That's why shot smaller than 6 does not work consistently well, not enough penetration through bone.
As mentioned before, nickel plated shot is a benefit if you can find it. Nickel 6's are deadly. Penetrate as well as regular lead 5's and better pattern density. It is fashionable to use very fast loads lately. I believe that about 1250 fps is optimum for good hard lead shot to pattern evenly. Faster loads do not penetrate appreciably better, kick more, cost more, are louder, and pattern less evenly. Most shots at pheasants are angling away, so apparent forward allowance is insignificant difference between the super fast and more moderate speed game loads.
Good luck hunting pheasants!
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stubblejumper said:
I use Fiocchi Golden Pheasant #6 exclusively for pheasant. The nickel plated shot penetrates better than unplated shot, and also doesn't drag near as many feathers into the flesh. I generally hunt pheasant with a 28 gauge, or 20 gauge.
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I was looking at Fiocchi Shot #5 in 12ga. Havent seen them local. Prophet River has them though.
 
We used to use #6 but now use #5 (and occasionally #4). The birds we hunt are very big, flushed with dogs, and found that we crippled fewer birds with the larger shot. The #4 is late season, typically as a followup shot to a #5 first shot. Late season hunting the ground cover is low/dying and birds are flushing further away.
 
My own mere experiments with Prairie Strom #6 in my 20 gauge on other small game, is that these loads shoot very tight patterns. One would probably have more success with more open chokes then with tighter ones on game that will flush closer/early season while using these shells. Terminally they seem to kill better then normal loads. Marginal shots through a thin screen of branches can be pulled off too. I credit my only more recent success on farmland sharptails to these shells in my O/U with IC/Mod.

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Longwalker said:
Depends if you hunt with a dog or not, and if the dog is a pointer or flusher. I hunt with a pointing dog and my shots are generally all within 30 yds. No need for shot bigger than #6 or more than an ounce of shot. Most of my hunting is with a 16 ga. and IC/Mod but have also used a 20 or 12 and have done as well.
Friends who hunt without dogs or with labs and spaniels use tighter chokes, usually modified, or mod/full and heavier loads. Some use as large as 1-3/8 oz of 4's which makes sense if your reaction time is a tad slow or for wild flushing birds that must be shot as far as 45 yds. Beyond that is too far for any shot/load combination IMHO, far too many try to shoot departing pheasants at long range and see a few feathers fly, a leg drop, and the bird pumping on over the horizon to die slowly and be wasted. A going away and rising pheasant has its vitals covered by the hip bones/sacrum. That's why shot smaller than 6 does not work consistently well, not enough penetration through bone.
As mentioned before, nickel plated shot is a benefit if you can find it. Nickel 6's are deadly. Penetrate as well as regular lead 5's and better pattern density. It is fashionable to use very fast loads lately. I believe that about 1250 fps is optimum for good hard lead shot to pattern evenly. Faster loads do not penetrate appreciably better, kick more, cost more, are louder, and pattern less evenly. Most shots at pheasants are angling away, so apparent forward allowance is insignificant difference between the super fast and more moderate speed game loads.
Good luck hunting pheasants!
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Would Nickel plated #5's be to much? Great photo
 
Usually about 7/8 to 1 1/8 oz of nickle plated 6's or 7 1/2's running between 1150 and 1380FPS , depeending on the gun I am using for the day.
My guns range from 28's to 12 bore vintage hammer doubles shooting black powder cartridges with chokes ranging from cylinder bore to modified .

The only "goto" here is the shot- plated shot is what I have found to penetrate the very best over the years, regardless of the gauge or speed .
It slips easy, does not transfer feathers, and patterns well.
I hunt over dogs , BTW, both flushers and pointers
Cat
 
Nothing special... Winchester Super-X game loads have been killing them for decades... 1 ounce of #6's for pheasants with 20 gauge, 1 ounce of #7 1/2's for grouse with 20 gauge, 7/8 ounce #8 for woodcock with 20 gauge... for late season pheasant and grouse (sharpies), I go to 1 1/4 ounce of #6's with 12 gauge... if the birds don't go down, I know where to lay the blame and it ain't the ammo.
 
I like the Club shells ... Kent's "All Purpose" Diamond Shot, 12 gauge, 3-1/4 dram, 1-1/8 oz. # 6's. No complaints. Have also used Winchester 1-1/4 oz. 6's, in
Super X and the old Double X 1-1/2 oz. "copper plated"/buffered configuration. Great ammo, but largely unnecessary. The 1-1/8 oz 1225 fps load works well
even for high flighted birds.
 
Like Longwalker states it depends on the range your most commonly taking shots, and your hunting enviorment and situation. I always hunted with dogs, Labs which are flushers. In the 12 ga. I loaded 1 1/4oz of 6's at 1300fps. For the 20ga. I used Remington or Winchester store bought pheasant loads in 6's and 7 1/2's for the close in work. The vast majority of our pheasant hunting was at Scugog, or Pelee Island which are all pen raised birds. They are not tough to kill. Wild pheasant that tend to be a smaller bird and flush at further distances one should maybe step up to a heavier shot at 1330 fps. So the #5's would be a good choice.
 
I like using trap loads, they work fine for me. 7 1/2 Remington 1 1/8 oz. or Winchester 7 1/2 AA 1 or 1 1/8 oz.
I have also used Remington 12 ga. high brass 3 or 3 1/4 dram eqv. but always 71/2's.
 
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