I have found good luck hunting pheasants reloading my own shells using shot sizes 5 and 7 1/2 mixed 50/50. Has anyone else found a similar effect?

I understand you would have more shot because of the 7 1/2 shot but it is also a lot lighter shot . Are you saying the 7 1/2 will kill as well as the 5 shot or that you just have a tighter pattern . If the 7 1/2 will work then why not just use all 7 1/2 shot . I don' t see what you would gain other than a tighter pattern .

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We were told for ages NEVER to mix shot sizes in the same shell, then Remington starts selling new ammo loaded that way.!! Gimme a break!! Years ago, when I lived in pheasant country, I used to hunt with a guy who used 7-1/2 size shot in all his pheasant hunting ammo. I thought his selection was a little on the small size, as all the rest of us were using 6' s, and a few even went to No. 4' s. But our 7-1/2 buddy killed as many, and maybe more, pheasants than the rest of us, and also at just as great a range as anyone else.

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7 1/2 shot is too fine for pheasants???.....get thiis.....I had a youngster hunting with me using a 28 Ga with 1 OZ of #6 shot and he ran out of shells.....all I had was 8 1/2 shot and I didn' t tell him and I gave him several shells with the finer shot.....those pheasants came down just the same!!!

Yes 3/4 oz of 8 1/2 shot......great results!!!

Whoa Doggies...

I did not mean to start a debate. I just seem to get more birds down with this combination. I have tried #5, #6 and #7 1/2s. I have the best luck with the combo and wanted to know if anyone else had the same results. Maybe it is just more confidents, I don' t know. Certainly you should use what works for you, I was just curious.

O D H Have you used the 7 1/2 by themselves on pheasant ? I was always under the impression they were to light and used #6 . That is why I asked if they were working as a replacement for the # 5 then why not just use all 7 1/2 and have a tighter pattern yet . Do a little switch on your powder and run them up to about 1400 fps ,sounds like it would work.

halcon,

Yes, I have tried 7 1/2s by themselves. They work at closer ranges very well. The problem, they lose velocity faster than larger shot sizes. The club I train with wants longer retrieves to prepare their dogs for field trials. My sole job is to get the birds down. I noticed a drop in my accuray late this winter and was trying everything to get better. 5 \ 7 1/2 shot helped greatly but the most help was a couple of trips to the sporting clays range.

No, I' m not saying it' s bad to mix shot sizes! I don' t know!! If Remington can do it, I suppose it' s O.K. The main thing I heard about mixing sizes is that, because of the difference in ballistic coefficients of different size shot, the shot string tends to lengthen abnormally, and the different sizes pass the target at very different times from one another!! So, even though the patterning board seems to show a good, solid pattern, that there really are as lot of holes in the pattern depending on time!