Library / Wingshooting Tailor Your Shotshells To the Game You Hunt by Philip Bourjaily One hunter of my acquaintance used to shoot paper hulled target 8s at ducks rather unsuccessfully, but he nevertheless swore by them based on the memory of a single long shot he made on a mallard with a trapload back in 1979. When we go pheasant hunting, another friend habitually loads his pump with whatever old waterfowl loads--3-inch magnum 2s, mostly--he has left over from pre-steel days. A third buys a certain brand of shell because its low price and its translucent purple hull catch his fancy. Far too many shooters, like my three friends, take a haphazard approach to selecting shotshells. Yet tailoring a shotshell to the game hunted or the game played is crucial to shooting success. All-load, choke-tubed autoloaders may have brought us the one gun for all purposes, but there will never be one all-purpose shotshell. The following definitions will help you match your loads to the type of shooting you plan to do. Magnums Unlike rifle magnums, which are extra-fast, magnum shotshells have extra pellets and the heaviest magnums must be loaded to quite low velocities to keep chamber pressures down. Magnums are especially useful for turkey hunting, waterfowling (with steel or bismuth shot), predator calling, deer hunting with buckshot, in short, any kind of shooting where large amounts of small pellets or sufficient numbers of extra-big pellets are needed for dense patterns at long range. The key to a good magnum is high-quality, hard shot. Shot pellets in the breech of a gun undergo tremendous acceleration when the firing pin ignites the primer and the powder goes off--from 0 to 900 mph in no time at all. Just as you are squished back into your car seat, the pellets in the shell undergo tremendous "setback" forces, and soft lead pellets are flattened under the weight of the pellets stacked on top of them. Simply adding more low-quality shot to a hull results in a much less efficient load--added recoil to the shooter with little better performance on game. The harder the pellet, the better it will resist deformation, flying truer, faster, and hitting harder than flattened pellets. Shot is hardened by the addition of the element antimony to the lead. The best magnum, target, and "Premium" factory loads all contain high antimony shot. Reloaders looking for the best performance should buy "magnum" shot which has a high antimony content--up to 6 percent in small shot sizes, around 2 percent in the largest pellets--while chilled shot, which costs less has antimony contents ranging from 1 percent in the larger sizes to only 2 percent in small shot. The best magnum loads are usually buffered, that is, ground plastic called "grex" is loaded in with the shot. The grex cushions the pellets during firing the way plastic peanuts protect your fine china in a box when you move. Many magnums pellets are also copper or nickel plated. Opinions on the value of plated shot are not unanimous, however. Modern copper or nickel plating is not thick enough to make pellets significantly harder. Plating does improve shot lubricity, helping pellets flow more smoothly out of the choke. Many shooters also believe plating helps pellets penetrate deeper when they arrive on target. Some large shot steel loads are copper plated for rust prevention. "High Brass" Loads High brass shells are also called High Velocity, High Base, and so on. These loads, generally speaking, contain less shot than a magnum but are loaded to a higher velocity. The typical high-brass 12-gauge shell is the 3 3/4 dram, 1 1/4 load traveling at 1,330 feet per second. High brass shells work well for shooting at longer ranges and on big birds, like pheasants. In shotshells, anything approaching or exceeding 1,300 fps of muzzle velocity is very fast indeed. High velocity loads require less forward allowance at longer ranges, and are thus easier to hit with. They also carry more energy. Be aware, though, that there is a definite law of diminishing returns at work when you increase velocity. Atmospheric resistance to pellets varies with the square of velocity, meaning the faster the shot travels, the more resistance it meets and the faster it slows down. Therefore, the differences in retained energy at long ranges between high and low velocity shot are not as dramatic as they are up close. Although increasing powder means more noise and recoil as a side effect of high velocity, these are usually hunting loads which are fired only few times a day in the field, so the extra kick is hardly noticed. "Low Brass" Loads Low brass shells also known as low base and field loads, are typically lower velocity shells with lighter shot charges and most suitable for upland hunting at close ranges. Commercially loaded low brass shells vary in quality: some, like Remington's Premier field loads, contain very high quality shot, others, like the so called "promotional" or "dove and quail" loads contain softer, lower antimony, chilled shot. While soft shot loads pattern inefficiently, the hunter doing close cover shooting at quail and woodcock might find them to be an advantage, since their patterns open quickly as the deformed soft shot meets air resistance. Deformed shot quickly lags behind the main shot charge, however, creating long, inefficient shot strings in the air. While this is not much of a disadvantage on the close range, more or less straightaway shots encountered by upland hunters, it makes promotional loads a poor choice for pass-shooting doves and the like. Reloaders will find, too, that the hulls of promotional loads are not as durable for reloading as are target hulls. Finally, while we still refer to high and low brass, the height of the brass no longer makes any difference to the power of a shell. A look at any reloading manual will show that low-brass hulls like Winchester's AA can be safely loaded to magnum and high velocity levels. High-brass hulls are a hold-over from paper hull days, when a higher brass base was required to keep the extra powder from burning through the base of the paper with heavier loads. Obviously that's not the case with modern plastic hulls, or we wouldn't have the brassless Activ case at all. Target Loads Target loads are used for skeet, trap, and sporting clays. They have extremely reloadable hulls and, unknown to many people, they make great hunting loads as well. The reason is that they are produced in high volume (at least the 12-gauge loads are) and are comparatively cheap, yet target shooters are a sophisticated group when it comes to ammunition, so these loads perform well, too. They usually are loaded with hard shot and pattern beautifully. Not long ago there were two basic 12-gauge target loads--the 2 3/4 dram, 1 1/8 load at 1,145 fps, and the 3 dram, 1 1/8 "Handicap" load which does about 1,200 fps. However, even the lighter load left shooters feeling beat up after the 200-bird trap and skeet events which subject shooters to recoil pounding that few hunters ever experience. To provide relief, the "lite" load was born. By reducing powder charges to generate only 1,100-1,125 fps., ammo makers and reloaders made softer shooting shells that still break trap and skeet targets with authority. At the same time, the popularity of sporting clays, and the dominance of European shooters in sporting competition has called attention to Continental tastes in ammo. Most of it is quite high-speed, traveling in excess of 1,250 fps and is easier to score with at long range. After the international games lowered their maximum 12-gauge load to 24 grams (7/8 oz.) ammo makers here and abroad began loading 1,325 fps 7/8 ounce loads, which are awfully fast, don't kick too badly thanks to the light shot charge, and work so well on clay that scores in international competitions are higher than they were in the days of 1-ounce loads. Spreader Loads Spreader or brush loads are a specialty item demanded by quail, grouse, and woodcock hunters who inhabit thick cover where they can't even see 30 yards, much less think about taking a shot that long. Under those conditions a load that spreads quickly to fill out as large a pattern as possible can help hunters bag close-cover birds. While promotional loads with soft shot will open quickly, spreader loads shoot even larger patterns at close range. One type of spreader load uses purposefully deformed shot--either flattened or even cube-shaped pellets that will flare wildly upon encountering air resistance. The patterns they give are wide open at short range where they're intended to be used, and hopelessly patchy beyond about 25 yards. The other type uses a spreader wad--a wad with a post in it, or an X-shaped insert to force the load to open up quickly. Some of these wads are available to reloaders. Spreader loads also help to make a tightly choked shotgun shoot more openly. If you shoot a one-barrel gun and want to duplicate the two-choke effect of a double, try a spreader load in the chamber followed by two tight-patterning trap loads in the magazine, and you'll be ready for a close flushing bird and two long range follow-up shots if necessary. Patterning All of the above should be treated only as a guideline; reading a magazine story will help you understand what goes into a shotshell, but it won't tell you how your gun will shoot. Every barrel is a law unto itself, and you don't really know what's going on with your barrel, choke and load until you spend some time at the patterning board. Although percentages in the 30-inch circle at 40 yards are the industry standard, no law says you have to shoot at that distance; test your gun at the ranges you'll be shooting. Wait for a windless day and try a minimum of three shots at the target with each load since there are variations within the same box of shells. Some shooters not only don't bother to pattern their guns, they even take pride in their ignorance. "This gun has never seen paper," boasted the shooter who'd just won our neighborhood 50-bird derby with his old Model 12. Maybe that attitude will see him through country trapshoots like ours, but you won't find him in the winner's circle at the state shoot any time soon, either. Serious, successful shooters know exactly what patterns their guns and chokes shoot with different loads--and they spend the time and effort to tailor those loads to their own special needs. Sidebar: Shot Size Guide Large shot hits harder, penetrates deeper, and retains velocity better than smaller shot. Small shot, on the other hand, gives denser patterns, creating more multiple hits on the target, since there are more of them in a given weight. Choosing a shot size is, therefore, a balancing act between sufficient energy and adequate density. Use the accompanying chart, tempered with your own experience and the conditions you encounter locally, as a guideline. Game Shot Size Load Geese Steel T, BBB, BB Steel 1,2 (decoys) 1 1/8 oz.--1 3/4 oz. 1 1/8 oz.--1 3/4 oz. Ducks Steel 1,2 (pass shooting) Steel 3,4,6 (decoys) 1 1/8 oz--1 3/4 oz. 1 oz.--1 3/4 oz. Turkeys 4,5,6 1 1/2oz.-- 2 1/4 oz. Pheasants 5,6,7 1/2 1 oz.--1 1/4 oz. Grouse 6,7 1/2, 8 7/8 oz.--1 1/8 oz. Partridge 5, 6,7 1/2 1 1/8 oz.--1 1/4 oz. Woodcock 7 1/2, 8, 9 3/4 oz.--1 oz. Snipe, Rail Steel 6, 6 1/2, 7, 8 3/4 oz.--1 oz. Quail 7 1/2, 8 7/8 oz.--1 1/8 oz. Dove 7 1/2, 8 7/8 oz.--1 1/8 oz. Rabbits 4,5,6 1 oz.--1 1/4 oz. Squirrels 4,5,6 7/8 oz.--1 1/4 oz. Predators 4 Buck, BB, 2,4 1 1/2 oz.--1 7/8 oz. Deer OOO, OO, O, 1,3, 4 Buck Magnum Loads Trap 7 1/2, 8, 8 1/2 (lead) 6 1/2, 7, 8 (steel) 7/8 oz.--1 1/8 oz. Skeet 9 (lead) 8 (steel) 1/2 oz.--1 1/8 oz. Sporting Clays 7 1/2, 8, 8 1/2 1/2 oz.--1 1/8 oz. Copyright © 1995 Philip Bourjaily. All rights reserved.