Shotshells, chokes, and going dogless

Fiochi golden pheasant is the gold standard for factory lead shells. Shot size, 2 3/4 or 3″ is all personal preference. shoot 4, 5, or 6 shot. Ive yet to take the modified choke out of a shotgun for any reason.

ajw wrote:

Fiochi golden pheasant is the gold standard for factory lead shells. Shot size, 2 3/4 or 3″ is all personal preference. shoot 4, 5, or 6 shot. Ive yet to take the modified choke out of a shotgun for any reason.

Fiocchi’s velocity is significantly slower than the rounds I use which is precisely why I don’t use it. I wouldn’t call Fiocchi the gold standard for factory lead shells considering how slow it is.

The name of the game is penetration depth not speed.
Nickel plated shot penetrates further than lead and copper plated shot.
Yes, prairie storm shells contain 30% nickel plated shot.

On top of that testing done did find that 1500 fps loads produced a lower pattern percentage in a 30″ circle at 30 and 40 yards compared to lower velocity loads (1220 and 1350 fps).

1 1/4oz #5 and 1220 fps is still the overall winner in terms of pattern percentage vs penetration power for pheasants. This is for 12 ga. of course.

Anyone have experience shooting a Franchi O/U 20 ga. ?

For pheasants I will only go with a dog. I have found that it is important for getting the birds to fly often times if solo they will never get up and just run in front of you or you walk past them. Also, important to have a dog because if they are wounded the chance of finding them is pretty much zero.

I shoot a 12 gauge with a modified choke. Federal 2 3/4″ Lead #6

For Grouse I will hunt with or without a dog.

Look up the ballistics of how rapidly high velocity shot slows down after it leaves the muzzle and you wont be as concerned about velocity, (I had a friend who said his handloads were so fast he could shoot behind the bird and still hit it!) also you can go too large on shot size. remember larger shot means less pellets to fill out your pattern. larger shot can actually result in more wounded/lost birds. If you are shooting lead or bismuth you don’t really need extremely large shot size for adequate penetration on Pheasant size game, In my opinion its more important to have a dense enough pattern to hit the vitals (head/spine/heart /lungs) for quick kills. steel shot is a completely different animal far less dense and less penetration, I hate the stuff past 30 to 35 yds.

Nick Altavilla wrote:

Anyone have experience shooting a Franchi O/U 20 ga. ?

I got a Franchi 20 ga o/u 3 years ago and it is all I shoot for upland now. I dont even bring my 12 ga to South Dakota anymore. It is a perfect upland gun in my opinion and the weight being 5 lbs and change is a huge benefit.