doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Shot size for 100 yard birds? revisited

there are good postings on parker web site, reminds me of discussion here a few years ago on what size shot to use for 100 yard birds. ethics aside it seems' all parker postings including respected real hunters think 70 yards or so is technical limit for sportsmen shooting at birds with shotguns. to include any gauge shotgun and any shot size except for very luck hit with single bb in head. otherwise bird flys off wounded for lingering death. i post here this for education. http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10019

Nitro, I looked at the Parker site. Down a few posts is one by Doctor Drew, I tested my L.C. Smith Longrange 3" chamber with 32" barrels both full and the recorded distance was actually 81 yards. At this distance, a 30" circle looks around 3 inches and the duck in the circle looked like a starling. At this distance you most likely could not identify hen or drake unless in bright light. I myself would never shoot at anything that far.
As stated on the site, it does happen, but you have a greater chance of wounding then killing.

Didn't George Digweed make a 100 yard shot on clays last year? It's on You Tube.

You have a lot more problems at a hundred yards then just hitting the bird. Identifying and retrieving comes to mind and also the terms �slob�� or �slop� hunting. Why would you take that kind of chance? On clays, yes. On game, never.

jdw that was my point excatly . palunc, digweed was shooting at clay birds that don't feel pain, not live ones that do and fly off to die lingering death. for those who pop away with shotgun at birds at 100 yards or more and try to justify it,let us hope you learn some thing here.

But now we get into what is �ethical� hunting and what isn�t. Does, I�ll make sure that I get this bird mean only jump shooting or shooting birds on the ground? Does pass shooting at birds qualify as ethical hunting?

As others have already stated, the ability to kill consistently at extreme ranges significantly declines as range increases.

I agree it is poor sportsmanship to fire where wounding is more likely than killing clean.

I am not a long range shooter and take most of my live bird targets under 25 yards behind points. I have seen some long range wizards who appeared to be killing regularly at distant ranges on ducks. When the huge distances were measured I discovered most shoots were still under 35 yards with few over 40 yards. It was during this phase I discovered how close my long range duck shooting really was at that time.

If you are one of the few skilled among us who can consistently kill farther then I salute your ability and hope you are correct.

I believe there is a tendency on my part and others too to overestimate range. Or to confuse where a bird fell with where it was hit. I discovered when I duck hunted that actually measuring the distance with a know length line to my range limit decoy changed my whole view of range estimation. Many of my hunting buddies belived my 20 yard decoy was 30 or more and my 35 yard decoy at 50.

It is each of our responsibility to know what ranges we can effectively engage at and not get over ambitious and wound needlessly.

Agree completely.

Good grief! What is the drop of even large pellets at 100 yards? Must be horrendous.

Joe, to give you an idea at 81 yards, aiming at the center of the 30" circle, the #5 pellets were lower, aiming at the top of the 30" circle seemed to put them in the circle better, but some were stuck in the 2"x 2" posts below.
The load used was trying to replicate a 3" load used then, but used modern powder and a modern wad to try and get as close as possible. Also it was bench rested.
At another 20 yards, I can only imagine how far the drop would be.