I don't consider myself that good at long range, and distance increases aiming error.
This might be your problem Larry. At long range you're aiming rather than snap shooting. For wild pheasants try a heavy payload of #4's in a 12 bore or better yet a good 10 bore with Full choke in the left barrel. Let him flush, wait a bit, then snap shoot. Have fun and put some meat in the freezer.
Why would I want to do that, when they're flushing closer and I'm shooting an open choke specifically because I know those are the kinds of shots I'm going to get? Play games with pheasants, let them get out further, and you'll end up losing more cripples. In Roster's steel shot lethality tests, birds hit with shot even as small as steel 6's were hardly ever lost if they hit the ground inside 30 yards. Outside 40 yards, crippling losses increased by a factor of 5. I've kept notes on pheasant hunting and unrecovered birds for a very long time. Something in excess of 1500 birds. The amount of time needed for the dog to get to the downed bird is the major factor in losing them. Might be a bird that falls at longer range, might be some kind of barrier (fence, stream, whatever) between the dog and the bird. But give a rooster more of a head start, you're more likely to lose him. I'm interested in not only knocking them down, but putting them in the bag.
Last edited by L. Brown; 09/13/14 08:06 AM.
