Stan, give it up. I have. I'm afraid to use my old axiom, "Learn to shoot", because it offends too many internet posters.
Plenty of wisdom in that remark and skeet is a great game to learn how to do that, when its played as a low gun game and not w/a pre-mounted gun. That's where you'll see most 9's shot and they most certainly do have a use there.. and on snakes as Stan already mentioned. We [my bride & I] eat the dove shot here and that includes those 'breasted' and those picked and having their spines cut out being cleaned from the back and cooked 'skin on' and I don't like having a bird whose breast looks like the top of a salt shaker, regardless of shot size used to bag it. Honestly, I've found many more 8's or 7.5's in birds [dove & quail] than anything else. I don't know anyone personally that hunts game birds w/9's. Not saying that you can't; I just don't know anyone that does. I knew a flyer shooter of note that as his health deteriorated finally got to the point that he could only ride in a driven golf cart and shoot some planted pen raised quail w/a model 42. He told me that he was using AA skeet loads for that, but never mentioned if they were 8's or 9's & I never thot to ask. He did know how to shoot.
Fun, reading the remarks and comments. I use 7/8's oz. of 6's for dove, quail and feral pigeon in a 20 ga. When shooting factory ammo Federal field loads [the older ones] are my pref. even tho the hulls tend to split on some of them and flair the heads after some years of storage so one has to 'twist' them into a double gun or set them aside for dismantling, as those hulls that do that are unusable in a semi auto. When shooting reloads [all Winchester AA CF or Remington STS hulls], I use #6 or 7 lead shot for the same purposes and find it most satisfactory. Lead 6's & 7's don't oft stay in a dove or quail [Bob's].. from my observations. We don't eat feral pigeons, but do the Eurasian dove and there is no closed season as they are an 'invasive' species, so they may be taken year 'round and there is no limit. They are smaller than a rock dove/feral pigeon, but larger than a mourning dove, white-winged or white-tipped dove. You can find a pellet in one on occasion. I find the best rule when eating game birds is to do so w/caution, treating them the same as fish, sausages or crispy bacon. Probably more teeth have been broken eating chicken or pork chops than on shot. Dentist's would know more about that than I do.
