Ferret664

I agree as such but most youngsters now seem to be those inexperienced coming through in their 30,40s ect who like you said come through clay shooting . The problem with clay shooters as well is every clay can be shot at and they take that into the field too! Every pheasant is fine to shoot as they haven't been taught any better

I blame the cartridge company's and YouTube alot for this ! I'm a keeper myself and over the last 10 years especially with the younger guns. loads have got heavier and chokes tighter and we are just your average pretty flat ground shoot . Most birds are between 15-30yards and the odd screamer 50 yarder aka 35 yard bird 🙈 . In my experience though it's definitely the younger guns who seem to think you need a minimum of 32g 5 to kill a 20 yard pheasant. And so many birds are so badly shot they're only fit for ferrets ! I've seen guns crouch to try to shoot at birds just over their heads 🙄. I've found with the older gentleman who shoot they normally shoot 28g 6s and have no problem killing the birds cleanly and you never get any badly shot birds whereas when younger guns shoot I might get 12-15 every shoot just fit for ferrets . They seem unable to let a bird pass without shooting at it no matter the height which is very sad and even when a quiet word is said they just slip back into the habit quickly . There's seems to be the mindset of shoot it cause its there now . The day of being happy with a few quality birds you can remember at the end of the day seems to have been replaced by numbers no matter the height .

I shoot eley grand prix traditional 30g 6 65mm in a lightweight sxs with 26 inch barrles and I personally find them really smooth

Eley grand prix smoothest cartridge I have ever shot

Personally the smoothest cartridge I've found is the eley grand prix though if you're shooting walked up vermin probably a bit expensive. I only use them on pheasant as a special treat for myself as they're not cheap but I don't shoot many pheasants so I like a special cartridge and I've found them smooth and with great knockdown

We arrived to the yard at just before 9 on a very still and bright morning with not a breathe of wind . It was my first day shooting of the season my day on one of the shoots I keeper on . As normal having 3 Jack Russell I walk all day along with my dad and his lab and Spaniel . We arrive at what was to be the first drive of the day but instead decided to blank it in to another drive hoping to fill that as we were shooting that next . As we blanked through the maize and surrounding potato beds which were extremly heavy going we flushed a good number of partridge and pheasants into to the next drive and a few pheasants went back over a couple of guns (we could shoot anything going back ) unfortunately they were too low . To get to the back of the second drive me and the beaters had to walk across the potato beds which was no easy task in itself! I could do with longer legs ! But eventually we made it to the back of the second drive , we got lined out and started by pushing two reservoirs up , one side covered in brambles and the other side a few trees. We pushed this up to a small spinney with maize on the right hand side . I took my spot in the middle and start to push the drive on . Fairly quickly a splattering of shots was head as early partridges broke out to the front guns . For the rest of the drive there was a slow trickle of shots as the odd pheasant and partridge went forward . One partridge came back which my dad hit but he could only get a single shot off and unfortunately this bird was lost . I fired my first shot of the day here taking a squirrel. There was a heavy frost on the ground the dogs were having difficulty scenting As a couple partridges were lost on the potatoes bed even though they fell dead !. We searched and searched to no avail! With all the birds we could find picked . We headed off to the next drive which was a long rough left field one side with a block of maize the other . Unfortunately this drive was very quiet with only one bird seen that fell to a single shot from one of the front guns . This was only a long morning kind of thing with 5 drives so we cracked on . Next up was one of our bigger drives . A nice long wood which provided sport straight away as soon as we entered the wood birds started to flush and there was a splattering of shots . A third of the way through the drive a hen caught me by surprise and a hurried first missed shot was followed by a second shot that hit but the bird hit the ground and ran straight away but was quickly gathered by one of the beaters spaniels who chased it a good 100 yards before gathering the bird . The rest of the drive was quiet for me but there was a good amount of birds taken here. Once these were all gathered it was off to the next one ! This next drive consisted of blanking it a reservoir that was surrounded by thick cover both sides mostly blackthorn and brambles which I always a delight getting through! But normally hold a few birds and today was no different with 2 pheasant and 3 partridges being flushed forward to the drive itself. Which was a small pond surround by tall conifers and thick brambles. We have a few duck in there and you get a few pheasants in there . The ducks went up first a few released and wild ones mixed in who were up before we even entered. A good few birds where taking here and I saw my friend who was my guest for the day take his first ever mallard as a part of a left and right ! He was happy to say the least . I just waited back behind the pond to see if any pheasants came back and a few did but all too low . I gave one half hearted barrel and a hen that came back but that was all for me there . We were off to the final drive of the day . This required a bit more blanking in and we have to push a bit of maize into the back of the wood and with the front guns lined out and ready to go we started . One cock pheasant was seen in the maize but he glided into the wood . So with everyone lined up we began to sweep the block wood through. What surprised me here was the amount of partridges here ! Which gave the standing guns something to think about early on ! This wood we beat halfway through then swing the right down into the bottom corner . So I stayed back in the left hand corner as I know a few birds like to cut back this way when the right is being swept in and right on cue I saw a cock pheasant coming my way . A poor first shot was quickly followed by a better second shot that folded the bird dead . By this point the beaters were nearing the end of the wood. the right hand flanked had pushed right down . When I saw this amazing hen considering the complete lack of wind and how many birds had stayed low today. She really climbed turning to me right I took her at about 40 yards as a crosser and as the old brevete shotgun barked and the old faithful eley grand prix 30g 6 hit their mark . Her head flew back and feet came froward like she had hit a invisible wall and tumbled to the ground . That was my last shot of the day but what a shot to end with . The front guns here had done well too and we ended up with a bag of 37 head not bad for a 4 hour mini driven day Ferret

Only just come across this My favourite go to flies for reservoirs would be Black buzzer Hares ear daiwl bach variant Daiwl bach Crunchers Pitsford pea

I would use the gambore bismuth 32g 4 for the ducks bit cheaper then the eleys and never had a issue with their performance 👍 also if you're talking standard pheasants sub 40 yards (most pheasants on these shoots are normally shot at 20-35 yards as people can't tell range ) any 28g-30g 6 would be perfect

The gun fits me quite fine and I've shot plenty of 32g 5s through it and never felt recoil like that . After 6 shots I swapped back over to English sporter and the difference in recoil you can't even compare. I let others I was shooting with try them in their guns and they all said the same. Far more recoil felt . I've shot plenty 32g loads through it with far less recoil . Plus English sporter in a 28g 7.5 was fine the bio ammo was again a 28g 7.5

My sxs is a brevette . No idea on weight never weighed it sorry 🤔 it didn't like it for sure and I'm a big lad (17st) a recoil means nothing to me normally but it even bruised my shoulder 🤣

I tried the new bio ammo 28g 7.5 through my sxs today on a few clays and man they're one punchy shell ! Never have I felt such recoil from any cartridge before ! The difference between them and English sporter 28g 7.5 was incredible !

Right we had a brief test with 3 different cartridges today and in loudest to quietest it went lyalvale supreme game 25g 6 Sipe 28g 6 Hull high pheasant 25g 6 The Hull High pheasant was the quietest by a long way so far . Will get a few more brands to try but what surprised me was how loud the lyavale supreme game was !!

A friend of mine has just purchased a 20 bore hushpower and was wondering what shells are best for it ?

My concern isn't about standard steel as a whole just the eco wads as I won't be throwing plastic wads about the countryside if I can help it . So from what I seem to gather from here the eley eco wads in 2 3/4 chamber the 5 are standard steel so should be fine even though it says steel proof guns and the 3s are high performance loads so not suitable? I've seen the traditional 2 1/2 inch shells as well. But can't seem to get them this way that I've seen ? Think I will leave it for now until the ban comes in then open my full choke to half ?.

I thought even standard steel was recommended no more then half choke also ? There so many different bits of information that say different things its so confusing 😕 so standard steel would be fine through a full choke ? Eley eco wads even in 5s say for a steel proof guns even though I thought standard steel was up to shot size 4 ?