7.5 or 8

[TRINITY]

I am just wondering which shot size people prefer if you had to choose something for all disciplines (trap,skeet,sporting)

Or is the difference between the two so small that both sizes perform the same. 

 

[Stonepark]

Skeet, 9 or 8, sporting 8 or 7.5, trap 7.5 or 7.
As most of my shooting is a mix of skeet and sporting, i tend to stick to 8's.

 

Edited August 19, 2019 by Stonepark

[stu64]

I use one cartridge for all my clay shooting- lyalvale english sporter in 7.5. After a lot of chopping and changing I feel at home with these . they pattern well and are cheap and I get them locally. can't get 8's locally

[washerboy]

Cheapest the clay ground sells 

At the minute I have size 9 in a 24g case

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Oh, one of the "eternal" questions!

I shot an 80 at the last 100 ESP Reg with some of the Hull Cartridge "Vantage" that they make for Orston Shooting Ground, I use the 7 1/2 and pay £186 a thousand.

They shoot very cleanly, throw a great pattern through 3/4 and Full and coped with every target that was presented.

I presume your next question will be about choking!

[TRINITY]

Nearest cartridge supplier to me refuses to stock anything beyond 7.5 his philosophy is, if they break them at 60yds they will break them at 20 yards.

Then I have seen guys with several different cartridges doing a round and  more often than not different cartridge in each barrel.

Must admit i find 7.5 ok even at 24gm. I was wondering if I was missing a trick.

Thanks for your replies so far

[Hamster]

My speciality is Sporting and for that discipline at least it's perfectly possible to accurately answer this question using logic and mathematical probabilities.

Based on factual experience we know that targets are frequently broken to smithereens using 8's at the kind of ranges many would have you believe you need 6.5's !! We know also that world and domestic championships have been won using that shot size and logic says these events would have featured a few eye watering targets. We also know that to date nobody has stepped forward to a) demonstrate that they can tell 7.5's from 8's in a blind test and b) break a target with 7.5's and fail to break it with 8's (again in a blind test). Therefore logic says 8's are a damn good compromise. In certain situations 7.5's and even 7's would be the wiser choice. 

Now for the mathematical/statistical part : 28g of English 8's typically contain 48-50 extra pellets compared to 7.5's, per shot fired is bad (good) enough until you realise that over the course of a full round you would have thrown almost an extra 5000 pellets towards your targets. If you always centre your shots at all ranges (impossible) then you won't enjoy the benefits but others will. 

 

[Guest cookoff013]

i shot some silly targets years ago with some pretty decent shells. they were RC2 24g #9 through full and full. and i whole heartedly believe.

were i to make a mild adjustment i would even shoot 28 grams all day long if i had to. in 9s there is alot of pellets there. 

infact, when i designed some shells eons ago, those rc2s still give me fond memories. they were the shell to have at some point in time.

 

Edited August 19, 2019 by cookoff013

[kenholland]

I shoot 100 reg every sunday , I shoot at least 50 game bore whitegold 8's at every shoot , 7/2's for edge on, plus 9's for close stuff.

[figgy]

I will choose 8 if I have a choice. Only for the extra few pellets. Usually I use 7.5 because that's what's normally available. I can't tell the difference when shooting either size by the breaks.

[grrclark]

I use 8s for almost everything and only use. 7.5s for stuff that is a long way out, but that is because the wad in those squibs are designed to hold out to a distance.  If i could get the same wad in an squib loaded with 8s I would use them.

At the recent world fitasc at churchills I shot with a spaniard who finished 5th I think, he shot 8s for the vast majority of the comp.  Maybe used 7s on 15 targets at most and some of them were a long way out.

[Farmboy91]

Now I can get 24g 8's at a reasonable price locally that's what I plan on using, the fact they come in a fetching pink case is just the icing on the cake. 

[figgy]

amber carts, my mate used some and they were smoking the clays. We said they suit you, he didn't look impressed. Nothing we shot that day would you know he used 24g and we used 28g

[Farmboy91]

6 hours ago, figgy said:

amber carts, my mate used some and they were smoking the clays. We said they suit you, he didn't look impressed. Nothing we shot that day would you know he used 24g and we used 28g

Ive been trying to get them locally for ages, I wanted to be able to use something soft enough for both the o/u and sxs. 

High lodge do their own Eley 24g 8 but they are a tad expensive. 

[figgy]

Shops don't stock as much as you think they would.  Most places must sell more clay carts than anything else, you would think they would stock more choice.

[Farmboy91]

Yeah I know what you mean, my missus shoots a 12 to so I've picked up Ambers in 21 and 24 to try, my local would probably order a slab or two when he puts an eley order in. I'm looking forward to trying them out. 

 

[Uilleachan]

I'm Italian #7.5, which is English #7 at 2.4mm, for everything. Fiocchi FBlu 28g. As they pattern very well out of both my browning and miroku. I'm mainly shooting trap at the moment but I'd settled on Fblus whilst mainly shooting sporting. Fblu 24g for OT.