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Gauge size, range, and bird size and toughness all come into play when it comes to hunting loads. Here is what I've found works for me. In a 16, 1-1/4 ounces of #4s works fine for the biggest, toughest roosters when conditions are cold and windy and the ranges are long. However, not all 16 ga bores will handle #4 shot well. Trial and error will reveal what you need to know here. If you gun likes the load, then use it when you need to. Be prepared for the wallop to your shoulder if your gun weighs less than 6.5 pounds.

Almost any 16 ga bore will handle #5 shot if the load is a good one. 1-1/8 ounces of #5 shot make a lot of sense for bigger, tougher birds at longer ranges. 1 ounce of #6 is plenty out to 30 yards for young, pen raised pheasant and other similar sized game birds like praire grouse and sharptails. 7/8 ounces of #7 shot is sometimes enough for close in freshly stocked pen raised pheasant. It is also just the ticket for late season pats. 3/4 ounces of #7.5 shot will handle anything smaller than that. Save the #8 shot for starlings and other flying pests IMO. 5/8 ounces is plenty in this case.

Member Joined: 30 Nov 2011 Posts: 1696 Location: Minnesota

If I'm using a 16 for pheasants its either my Ithaca pump or some version of an A5. All Dad ever used in his Savage 720 was 1 1/8 oz of 6's, mostly Winchesters. Havent ever felt a need to go lighter for pheasants. For grouse /woodcock, I use 10z, mostly 71/2,s in one of my doubles

I use both 1 and 1 1/8oz loads for hunting, but when I think back on the longest shots I've ever made on wild roosters, (both were full choke left barrel second shots at 50-55 yds angling away) they were with fast handloads of 1 oz 6's. One was even a fiber wad load. I don't normally take long shots like that, but when that big cackling clown starts reasonably close and ends far, there's something to be said for a load that patterns that efficiently. 1 1/8oz loads work well too, but I don't really notice any advantage. I guess it all comes down to the simple rule that shotguns really do perform best with lighter loads, not heavier ones. Wink

It would seem to me that the weight of a "square" load would vary by shot size, since big shot takes up more space than small shot.

My CZ patterns much "looser" than the marked chokes, so I try to compensate for pheasants with 1 1/8 oz. reloads and Golden Pheasant factory loads. I don't think a gee-whiz velocity is necessary with 6's, 5 1/2's and 5's. (nickle shot by the way). The CZ weighs just over 7 lbs. and I weigh 220 lbs, so I don't notice the kind of recoil with the 1 1/8 oz. @ 115 - 1165 fps when shooting at birds.

Joined: 21 May 2010 Posts: 603 Location: Victoria BC Canada

The English notion of a square load seems to be based on #6 shot.

Gunmakers Rule; the gun should weigh 96 times the intended shotload. This is not a LAW, but results in a balance of effectiveness and shootability & portability.
1 oz. gun should weigh 6 lbs.
1 1/8 oz. 6.75 lbs
1 1/4 oz. 7.5 lbs

I've been using 1 and 1/8 16 gauge lead loads for over 50 years for ducks and pheasant, and used some on my first chukar/partridge hunt last fall. Most have been #5's for ducks (before non-tox regs came on board) and roosters, with some #7.5's (first barrel) when in mixed quail/pheasant country. Love 'em. Dead birds. In the old days, my factory loads were mostly compression formed Super x's. I've also reloaded since my teens, with a progression from Win 540 and 571 powder and now HS-6 in these heavier loads. In quail-only (or my limited grouse hunts) country, I use lighter 1 oz. loads, but I really appreciate heavier 1.125 loads on the tough birds. On game, I do not recommend going lighter than 1 oz, unless shots are kept close.

16-1 1/8?....nice load....same as it is in a 12. Idea

In a 7 1/2s flavor...a nice ruffed grouse load.
Necessary?
Seldom.

It's better for pheasants, where 5s and 6s shine.
1 1/4-4s...also a swell load in a Sweet 16 and it's ilk.

Few of us will actually wilt under reasonable recoil from a reasonable choice of gun with any reasonable load.
Too many appear to find some implied plus in lighter and lighter....whatever.
Lighter, smaller?
Much ado about....precious little.

Joined: 08 Oct 2012 Posts: 72 Location: Hilton Head SC

I may be an odd duck here but I enjoy shooting 1 1/8oz load even in clays. I usually use 1 oz loads but I have a good load that fits well in a cheddite hull with a claybuster WAA16 that doesn't feel much different from the 1 oz load that I use the majority of the time.

When it comes to hunting I typically carry 1 1/8 loads as well. I have a Citori which is no ultralight gun and I'm a pretty big guy so the recoil never seemed to bother me. If/when I run across an A-5 in my price range I'll have no issues shooting 1 1/4 loads when the situation arrises either, it's just a tad rough on my shoulder in the Citori.

Many years ago I bought a large supply of #7 shot and use 1 oz. loads of #7 for Huns, mountain grouse and Chukar. The only 1 1/8 oz. loads that I load are for late season pheasant and I prefer nickel plated #5 1/2 shot. I shoot skeet with 3/4oz of #8 and all of the above are shot from my 16 GA.

Joined: 31 May 2009 Posts: 153 Location: Orofino, Idaho

My favorite Washington Palouse pheasant load is the 1 1/8 oz. of #6 shot from Estate; although I like the 1 1/16 oz. load from B&P, as well.

Joined: 19 Apr 2008 Posts: 477

I use 1 1/8 oz of #5's as my standard pheasant load. If you are only shooting 1 oz, you might as well carry a 20. 1 oz works fine, but every litle bit helps.