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<  16ga. Ammunition & Reloading  ~  Nickel, Copper or other?
squareload1
PostPosted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 8:05 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 20 Mar 2016
Posts: 9
Location: Colorado

Hi gang,

This is geared specifically for wild Pheasants.

I shoot mainly 5's, what is the best shot to load(Nickel, Copper or other) and why? And is the cost for premium shot worth it?

This is my first post. Thank you for your insight!

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jschultz
PostPosted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 9:10 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 07 Apr 2007
Posts: 1624
Location: northwewst Wyoming

Based on pattern and penetration testing, I load all brass RMC cases using 1 and 1 1/8 oz. NP shot for pheasant hunting behind a pointing dog.
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Dogchaser37
PostPosted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 10:03 am  Reply with quote
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IF you can find good nickel plated magnum shot, I believe that to be the best on the pattern board.......

Gotta be honest though, I believe that good magnum shot is just as effective and much easier to find.

YMMV

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Savage16
PostPosted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 10:13 am  Reply with quote
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Keep in mind this is from a one pheasant experience with the golden pheasant load of nickel 5's. Between cleaning and eating it, found 20 pellets. Almost all deformed and feather draw around the pellets. FWIW

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mike campbell
PostPosted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 1:18 pm  Reply with quote
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byrdog
PostPosted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 1:31 pm  Reply with quote
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For regular field shots wild or flushed Magnum lead is best. for close pointed shots and a mod or more open choke use chilled lead. plated shot is just consumerism.

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ole_270
PostPosted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 1:53 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 13 Oct 2015
Posts: 150
Location: SE Ks

In my gun, with my chokes, nickel plated patterns more evenly than magnum. Might not in yours, but I’ll keep using it
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fn16ga
PostPosted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 4:13 pm  Reply with quote
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Location: Florida

ole_270 wrote:
In my gun, with my chokes, nickel plated patterns more evenly than magnum. Might not in yours, but I’ll keep using it


Just curious , where are you buying your nickle plated shot ?
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ole_270
PostPosted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 4:43 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 13 Oct 2015
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Precision Reloading
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fn16ga
PostPosted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 4:49 pm  Reply with quote
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I find that Precision's NP shot pattern tighter in my turkey loads than Lawrance Mag shot . The NP shot from Ballistic Products does not .

That's the only loads I use it in . All others I use Lawrance Mag with out any significant difference .
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old colonel
PostPosted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 7:56 pm  Reply with quote
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Location: Topeka, Kansas

I cannot say the patterns I get from NP shot is significantly superior to other high quality hard magnum or copper shot.

What I do know for fact is that in terms of feather draw (the pulling of fine down feathers into wound channels) NP shot is for me undoubtedly better than all others.

Through multiple season on both grouse and quail I have discovered in comparing factory lead to reloaded NP feather draw superiority belongs to NP

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Dogchaser37
PostPosted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 8:16 pm  Reply with quote
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Feather draw?

The best way to avoid feather draw is to start pointing the head and forget the body shots all together.

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rudyc
PostPosted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 9:42 pm  Reply with quote
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I like using copper shot just for the fact that when I clean the birds, the pellets look so much nicer than plain lead ones. Laughing Laughing

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kgb
PostPosted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 9:57 pm  Reply with quote
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Another fan of Lawrence Magnum shot, and Remington STS when it was available. Never loaded plated shot, only used some factory Remington Premier 6's in 12ga. The pellets recovered from pheasants were all dented/distorted so I'm a believer of the writers who'd reported the thin plating on most shot is pretty ineffective at improving it. Also had about the same instance of removing feather material from phez breasts that was realized with other shot.

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Larry Brown
PostPosted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:14 pm  Reply with quote
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Back when you could get plated and buffered loads, and the plating was done the right way--not just washed on--copper/nickel was worth it. That being said, I "field tested" some RST 1 oz 16ga loads in Iowa a couple weeks back, copper 6's, and they worked pretty well. 2 of 3 came down dead; #3 was my fault, didn't center him as well (and he was a pretty much dead going away shot), and we did not recover him from the very nasty stuff where he crash landed. Just ordered a couple boxes of the copper 6's in a mixed flat I ordered from RST. I will say that the pellets are easier to spot when you're cleaning the birds.

The nastiest factory nickel plated loads I ever shot were some offered by Activ--obviously some time ago. They were something like 3 1/4 DE/1 oz 7 1/2's. I used them as my R barrel load when we were in mixed bag pheasant/quail country. Just for the heck of it, I pattern tested them against 1 1/8 oz loads of lead 7 1/2. And even with a significant disadvantage in pellet count, those Activ nickel plated loads delivered more hits in a 30" circle than the heavier lead load. They did tend to kill on both ends in a light 16!
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