I bought 2 cases of 9'S!!! My first 3 or 4 hundred birds every year are young and dumb. I'm gonna see how them babies pattern thru a Jellyhead and my open water. I may not push breast feathers thru any backs but I bet I do some poofin!!!
I was wanting to try 9s this year also. I started with 7 1/2 then had better luck with an 8. It made me wonder if 9s would help even more. It just seems around here that 9s aren't as common as the others. I can always find them in town I might just have to make a couple of stops to get them. Also I found a weird shell I hadn't seen today. It's a 12g 2 3/4 inch 1 1/8 oz 8shot with a dram eq of 3 1/4 @ 1350 for. It's made by suprema or something like that. Only $6 a box so I got 4 to run through my gun and see how they work. I am really hoping they are good cause it sounds amazing.
Been a lot of cases here of people using "cheap" cartridges, and then, due to QC not being good on them, powder charges varying enormously, to the point that some have had wads stock in barrels. Firing the next shot then resulted in burst barrels
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If it moves and is legal but also moral, SHOOT IT !!
I was using # 9 shot out of a 20 gauge bored full choke in the 551 bird shoot in "The Art of Crow Hunting DVD" when I ran out of 9's I used # 8's. I also used a 12 bore for the high birds (# 7 1/2 shot) in that DVD.
Years ago I used a hand load od 5/8th's of an ounce of # 9 shot out of a 410 gauge for crows. It worked quite well on birds 30 yards and under. I used a Winchester model 42 bored full choke.
These 9's I bought are RIO's. Never shot em for bandits but shot several hundred starlings with them in March n April. Had no misfires and they patterned well. I will find out in 5 weeks and let u boys know!