Thread: Difference in shotgun ammo

Hi, can anyone explain the difference between the shot numbers on shotgun shells. Have only ever shot what my old man has told me and haven't ventured away from it. #2's & #3's is all I've shot for ducks so some info would be gold, cheers.

Google shotgun pellet sizes

what he said but try some falcon 35grm #4s if you pond shooting...they work great, smaller pellet size and a few more of them.

Yip falcon is great bang for your buck. Basically the higher the number the smaller the shot is. A good allrounder is number 3 in steel.

i use what ever brand has the most powder i can find in #4 shot on lake wairarapa. sometimes the extra punch is needed for those 1 mile shots we seem to be getting nowadays. iv learned spread is more important then shot size as well i did an opening one year with 0s and 1s and got bugger all, then i went to the 4s and had alot better kills in the last few years.

Hope this helps. I use 6 shot 32grams kills clean out to 40yards.
With bismuth I use 5 shot 34grams fairly happy with them. But would step it up again for Canuck gess
Pheasants, partridge, pigeon and ducks are the main game..
Imo you don't need heavy loads if the shot is in the right spot it will bring them down.

Yep pattern is more important than no of pellets and speed. A lot of people never pattern a gun, it can be quite eye opening.
A pattern target is a 1 metre circle drawn on paper and shot at typically 40 metres or yards. The no of pellets in the circle is counted and compared to the average pellet count for the cartridge using a table like the one above to get a % over 70 is good. Next look at the distribution, it wont be even but are their gaps bigger than your hand? Try this with a range of cartridges and some will do better than others, in my case with one shotgun any steel load over 1 oz had holes and the faster the speed the worse the result. Different gun gave different results (o/u versus semi) but same choke imp mod in both.

I've sold two of my shotguns because they could not hold a decent patten.

X 2 steel shot is = to lead shot size #3 steel = #6 lead
I found 36g #4 steel Eley @1550 fps was a good shell
1/4 choke a good start point .

Now use # 3 & 2 still Eley 36g bit harsh on Pheasant but very good on parry's & ducks

12 Gauge Steel - Shotgun - Ammunition - Reloaders Supplies Ltd


I've been using some of Reloaders Clever Mirage super soft steel got fantastic results with it last season, now I've gone and traded the Browning so I might be back to square one with the M2 and what it likes