Best affordable pheasant/game 12g cartridge?

cowsmart

Well-Known Member
I normally use Clever 32gr 6's as local shop sell them, but had a few embarrassing misfires and hate the plastic wads..so what's the best affordable fibre wad cartridges ?
 
Eley produce a cartridge called Eley Pigeon Select. It is a 30gr 6 in either plastic or fibre wad. Just checked price and they are £181(plastic) and £188 (fibre) per thousand. I know several people who shoot with them both pigeon and game birds. Reasonable price compared to some others.
 
To be honest the pprice of a shell is the cheapest part of the day.

Ur far better of buying by the slab of 250 as a minimum, but price doesn't drop that much after that unless ur buying thousands and thousands, loads of decent shells about for around or sub 200 quid a thousand.
Even some shotgun shells may shoot better in different guns too althou not as extreme as rifle bullets.
So almost everyone will have different favourites.

Best shells i've used were from Just cartridges extreme game 32grs fibre wad, a load of us all clubbed together an order as the prices seem cheap on net but unless u buy 10-15k the delivery kills u. We tried to do a similar deal with local gunshop but his margins are so low for shells it just was not worth it not saving much, as well just buying by the slab or 1K
But plenty of other decent shells out there
 
If you have spent good money on a days pheasant shooting then I would suggest spending decent money on a good reliable cartridge that works well in your gun and gives you that added confidence when stood on a peg. I use Gamebore black gold dark storm fibre wad in either 32g 6's or 32g 5's depending on where I am shooting, these retail around £80 for a slab.

ATB 243 Stalker.
 
The cheapest part of a driven day is the cartridge......a pheasant will work out £25-30 so adding 35-40 pence for a quality round for each pull of the trigger is good value.....

Tim.243
 
Yes, as above don't skimp. Spent time with a pattern board & find out what works in your gun; it's not always the most expensive ones that will work best but I'd start my search with the top notch brands. It's an even, well-distributed pattern that kills bird consistently.

The Gamebore black Gold & Hull Extreme High Pheasant use European shot sizes but don't tell you on the packaging i.e. you think you're using 5's but they are closer to 4's.
 
I'd agree with the above. A quid or two extra for a box of 25 is probably worth it if you're paying for a day. It is cheaper to buy a slab, although that may last a year or two if you only shoot a few days.

Cheaper cartridges could well do the trick, but are maybe best saved for walked up or knock about days, where high and wide birds might not be as evident.
 
I should note we have our own syndicate in SW Scotland....do our own keepering, fox control etc etc we pay £300 each a year to put down 400 pheasants and 100 ducks...nit a big shoot, but get plenty snipe woodcock pigeon to make up the day...more about fun and wind ups than big bags, hence the affordable part lol
 
Sounds very similar to many of the shoots I've been involved with. As I might only get half a dozen shots in a day I try to optimise these chances by using the best cartridges I can buy. I don't know what gun you're using but cheap fibre wads have a reputation of not working well in back-bored barrels.
 
I should note we have our own syndicate in SW Scotland....do our own keepering, fox control etc etc we pay £300 each a year to put down 400 pheasants and 100 ducks...nit a big shoot, but get plenty snipe woodcock pigeon to make up the day...more about fun and wind ups than big bags, hence the affordable part lol

Similar to our syndicate - great crack, enjoy the rearing and keepering, shoot a few birds. probably only use 2 or 3 boxes of game cartridges a year.
 
Gamebore Black Gold, 32gms of 5 shot over a fibre wad, has worked well for me over the past few seasons. Not the cheapest, but not the most expensive either.
 
I get a laugh at folk using Black Gold 32gram 5s at pheasants thst are barely 20 yds high at best, burst pillows.
A large part of enjoying your day is about confidence in what you use. No point saving a couple of quid if it puts any doubt in your mind. Spend a little extra and look back on the memories of the great shot where that bird folded and cartwheeled out of the sky!
 
Aye i've seen the same, on 1 shoot had a couple of nice drives but the vast majority of birds were just ur average sporting bird 20-25m tree top hieght, u look at the state of the birds in the game cart then look round at the empty shells on the trailer bed, often 36g of 5's or even 4's of some high speed shell.

Most modern shells will do the business its more the case if u can put the pattern in the right place.
 
Aye i've seen the same, on 1 shoot had a couple of nice drives but the vast majority of birds were just ur average sporting bird 20-25m tree top hieght, u look at the state of the birds in the game cart then look round at the empty shells on the trailer bed, often 36g of 5's or even 4's of some high speed shell.

Most modern shells will do the business its more the case if u can put the pattern in the right place.

Them smashed up birds in the game cart, how many pellets do you reckon they have in them?
 
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