Discovering the Best Shotgun Cartridge: A Beginner's Journey

The hunt for the right cartridge

I cannot pretend to know enough about shooting a shotgun to give a scientific discussion as to what makes the best shotgun cartridge for shooting clays and game, but what I can do is report back on what I have found as I try to find what works well for me. Since properly learning to shoot, and making the decision to want to pursue competition I have fired roughly a slab a week of cartridges at clays, and a few boxes at game on top of that.

Whilst this may not be "final" and it may not be totally comprehensive, this is what I have found as someone learning to shoot, not only with the view of filling the pot, but also with the view of competing in clay shooting.

I also have the advantage that I currently have no "brand loyalty" and I am on a reasonably tight budget, I cannot afford to buy slabs of premium cartridges, but I want to shoot a lot and practice as much as possible, for this article I will mainly focus on clay shooting.

Gamebore Velocity+

The first cartridge I knowingly loaded into my first shotgun, I got these from a clay shooting ground on Anglesey, I think they were about £7.50 per box, and I couldn't hit anything with them, but that isn't the fault of the cartridge! After a lesson with Ed Solomons, I had a few boxes left in the drawer and had a bit more of a consistent mount and an idea of how things "should" feel, so thought I should give them a proper go.

Personally I found these cartridges a bit "kicky" the recoil felt robust, and hitting clays on the edges didn't really lead to convincing breaks, after a few more good practice sessions and trying them again, they felt "good" but they didn't seem to inspire confidence in the same way as some other cartridges I have used. I have however shot the Clear Pigeon and they hit hard and shoot nicely so it may be a case of needing to explore more of the Gamebore range to find the right balance of budget and cartridge.

Hull Comp-X

From my limited understanding this is a go-to budget and own branded/club cartridge, these felt really nice to shoot, a fairly low recoil cartridge and the cartridge I actually started hitting things with. These are a similar price to the Gamebore costing about £75 for a slab at the local shooting ground in a sale. They seem to have a very consistent feeling between cartridges and boxes, and I found that there were quite a few occasions where I thought I was missing a clay and they somehow managed to break.

I think the Hull family of cartridges is one I would like to explore, but whilst my priority at the moment is seeing and breaking as many targets as possible, budget constraints really come into it, and there seems to be a step up from "affordable" to mid-range and premium cartridges. 

Eley Select 

This is another one of the "budget" cartridges, whilst visiting Fauxdegla I realised I had foolishly forgotten to bring any cartridges, and they had these in stock, so it was a good opportunity to try out another different brands entry level cartridge. This felt like a moment where a lot of practice came together and the cartridge seemed to drop in with this, so this feedback may be slightly biased due to shooting so well on the day. The cartridge felt comfortable to shoot, not a huge amount of felt recoil, and a very fast cartridge, they seem to reach out to break cartridges in a different way to what I had previously felt. On long midi clays that seemed to be thrown from miles away, they broke convincingly, and with fairly fast birds they seemed to break with hitting the edge and started to inspire more confidence, which then nicely led to more controlled, slower shooting which in turn leads to better breaks and the cycle continued.

Conclusion

As this is still fairly early into my hunt to find what I want to use, and where I want to align myself, this is potentially a bit premature to write and post about, but I want to give a good reflection into the journey and hopefully help give a clear and open picture along the way.

For me the Hull Comp-X and the Eley Select are the two cartridges I'll be exploring more, I'll also look at picking up the next "tier" of cartridges from Hull and Eley and see how things feel in different situations. I will also pick up a box of Gamebore's cartridges as I know they make excellent cartridges and I understand it's about finding the right combination, and I don't want to write anything off too early.

When it comes to game shooting that's a totally different situation, I still don't know enough about what I like and what I need, but I'm looking forward to exploring.

If you have any recommendations for cartridges, brands, or certain cartridges for certain targets please reach out!