The Truth About Extreme Pheasant Shooting: Ballistics and Ethical Considerations

I believe a distinct change has taken place in the past twenty years or so in the world of driven shooting. As more people got involved who did not grow up in the sport, it seems to have become more of a competition testing who can shoot the most and the highest birds. This is very wrong in my opinion.

As David Whitby, the highly regarded game keeper and author wrote regarding the ethics of game shooting, pointing out very succinctly that it is not and never should be a game and, I quote “What is not acceptable is killing and wasting, or wounding just to show off”.

Having been for many years in the shooting business, on the gun making side, I have over the years shot at many of the well known high bird shoots in England and Scotland. Most of those surrounding me were using 32” barrels with extra full chokes and 36 or 38 gr. shells with nr. 3 or 4 shot, while I used 28” barrels improved cylinder in both barrels and never more than 30 gr. Nr 6 or 5 depending on the weather.

I did spend time on making sure that the shells I used were of the highest quality and gave the best pattern on the board. Also, I did not have a painful shoulder, nor did I have a headache at the end of the shoot.

And now I hope you will excuse me for getting a bit technical. First I would like to do away with a few myths. Longer barrels do not shoot further. Longer barrels do not shoot more accurate. Longer barrels do not produce a noticeable higher velocity (.07% per 2” of barrel)

Do longer barrels have an advantage ? For some people they do, I believe high bird shooters like 32” barrels because it makes the gun heavier and therefore helps with the recoil when pounding away 36 gram or heavier loads. For some, depending on shooting style, longer barrels can help with the swing through the bird. However, on extreme high birds the swing has to be so far through the bird to have success, that a longer barrel may be harder to control.

Are these birds really 80 yards and higher as some shooters claim? I do not believe so. Humans are very good at wrongly estimating distances, and guessing perpendicular distance is even much harder. The highest native tree in Britain is a beech which is 48 yards high.

I would like to ask every extreme pheasant aficionado when next in London to take a cab to Trafalgar square and stand under Nelson’s column, likely a pigeon is sitting on top of his Bicorn hat and hopefully you can see it. Then tell yourself truthfully whether that is a shootable bird. The top of the hat is 56 yards from your feet.

90 yards birds are so small, I doubt anyone can see them well enough to have a clue whether they are flying straight, how much they are descending, etc. all important matters before pulling the trigger.

Another problem with these birds at 60 yards or higher, is ballistics. First of all round balls have a very bad ballistic coefficient. A shot column is formed from a group of pellets which during its flight will become longer and wider. A good number of the outside pellets, those slightly deformed during the time spent in the barrel and especially from the initial acceleration, will disappear from the shot column over distance.

It is true that larger pellets, if high quality, will deform less than smaller pellets, which would make a case for using # 3 shot, were it not for the fact that it has roughly half the pellets of # 6 shot, which more than negates that advantage. Another real problem with a very high perpendicular shot is wind. A 30 mph wind can influence a shot column of #3 at 60 yards by a couple of feet. Having been an Artillery officer, I am very familiar with wind having an impact on shot trajectory.

Then there is velocity. Unlike guns and rifles, which have to be proofed before they can be sold in the UK, cartridges do not have such regulations. About 25 years ago I had a number of cartridges tested at the proof house on their velocity. It was a depressing result, none came within a 100 fps of what was claimed on the box. I am sure that cartridges have improved considerably since.

The most important part is the quality of the powder used. We have all seen dirt and flakes around the chambers of our shotguns over time, that is unburned powder. The faster and cleaner the powder burns, the better. The shotcup is also very important. Plastic is a terrible idea, we all need to be conscious of the environment and use biodegradable materials. Great strides have been made with the wads and non plastic is perfectly good.

Some people say that copper plated pellets improve ballistics and patterns and have less deformation. I have not seen studies that confirm that but they would also have less effective killing powder, deformation of lead is a very important part of that at impact, which makes steel an undesirable alternative, no matter what people claim, it is too hard, while Bismuth has a tendency to shatter. Tungsten deforms, although not as much as lead, but is very expensive. I wish somebody could give me just one example of anyone getting lead poisoning from eating game.

Going to a good shooting school that has a high tower is an excellent idea, to be repeated annually before the season starts. However, it is useful to remember that a clay target has an initial speed of 45 mph, a pheasant can do 60 mph, and by the time you pull the trigger, the clay target has decelerated considerably, a pheasant, grouse or partridge do not. Also the direction of the clay target and the descend are known to you after seeing a few, so it is quite different from shooting live birds, yet good to get rid of bad habits.

Missing very high birds is not fine, many of these will be wounded but not picked. If a real top shot, the best of the best, shoots 1 : 3 on extreme birds he or she is having an incredibly good day. How many of these missed birds are wounded we wonder though.

As I am at it, I may as well address another myth. A 12 bore does not shoot further than a 20 or 28 bore if the cartridges are loaded the same, it has more pellets but that is it. The best gun I have ever seen on very very high pheasants and partridges uses a pair of 28’s.

Last and most important, take your ethical responsibility towards the quarry very serious. It means that you have to try to the utmost of your ability to make a clean kill. Shooting animals is not a right, it is a privilege, and none of us should ever forget this. The persons standing next to you do not have to be impressed or be beaten with numbers of birds shot, it is never a competition.

So let us all stop this silly business of shooting at stratospheric pheasants and/or partridges, 40 yards is very high, and a curling bird at 30 yards in a strong wind with hilly background is the most challenging shot for any gun. Help to take away another argument from those who do not like and/or do not understand shooting.