Fiocchi Golden Pheasant Shells

[TrapperReady]

I recently started using some of these shells on some game-farm birds while tuning our dog up for a trip to South Dakota. All I have to say is "Wow!".

The particular load I'm using is a 2 3/4" 16ga shell pusing 1 1/4oz of nickle-plated #5 shot at around 1260 fps. This is nearly identical (a little slower) than the 12ga handloads that I normally use for pheasants.

Every bird I've hit has been DRT, typically with at least one wing badly broken. Most shots I've taken have been around 30-35 yards, but I had one just shy of 50 yards today, and it was as clean a kill as you could hope for.

The recoil isn't as harsh as I thought it might be, even though the Ithaca 37 I'm using only has a hard butt-plate.

I'll be taking a box or two along with to SD, and I'll see how they work on the mid-season wild birds, but so far I'm very optimistic.

 

[JohnBT]

I had my hands on a couple of boxes recently, but they wanted $15.50 for one box of 28 ga. Ouch. As good as they are I put them back on the shelf.

John

 

[TrapperReady]

I think the ones I got were maybe $12. More than I'd like, but I wanted to give them a try.

If you want real insanity... The local Gander Mountain had a box of Federal 16ga game loads. Nothing special about them, except that they were using copper-plated lead. They were priced at $24.99 for a box of 25 shells.

My eyes did this:

Then this:

 

[Gordon]

Golden Pheasants are by far my favorite rooster round.

 

[Whitman31]

Been shooting the Golden Pheasant loads for a couple years now. Very happy with them.

 

[Kingcreek]

I'm into my second flat of 12g Golden Pheasants in 3-4 years. Some of them were gifted to friends or folks that took me to a good hunting spot but I shot most of them.
Great Rooster medicine- swats em hard but doesn't tear the meat all up.