[fabsroman]

Good lord, I don't think you need #4 buckshot for anything on this hunting trip. If you jump a coyote up close, which I highly doubt because they aren't stupid enough to wait around for you, you can kill it with #5 shot.

Regarding the raccoons, Skeet is entirely right. They are rarely seen during the day unless they are sick. I have only seen one during the day while I was out in the woods. It was winter time and we were hand throwing clays. We saw him about 50 yards away, closed the gap to about 30, and let him have it with #7.5 and #8. He didn't even notice us while we walked toward him, or he just didn't really care. Raccoons seen during the day should be shot because it is highly likely that they will be carrying rabies or something else.

I would never shoot a pheasant with #4 buckshot unless you do not intend on eating it. Plus, the pattern gets rather sparse further out there.

Trying to change from #5 shot to #4 buckshot should you encounter a coyote would be a pain in the rear.

My advice, if you are going pheasant hunting, go pheasant hunting and take any other opportunities presented as they are presented. I have jumped plenty of deer in cornfields while upland hunting or dove hunting, but I don't shoot at them with a shotshell. If the coyote is close enough, kill it. If not, so be it.

I have even tried the good old changing of shells in the duck/goose blind and it is a pain in the rear even when I can see the geese coming in from 100's of yards out. I keep the first two shells in gun for ducks and make the third a goose round/far range duck round. When I see the geese in the air, I change up the first two shells. If you have done any waterfowling, you know that you can get caught with your pants down sometimes from low flying birds, and that is when it gets really interesting because I am usually the only guy calling.

I left the blind once to scare some geese and ducks out of an adjoining field and left my dad in the blind in case anything flew that way. He was loaded with goose shells and when everything got up, 6 ducks landed in our decoys. I sat there scratching my head because he didn't shoot and the ducks flew off after being in the decoys for half a minute. His account, he didn't see them at first, but the dog started acting crazy. Then, he saw the ducks in the decoys and tried to switch from #BB to #2 steel. The ducks heard or saw his movement and took off. He would have been better off just shooting at them with BB's. Lesson learned.