#8 v. #9 Shot

[fabsroman]

Originally Posted by Duffy

Perhaps this question would be better categorized in the shooting games forum, but when shooting skeet, has anyone found a better performance advantage to shooting #9 shot as opposed to #8 shot, given that there are more pellets per shell? I thought I would ask since I will be buying shot to reload soon. I have only ever shot #8.

Thoughts?

I read an article about this some time ago and it said that it takes 3 pellet strikes from 8's to break a target and 2 pellet strikes from 7.5's to break a target. I have no idea how many it takes from 9's.

What 9's will do is allow you to open up your patterns some without experiencing holes in the pattern. For skeet, I use 9's since most of the targets are close and the pellets still retain a lot of energy when they hit the target. I also use the most open chokes I can find.

Skeet, as his screen name shows, is a monster skeet shooter, so even if he was using 5's in the 12 gauge it would not make any difference for him. He shoots consistently in the 90's with the .410. I'm pretty sure he would shoot consistently in the 99's with a 12 gauge and the only target he might miss with the 12 gauge is a mental mistake.