I recently came into some 8 1/2 shot, and I'm thinking it will do fine for skeet, but possibly too light for trap. We normally shoot from 20 to 24 yards, and #7's are most common.

Anyone have experience with the 8 1/2?

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

used to shoot 16-24 yard trap with #8 or #9 with a BT-99. Never had any issues. Took birds way out and away when we did Annie Oakle shoots. Would be off the field backed up against the fence, used to wait until the bird was about to hit the ground before firing to eliminate the risk of the next guy taking the bird.

Shot lots of trap. If you are a pretty quick shooter 8 1/2s are ok on 16 yd birds. I use 8 1/2s in the 410. 28 and 20 also but...at skeet. Otherwise use 8's at trap

I have shot a lot of trap. I use 8 1/2 for the first shot in doubles, but I take the first shot quite quickly. Everything else, I use 7 1/2.

In 1991, I broke a 98 from the 25 yard line in the Grand American handicap event. The 2 I missed, I dusted. I was using Federal paper 8's. I wish I had been using 7 1/2's. Might have gotten a chip.

Bottom line, I would not use 8 1/2's for anything other than the first shot in doubles. If you are behind a target, and looking for a lucky pellet, I count on 7 1/2's

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Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

At the 18 yard line 8.5's will smoke them if you can get them before they get to the top floor.

Better than 9's and hardly any holes in the pattern, for the bird to slide through.

Here are two loads that I have used over the years with the 8.5's.

1 oz. Blue Magic hull, 209, 18 grs of Bullseye with a 12SO wad at 1145fps. (485 pellets)

7/8 oz. Rem STS, w209, 14 grs E3, AA12L wad at 1165fps for skeet.
More energy than 9's and more pellets than #8's.

Any of your favorite loads will work, and only 1180fps is needed.
Enjoy.

For 16 yards and the first barrel of doubles, I loaded 1 oz of 8-1/2 shot with great results in warm weather. Used a modified choke tube for both. While a didn't always get a "ball of smoke" did get a lot of chips.

I shot trap for a very long time in all seasons and found that 8.5 shot will work on anything trap has to offer, including back fence handicap and international.
I always used full choke for all trap games and never bothered with the needless complications of switching choke tubes etc.

When you are learning 16 yard trap a Modified choke helps in breaking birds, if in the first 45 yards.
As you improve a tighter choke will get MORE pellets into your pattern
increasing that "Dusting" or "Hole" in the pattern, that the bird found
to put down a "Kill" on the score card.
However, you will need to fine tune your amount of lead on the bird, with
the smaller pattern, to make a hit.

Many "Pro's use #8 mag lead for ATA shots but there are also many that just
use the "Max" 7.5 pellet for maximum energy, fps, speed to target, less lead and not have to mess around with different pellet sizes.

A 7.5 at 1145fps will do anything a #8 at 1200fps, will do, with less recoil.

As for Skeet, the #9 is KING for the short yardage but many use other pellet sizes.
If you are shooting .410, you have to be very good if you are shooting 7.5's !!

Been there, done that.

A LOT depends if you are going for score average & $$$
or just popping primers at a trap club or in the field, on what you "Roll" or buy.

PS;
Now that I think about it.............
If you like to shoot Skeet............
Save those 8.5 for skeet, to where they will give you the best returns.

Go get em !!

Trap shooting is always an interesting topic. I shot hundreds of thousands of rounds, traveled, competed, took instruction, and spent a ton of money on the game.

Trap shooting is a mental game, and way too many shooters let the game get into their head, when really there are not that many things to concentrate on. Learn to eliminate trivia. One such thing is shotgun patterning. IMO there is no bigger waste of time than drawing 30" circles, dividing the circles into quadrants, and counting pellet holes all day. All you need to know is the point of impact of your gun. Put your target up, get your figure 8 with your beads and from about 15 yards put a 6 o'clock hold on a black dot and pull the trigger. Do it a couple times. The big hole is your point of impact, and tells you where your gun shoots.

The most important thing is stock fit. More people change guns like socks, because they can't hit targets. The gun is fine, it just does not fit. Anybody really think stocks are one size fits all? If you are serious about your scores and the ability to break targets, buy a good gun, and go see a stock maker. You should see the same picture every time you raise the gun. If you must have an adjustable stock, set the stock, and throw away the allen wrench. Every time you change the stock around, you are shooting a different gun!

Another trivia is choke tubes. Here let me change my tube to modified, today is a little windy. That is a head game. If you know your point of impact, you will break the target. Personally, I would not ever own a choke tube gun. My Perazzi o/u doubles gun is choked 12 thousandths in the bottom bbl, and 32 in the top. Single bbl Ljutic LTX has 42 points of constriction, or extra full. Both guns have stocks made to fit me. Most importantly, there is nothing adjustable.

After you get your gun set up properly, the next most important thing is learning how to realize that you are not on the target and make a second move to the target. That is a tough one, and again mental. Shooters shoot, because it is time to shoot.

After that comes where to look for the target when it comes out of the house, foot positioning, moving your eyes to the target( the gun will follow), load your gun without looking, not taking your eyes off the field, watch other people's targets. etc. etc.

I shoot one ounce of 8 1/2's at the first shot in doubles. Why, because I am recoil sensitive and it helps in going after the second target. Other than that 1 1/8th oz of 7 1/2's.

Around 1150 fps is more than fine. No need for this super handicap stuff that pounds you into another zip code. I once went to the Northeast Grand with a friend that had never run a hundred targets straight, and he ran 200 straight using Remington premier 3 dram handicap loads out of a model 12 Winchester. Man did he look beat up, but he beat the field.

OK, all done rambling

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Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

Lead shot and gasoline both stop
Me from running around shooting
Trap. But I miss it and still have
3 trap guns and 2 Mec progressive
Presses.

Now I understand the price of shot is high... That's why I have about 6 tons of lead and 2 Shotmakers. In fact the one shotmaker has the drippers that make 8 1/2s. I also had an older fellow give me a ton of shot..magnum shot but the sizes were 5,4 2, and BB. Sold some of the 5s but make a batch of useable sizes when I need it. I will admit...it can be time consuming. I can make about 80 lbs or so an hour from the larger shot. Then you have to clean it tumble with some graphite and size it. Mine goes a bit farther as I don't load 12 ga...just 20 28 410

Buying a house and having a kid ended my registered trap days. Anyone who has ever gone down that road truly knows what it means to have an expensive hobby. I never went back to it for some reason. Every now and then I think about going back to it but I take a nap and the urge goes away.

When I was shooting, Green dot was 70.00 for 8 pounds, and hard shot was 8 dollars a bag. I used to keep 2 -33 gallon trash cans full of reloads on hand, and go to the range with a 5 gallon bucket

__________________
Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

If you miss the bird I don't think the shot size is the problem.

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Well done > well said

I used to shoot at Aquidneck Island on the Navy base. They had an FFL and I can remember buying shot ten bags at a time. I lived in a second floor apartment so any more than that was a project to get upstairs and storage space was an issue. That was a great club. We used to shoot out over the ocean. In the summer, it was a great place just to hang out and watch the boat traffic on the bay. When the Navy closed it, we moved over the border to Fall River. I shot there for a few years before I went bankrupt. (Not really!)

Right! Most common problems are pulling up on the side of a straightaway , not moving the gun on a straightaway ( trying to trap it ), or not properly picking up the target out of the house and improper foot positioning. Yep, no second move to the target, and you knew you were behind it. Time to shoot

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Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

I spent a lot of time on that base. My father was in charge of the Newport NCIS office, although it was called NIS ( Naval Investigative Services) at the time. We lived in Jamestown. Looks like you left for the land of the best Portuguese sausages. Not sure how you could go bankrupt shooting on a Navy base. Actually doing anything on a base was cheap. 22 shorts were 10 cents a box at the exchange

__________________
Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

Sagres Restaurant on Columbia St. Best grilled octopus outside of Portugal!

Sorry to the OP for the thread creep. You start out talking about lead shot and before you know it, grilled octopus finds its way into the thread!

While foot position is important............ for the flight of the clays at the different stations. ( zones )

My instructor also taught me that learning to rotate at the hips
was also another important step, in proper set ups, to be able
to swing on the bird, no matter what the angle was.

"See the bird", now go after it.

This is great nostalgia. When I started in the early/mid 1960's Red Dot was $35.00 for a 15# barrel, Lawrence brand shot was $5.00 per bag and American brand,(the cheap stuff), was $4.00 per bag. Primers and wads were dirt cheap and our club charged $1.25 per round and $2.00 for a box of shells. Of course you could load a box for about $.75 so hand loading was feasible. But then again if you made $100. per week you were doing quite well, so it is all relative.

You are a lucky man to be able to shoot all those small chokes.

I feel in love with a loaner 28 Ga. that the club let me shoot one day.
At the 16 with the never shot before O/U, I ended up with a 24.
It would have gone home with me but mama and the bills at the time
prevented it.
A very sweet Ga. , if you can pick one up and can reload for it.

However I still have 20 and .410 in the gun safe.

I like the 28.. But the 410 is my favorite....but not the favorite feelings about scores with the 410l I shot a round of trap with my K-80 with the 410 tubes. Actually, broke a 23. I shot quite a few with the 28 and broke some 25s. It outperforms its size. I have a few 28s... A couple sets of D grade 1100s a matched pair of 1100s in 28 and 410..The same in the much harder to find 870s matched pairs. also have a new Ithaca double custom gun made in 1930 in 28 ga. Very rare. Have shot 'em all and again they outperform their size. Back when you could shoot lead at waterfowl I used an old Winchester M-12 to shoot teal...but they are a closer shot duck in the marshes just remembered I also have one of the Browning made copies of the model 12. Not quite the same as an older Win as they have an interrupter in the trigger. The 28 can be downloaded to 5/8 ounce and up to an ounce

I will add a couple of thinks I have learned about shotgun reloading, and shells for that matter. First, the Eagle branded shot from Peru? tends to run small, about 1/2 to 1 size smaller than Lawrence or West Coast. Second, bio targets tend to be harder to break than the old targets. The new "Blackout" bio's are the hardest of the bunch.
I am not a trap shooter, but am an avid sporting clays shooter, and have noticed these things.

I sold a lot of the Eagle. When I first started to sell it I noticed the somewhat smaller shot.. It was ok shotbut the sizing left a bit to be desired. For my own loading I sized my own Eagle with sizing sieves. There were usually 25% undersized and about 10% over. I haven't usded any since the 2005-06 timeframe. An old friend as Anal as I was told me it is better these days. I once tried a bag of 10s in the 410 at practice and found it didn't break skeet birds as well. And you are right the bio degradable targets are harder and in certain areas...do not really degrade very well

Hard Magnum shot breaks birds better, more so in colder weather.

Mag shot produces tighter patterns then chilled shot.

Mag shot has more antimony. Pellets are lighter in weight. A 410 skeet load benefits, more pellets in 1/2 oz load.

Velocity of the shot string- faster is better.

8s for trap. 9s for skeet.

Absolutely rotation is required. If you do not rotate and just move your upper body , you pull the gun away from your face. The best ability to swing your hips to the target comes with proper foot positioning

__________________
Pete
I ain't no fortunate son