I shot the 3 inchers last year and the 2 3/4 the year before and couldnt tell the difference. Golden Pheasants are good, but pricey so I think I will stay with the 2 3/4 because they are cheaper. #5 shot always.

What works for me is 16 ga. 1 1/8oz #6 1250-1300fps imp.cyl. choke opening day and go to mod. choke next day. No dogs just run like he77 to where they drop, because if it is not dead finding them gets real hard in waist deep CRP.

O/U 20 ga, copper plated 6's

tried the fiocchi, super x, kent, all the above
my best load to date-
12 ga.
AA hulls
WAA12 wad
32gr Longshot powder
1 1/4oz 50/50 mix of #4 & #8 shot
20 ga.
AA hulls
WAA20F1 wad
18gr longshot
1oz 50/50 mix #4 & #8 shot

I load my own myself. I use an 1187 Remington and it seems to pattern #5 the best. I load 1 1/4 oz #5 shot with a WAA12R wad and #35 mec bushing with Unique powder (made by alliant). I believe 7.5 shot would work great too, but my gun does not pattern 7.5 shot well at all. It does great with #8 shot and I just think it is too small to effectively clean kill pheasants. For some reason, #4 and #6 doesn't pattern out of my barrel with any of my chokes.

We shoot plenty of pen raised birds durring the year and the best combination so far has been low brass #6 in the imp barrel and hi brass #5 in the modified barrel. I shoot a SKB SXS I average about 60~70 birds a year. Most shots average 30~40 yards.

28 ga. 7.5 super handicap is all you need

Best load for a 20 ga O/U ?

Should we get 3" high brass #6 ?

Standard off the shelf #6's work just fine. I shoot a lot of the Remington small game load from Dicks Sptg. goods. They are the Black (cheap) shells and work just fine.

I shoot and O/U
U=IMP Cylinder shoot a 7 1/2
O=Mod Cylinder shoot a 7 1/2 or a 6

Thanks ya'll

Overkill but I only go once a year, winchester Double mag #6 28 dollars a box.

Yeah, thats what I think too. I use the good stuff because I dont go but 2 or 3 times a year, but if there were pheasants here I probably shoot em with low brass 7.5's like everything else.

7 1/2, 1 ounce winchester x-speed (when windy) 1350 fps
wallmart 5,59 a box

good for pheasant, dove quail,chuckar.

impr cyl.

7.5 shot is fine IF the birds are pen raised or IF wild birds are holding tight. I only shoot at wild birds where I hunt, and can not count on the them holding tight other than opening morning. The slow/dumb birds do not live past noon on Saturday. The rest of the weekend gets into the longer faster shots that requires the #6 or #5 shot to not only knock them down, but keep them in place. I have never hunted with dogs. We do it the hard way, and just walk them up. Then run them down