Nickel or copper shot for pheasant?

Copper! The roosters in my freezer say copper!

Do you load your own copper shot or what brand of shells do you buy.

You feel that you have fewer cripples/runners with plated shot?

Thanks

Jason

Have no preference between the two, but don't shoot anything other than either. No science other than what I hear about less deformation and therefore better patterns and penetration (sounds good and right to me), but I do feel I get much better, more-consistant kills with these over straight lead. I like any of the factories, but have been leaning more towards the Fiochi GF in #5, which of course is nickle.

Nickle, copper, steel, lead ... they all work about the same. Used to hunt copper plated lead 1 and 1/2 once load mags. Now 1 and 1/4 seems fine whether in the 12 or 20.

Nothing beats hunting behind a good bird dog.
1) Find more birds
2) Likely more ready for the birds, if you have learned your dog's signals
3) Eliminates, if not minimizes lost wounded birds
4) Fun

The only exception to this is wind. Which I guess in ND is about 3 out of every 4 days.

In winds of 15mph+ I still like mag loads in the 12 with copper plated shot.

nickel
more cleaner

You should seriously not consider buying into the market so bluntly. I have hunted with parties using 3", 1.25 ounce shot, #5's and #6's all my life, and I have almost always downed a bird on a well lined shot. I used copper shot one year just to see if it really displayed an immense difference and it really didn't seem to help improve "My" performance. I wasn't to thrilled about the price of these loads either. I would say if you have used lead without blaming your misses on the shotgun shells then you should stick with it, no sense in buying something you don't need, Cheaphunter sez.

I know many of you guys think Roster is a quack, but from the "take it for what it's worth" department:. He says plating can dramatically lessen deformation and therefore significantly tighten lead patterns. Problem is, non of the production copper these days is actually "plated". All of the copper available is more like a wash, giving only a candy coating of copper. This is not enough to reduce deformation to any effective degree. The only production that has true plating and therefore actually gives you something over raw lead are the Fiochi nickel plate.

Haven't independently verified any of this, but for those out there who don't think you're smarter in such matters than a guy who does this for a living or that it was Roster on the grassy knoll( ), I just thought I'd pass it along.

I would agree. Ive picked some of the SO CALLED copper plated pellets out of birds while cleaning and the amount of "copper" on there is a joke. I would also agree that Fiocchi makes a very good shell.