B&P Upland Game 20ga 7/8oz 7.5 Shot – Great Quail Load

Description

Worth noting before anything else, because the part number is misleading. The 20B78UP7 designation looks like number 7 shot, but this shell is loaded with 7.5. The B&P Upland Game 20ga 7/8oz 7.5 Shot is the mid size pellet in the line, and at 1225 feet per second it is the load most 20 gauge upland hunters will reach for most often.

• The 7/8 ounce pattern problem, solved by shot size
• Full specifications
• Quail, woodcock, dove and clays
• Honest notes before you buy
• Open chokes and light guns
• The bottom line

The 7/8 ounce pattern problem, solved by shot size

A 20 gauge carries less shot than a 12, which means every pellet counts. Going to 7.5 gets you roughly 300 pellets in the payload against about 170 in 5 shot. That is nearly double the pattern density, and on small birds at close range density is what kills cleanly. The B&P Upland Game 20ga 7/8oz 7.5 Shot is built around that arithmetic.

Energy per pellet is lower, so the practical ceiling is around thirty yards on quail and woodcock. Inside that, the B&P Upland Game 20ga 7/8oz 7.5 Shot gives you the forgiveness that a fast flushing bird in thick cover demands, which is exactly where a 20 gauge earns its reputation.

Full specifications

• Caliber: 20 gauge, 2 3/4 inch shell
• Bullet weight: 7/8 ounce of nickel plated chilled lead, 7.5 shot grain
• Bullet: 7.5 shot, nickel plated chilled lead
• Muzzle velocity: 1225 fps
• Muzzle energy: not published for shotshells ft-lbs
• Ballistic coefficient (G1): not applicable to shotshells
• Case: reloadable boxer primed brass
• Quantity: 20 rounds per box
• Part number: 20B78UP7, 25 rounds per box

Nickel plated chilled lead is what keeps that pattern honest. Plated pellets resist deformation as they travel down the bore, and a round pellet flies where you pointed while a flattened one goes somewhere else. In a small payload like the B&P Upland Game 20ga 7/8oz 7.5 Shot, losing a dozen pellets to deformation is a meaningful hole in the pattern.

Quail, woodcock, dove and clays

Bobwhite over a pointing dog, woodcock in the alders, early season grouse, dove over a field edge. All of these are B&P Upland Game 20ga 7/8oz 7.5 Shot work. The bird is small, the range is short and the shot is quick, and a dense pattern out of a light gun is the right tool for every one of them.

It doubles as a clays load as well. 7.5 is a standard sporting and skeet size, so a box of the B&P Upland Game 20ga 7/8oz 7.5 Shot works just as well on a practice round in August as it does in the field in October. Shooting the same load year round means the gun always handles the same way.

Honest notes before you buy

This is a 2 3/4 inch shell, which is the standard modern 20 gauge length and fits essentially every 20 gauge made in the last century. If your gun is a vintage 20 with 2 1/2 inch chambers, this is the wrong shell and you want a short one instead.

Know the limits. This is lead shot and it is not legal for waterfowl anywhere in the United States, nor on some public land at all. And 7.5 runs short on a late season pheasant past thirty yards, where the 5 shot version of this line is the honest answer. Carry the B&P Upland Game 20ga 7/8oz 7.5 Shot for small birds and switch for big ones.

Open chokes and light guns

Small shot at short range wants an open choke. Cylinder, skeet or improved cylinder will spread the B&P Upland Game 20ga 7/8oz 7.5 Shot into a pattern wide enough to forgive the aiming error you will make on a bird that flushes at your boots. Tight choke with this load simply makes the target harder to hit.

A 20 gauge is also the gauge people hand to new and younger shooters, and the B&P Upland Game 20ga 7/8oz 7.5 Shot is a sensible load for that. Recoil from 7/8 of an ounce is genuinely mild, so a new shooter can learn the gun without developing a flinch in the first box.

The bottom line

For quail, woodcock and everything else small and close out of a 20 gauge, the B&P Upland Game 20ga 7/8oz 7.5 Shot is the load you will shoot the most of. You can read more about the bullet design at swiftbullets.com, or browse the rest of our stock on the MAG5 Firearms ammunition page.

MAG5 Firearms keeps the B&P Upland Game 20ga 7/8oz 7.5 Shot in stock and moving, and we are glad to talk through bullet choice before you order. If you are working up a load for a new rifle, a single box of the B&P Upland Game 20ga 7/8oz 7.5 Shot is a sensible place to start.