B&P Upland Game 28ga 1oz 5 Shot – Great Pheasant Load

Description

A full ounce of shot in a 28 gauge is not the normal state of affairs, and that is precisely the point of the B&P Upland Game 28ga 1oz 5 Shot. The standard 28 gauge payload is three quarters of an ounce. This load carries a third more, in the largest pellet size B&P offers for the gauge, which turns a light bird gun into something that handles pheasant properly.

• An ounce out of a 28 is a real load
• Full specifications
• Why anyone hunts pheasant with a 28
• Honest notes before you buy
• Recoil and choke in a light gun
• The bottom line

An ounce out of a 28 is a real load

Consider what that means. A full ounce of shot is what a 20 gauge field load typically carries and what many 12 gauge upland shells carry. Getting it out of a 28 gauge hull at 1210 feet per second gives the B&P Upland Game 28ga 1oz 5 Shot payload parity with much larger guns, in a gun that weighs five and a half pounds.

Number 5 is the other half of the equation. It is a big pellet, roughly 170 of them in an ounce, each carrying enough energy at thirty five yards to break a pheasant wing. Smaller shot in a 28 gauge runs out of authority on a big bird, and the B&P Upland Game 28ga 1oz 5 Shot does not.

Full specifications

• Caliber: 28 gauge, 2 3/4 inch shell
• Bullet weight: 1 ounce of lead, 5 shot grain
• Bullet: 5 shot hunting load
• Muzzle velocity: 1210 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: 25 rounds per box

The 28 gauge has an unusually good reputation for patterning, which shooters have argued about for a century. The most credible explanation is the bore to payload ratio producing a short, stable shot column that deforms fewer pellets. Whatever the mechanism, it means the B&P Upland Game 28ga 1oz 5 Shot patterns better than the numbers suggest it should.

Why anyone hunts pheasant with a 28

Weight, mostly. A 28 gauge double runs a pound lighter than a 20 and closer to two pounds lighter than a 12. Over eight miles of CRP that is the difference between hunting well at the end of the day and dragging. With a load like the B&P Upland Game 28ga 1oz 5 Shot you are no longer giving up much in return.

Handling is the other half. A light gun comes to the shoulder faster and swings quicker, which is worth real birds on a rooster that flushes wild. The B&P Upland Game 28ga 1oz 5 Shot means you can carry that gun into late season without feeling undergunned.

Honest notes before you buy

This is a 2 3/4 inch shell, the standard 28 gauge length, so it fits every 28 gauge in normal use. There is no short chamber concern with this gauge the way there is with old 12 and 20 bores.

Two limits. This is lead shot, not legal for waterfowl anywhere in the United States and banned outright on some public land. And number 5 is too large for quail or woodcock at close range, where 170 pellets leave gaps a small bird can fly through. For those, the 6 or 7.5 shot versions of this line pattern far better than the B&P Upland Game 28ga 1oz 5 Shot does.

Recoil and choke in a light gun

An ounce of shot in a five and a half pound gun kicks. Not badly, but noticeably more than the three quarter ounce loads most 28 gauge shooters are used to. The B&P Upland Game 28ga 1oz 5 Shot is a hunting shell rather than a load you will shoot two hundred of, and a day in the field will not bother you.

Choke wants to be modified or tighter. With 170 pellets and a bird as tough as a pheasant, you want the pattern held together out to thirty five yards. Pattern the B&P Upland Game 28ga 1oz 5 Shot on paper before the season and count what lands inside thirty inches at the range you expect to shoot.

The bottom line

For pheasant and larger upland birds out of a 28 gauge, the B&P Upland Game 28ga 1oz 5 Shot is the load that closes the gap with the bigger gauges. 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 28ga 1oz 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 28ga 1oz 5 Shot is a sensible place to start.