andersoncn wrote:Thanks guys. Are ya'll having any difficulty with killing ducks with such a small pellet (9 or 9.5)? Does that shot size drop them dead or do you have any cripples? I understand the ballistics and tissue penetration depths are far superior to steel, lead, and HS, etc. but the pellet size is so small I wonder if it has less tissue damage. Thoughts?
The guy who shoots more ducks than anyone I know with TSS uses strictly 9-1/2 and 9 for all his duck loads, and 8-1/2 for long range snow geese. He mostly shoots 3/4 oz of 9-1/2 in 12 gauge. He just bought several pounds of 10s to see how they do for small and medium size ducks.
There's a group of guys out in CA that shoot a ton of big ducks with TSS in 28 gauges using 9s mostly. One of the guys routinely calls to report what he found after the last hunt. The first time he went down to 9-1/2s he called to tell me how he shot at a crossing 65 yd pintail and folded him like a wet dishrag.
I shoot a handful of ducks every year and several turkeys, with 9-1/2s in small bore guns. The damage done is significantly more than traditional size pellets of traditional shot. Friends killed 50 big ducks a couple years ago with TSS 9-1/2 x Steel 3s, and carefully examined to see the damage, after noticing a lot fewer cripples by adding just 1/4 oz of small TSS to their favorite steel load. The found lots of steel still inside the ducks but no TSS.
Over the years I've learned to trust the math when it comes to TSS and shotshell performance.