Field report of my first experience using TSS

[Fishh2o]

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?

9.5s have been good for early season so far for me. you can never avoid cripples but with TSS it sure is a lot less.

[andersoncn]

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?

9.5s have been good for early season so far for me. you can never avoid cripples but with TSS it sure is a lot less.

Thanks Fishh2o. By "early season" are you referring to early teal/wood ducks? Have you or anyone you know done well with them for larger birds like mallards? If so, mainly for decoying birds or is a #9.5 TSS effective for pass shooting? Thanks!

[hawglips]

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.

[Dave in AZ]

good report Hawglips, thx!

[hawglips]

One other incident that happened with a turkey this past spring that addresses your question about small pellets vs larger. It wasn't me that was the shooter, but a guy who has been shooting TSS at turkeys for about 7 or 8 years now.

I typically recommend 9s for the 20 ga turkey loads, but the hunter was loaded with 8-1/2s in a 20 ga. The turkey stuck his head out from behind at tree, about 35 yds away. The hunter shot, and the turkey flew up into a tree about 100 yds away.

After about 10 minutes the turkey fell dead out of the tree. He noticed that the turkey's head and neck had been hit multiple times, so carefully examined and skinned the head and neck out of curiosity. He found that 15 pellets had hit the turkey's head and neck. Amazed that the turkey didn't immediately die, he took the head and neck to boil the flesh off the bones to see the damage done to the skull and vertebrae. He found that somehow the turkey's skull and vertebrae had not been hit by any of the 15 pellets.

The moral of the story? He should have been using 9s, where the chances of hitting a vital directly would have been 20% higher.