Advise on cartridges

Hi All

Fairly new here so here goes...

I wish to buy some cartridges for club sporting shoots. I have never bought cartridges in bulk before just purchased them when i turn up at a shoot hence given whatever they have at the ground. Obviously as with every shooter, we all wish to improve and be more consistent with gun mount, stance and cartridge etc. so I thought I'd try a decent cartridge now and stick with it.

Not knowing too much about the different brands of cartridges I would really appreciate peoples views on which cartridge to try for sporting that has promoted confidence and decent kills for the shooter (obviously skill level is also a massive factor here). I'm not concerned about price at the moment as I wish to take on board the comments, characteristics, recoil and feel of the cartridge to begin with. I would need felt wads as this is the requirement of most grounds I go to.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

crj007 said:

Hi All

Fairly new here so here goes...

I wish to buy some cartridges for club sporting shoots. I have never bought cartridges in bulk before just purchased them when i turn up at a shoot hence given whatever they have at the ground. Obviously as with every shooter, we all wish to improve and be more consistent with gun mount, stance and cartridge etc. so I thought I'd try a decent cartridge now and stick with it.

Not knowing too much about the different brands of cartridges I would really appreciate peoples views on which cartridge to try for sporting that has promoted confidence and decent kills for the shooter (obviously skill level is also a massive factor here). I'm not concerned about price at the moment as I wish to take on board the comments, characteristics, recoil and feel of the cartridge to begin with. I would need felt wads as this is the requirement of most grounds I go to.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

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Seem to have two posts - felt wad I like Sovereigns - expensive but I rarely have to use felt wad so when I do I want a very good one that is smooth and does not give a lot of confetti.  

I use Fiocchi TT One fibre, good price, good cartridge, fibre is good because a lot of clubs demand fibre, plus inviomentally friendly. 

Oldblaster said:

I use Fiocchi TT One fibre, good price, good cartridge, fibre is good because a lot of clubs demand fibre, plus inviomentally friendly. 

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I shoot these at my local shoot and they work well...also pretty soft for a fibre.

Try as many as possible and stick with what you find most comfortable, and on the fibre wad side if it pops and farts try another make or model.

paul b said:

Try as many as possible and stick with what you find most comfortable, and on the fibre wad side if it pops and farts try another make or model.

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Agreed. Buy and try a slab of a different brand and/or "model" at a time.

Like you I mostly shoot fibres, I did a fairly long term test a couple of years ago. Over a period of some months, I tried Express Power Blue/Red; Fiocchi fBlacks and Trap Ones; Ely Olympics; Kent Velocities and a few others I've forgotten now and I ended up with Hull Superfast Fibres.

A lot depends on what's easily available in your location and what criteria you place at the top of your list. I found the Hulls to be reliable (not had a single misfire/fault in a couple of years using them) They are sensibly priced, pretty clean, fast and not thumpy. 

One thing's for sure, unless you're competing at top level, I would stick to the low to mid priced offerings. 

I use white gold in fibre and even at my lowly standard they are noticeably better to me than Velocity Plus and worth 70 per thou more for the few I shoot ( no more than 5k per year)

i find the evo fibre to be no better than velocity plus, they sit exactly in the middle price wise so I'm not comvinced about the 'mid range' option, it feels to me like wine list scenario.  Using these felt like a waste of 35 quid, although I really liked the 24g in plastic before I went all tree hugger..

these days I buy cheap and available. Sporting targets, pigeon and rook don't seem to tell any difference if I miss them with expensive or cheap cartridges ?

ips said:

these days I buy cheap and available. Sporting targets, pigeon and rook don't seem to tell any difference if I miss them with expensive or cheap cartridges ?

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You see,  yer never too old to learn  !

PP said:

I use white gold in fibre and even at my lowly standard they are noticeably better to me than Velocity Plus and worth 70 per thou more for the few I shoot ( no more than 5k per year)

i find the evo fibre to be no better than velocity plus, they sit exactly in the middle price wise so I'm not comvinced about the 'mid range' option, it feels to me like wine list scenario.  Using these felt like a waste of 35 quid, although I really liked the 24g in plastic before I went all tree hugger..

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Agree EVOs seemed nothing special for the price. Equally I never like White Gold due to recoil and then there's that price. Why did you rate them highly? The visual breaks you get?

Will Hewland said:

Agree EVOs seemed nothing special for the price. Equally I never like White Gold due to recoil and then there's that price. Why did you rate them highly? The visual breaks you get?

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Oddly, I find the recoil less than others, recoil affects me strangely as, for example comp x kill me, the slow shove rather than a crack gives headaches.

Of all the cartridges I have tried, these white gold are the ones I score best with (tied with 24g Evo in plastic which I loved ) and I just have confidence in them.  They break clays well but to be honest the breaks that are bit flakey will be purely down to me being a 70 - 80% shooter on clays.

in effort to reduce price I tried velocity plus and although they were good there were one or two targets ( mostly high tower driven or crossers at height and distance) that I could not touch whereas I usually straight the stands.  Swapped to white gold and immediately normal service was resumed.

For the time I spend clay shooting I need to be confident in cartridges and I'm sure I waste way more than 200/300 quid per year on other stuff.

im convinced that 60% of my shooting is in my head if not more so now I use white gold for clays and darkstorm for live targets (GB Bismuth for non tox) and it's one less thing to worry about.

Recently changed to velocity plus from Rio,nothing wrong with Rio just wanted another bargain banger i could turn to if my usual isn't available.i find the velocity plus an awesome cartridge for the money,great kills tad smoother than Rio,personally I'd rather save a few quid and be able to shoot a few more targets with the money I've saved!!

matt s said:

Recently changed to velocity plus from Rio,nothing wrong with Rio just wanted another bargain banger i could turn to if my usual isn't available.i find the velocity plus an awesome cartridge for the money,great kills tad smoother than Rio,personally I'd rather save a few quid and be able to shoot a few more targets with the money I've saved!!

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Exactly my thoughts. Rio, with some V+ as back up stock.. I would perhaps use V all the time if they made them in 8 shot as the recoil is nicer, agreed. But still love Rios and have every confidence in them.

Will Hewland said:

Exactly my thoughts. Rio, with some V+ as back up stock.. I would perhaps use V all the time if they made them in 8 shot as the recoil is nicer, agreed. But still love Rios and have every confidence in them.

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Good point, WG are in 8, VP 7.5.. 24g evo in plastic were also 8 ... that could be the real difference??

PP said:

Good point, WG are in 8, VP 7.5.. 24g evo in plastic were also 8 ... that could be the real difference??

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7.5s make a heavier looking kill, especially on close edgey stuff I find. And it's very visible on a pattern plate. 

Will Hewland said:

7.5s make a heavier looking kill, especially on close edgey stuff I find. And it's very visible on a pattern plate. 

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I seem to prefer 8... I've given up using pattern plate as I'm convinced that they are mis representative due to 3D nature of shot 'ball'.  Someone really needs to develop a serious of cameras to show a 3D shot cloud, that would mean something! (Although face on camera may have tough ride!)

I've given up on the pattern plate to,never seem to be able to hit it.

matt s said:

Recently changed to velocity plus from Rio,nothing wrong with Rio just wanted another bargain banger i could turn to if my usual isn't available.i find the velocity plus an awesome cartridge for the money,great kills tad smoother than Rio,personally I'd rather save a few quid and be able to shoot a few more targets with the money I've saved!!

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Unfortunately my clay shooting is constrained by free time or lack thereof rather than cash...

ips said:

these days I buy cheap and available. Sporting targets, pigeon and rook don't seem to tell any difference if I miss them with expensive or cheap cartridges ?

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This, no clay or game did QA immediately prior to watching the shot stream fly by somewhere in the distance.