Hey, I just finished the last Chukkar hunt of the year using my BP 12 Guage shells. The over-all report is that they work perfectly. I had two basic loads. One was a 90 grain load with 2F and 11/8oz of #7 shot. This was a very light load that didn't kill well beyond 30 yards. Great for skeet though. It was slow enough that leads had to be extended quit a bit on stations 3 and 4 of the skeet range. The other load was 100 grains of 3f and 11/4oz of #71/2 shot. This was a heavy load, maybe 31/2 dram equiv or more. It killed exceptionally well out to 40 plus yards. Big shot of the day was a long 45 yard shot at a bird that had flushed to my left. I had to wait for the bird to clear several Yucca and creosote plants and when I finally got a shot at him it was from the back. One shot and he went down stone dead. Post mortum on all 6 birds killed showed excellent penetration and a good number of hits.
Clean up was a breeze. 5 minutes max including pulling the choke tubes and relubing them with anti-sieze. This was tons of fun. I think all of my upland game shooting will be with BP shells for quite some time. Ya gotta be ready for the noise though. Geez, that boom is huuuuuuge! The smoke is pretty thick too. Fortunately, we had a good breeze yesterday. If any of you are thinking about trying this and need some pointers, I'd be happy to pass on what I have discovered.
R J Talley