16ga.com ~ View topic - RST Shells -- Field Report 2

*Last edited by LiverTick on Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:10 am; edited 1 time in total*

I came home this evening to find two flats of RST shells on my front porch. As they were ordered Thursday evening last week, I commend the folks at RST for their prompt attention to my order.

I ordered both 5's and 8's. The 8's will be put to use this weekend, with both grouse and woodcock as the quarry. I'll be running them through my Citori Lightning Feather. The 5's will have to wait a few weeks for the first of two trips to SD. I will be using both the Citori, and the new BPS Upland.

I will give a field report on the first batch of shells when I return from grouse camp.

Member Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 1522 Location: NH

I've used their 6s with great success. Just recently got a flat of 5s and I'm looking forward to trying them.

I was very pleasantly surprised with the shells. Recoil was, as expected, negligable. I had no issues with the second barrel resetting, which was my main concern. Every bird that was hit dropped solidly. I found no pellets in the meat areas of the birds, and I didn't feel much like digging through the entrails for them, so I cannot report on deformation, etc. However, as mentioned, practical terminal performance was more than adequate.

I can't wait to see how the 5's do on SD pheasants.

I came home today to find a mixed case on my doorstep. All paper. 7's and 8's. This weekend, we shoot some up.

Member Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 3438 Location: Illinois

LT---What was the shot payload of the shells Question

Sorry about that -- 1oz payload in plastic hulls.

The 5's saw some action on Sunday, when the wind was quite brisk in SD, and were exclusively used on Monday, when we saw consistent 45 mph wind with gusts to 55mph. While they did kill birds, the 1200 fps Kents with 6 shot did a more reliable job. In the interest of fairness, though, I did not shoot any Kent 6's on Monday and this is a purely subjective field report. Also, my BIL was shooting Super-X 4's from his 16 ga on Monday, and saw the same sketchy results, as did the guys shooting 12 ga, so I am willing to chalk the bulk of the performance issues to the wind factor. We saw at least one bird that was hit solidly three times that just cupped his wings and sailed into the next county. Also, the birds were a bit spooky, and most of the shots were hurried as there wasn't a lot of time between identifying the bird as a rooster and when it was woefully out of range.

Also, I noticed the 5's were a bit dirtier than the 8's I shot at grouse and woodcock earlier this season. Nothing outrageous, but noticeable.

In any case, I had no issues with the second barrel setting on my Citori. The shells fed just fine in my BIL's BPS.

In sum, I was happy with the shells, but I'd really like to see a faster 2 3/4" load from RST in the 4 to 6 sizes.

Hopefully, when I'm back in 3 weeks, I can try them on a calmer day.