My son and I will be hunting Chukar and Pheasant in March. I normally use No. 6 shot for Pheasant, and have never hunted Chukar. My plan was to just use No. 6 since we don't know what will come up. We'll be hunting western Kansas.

Is there any reason to bring both No. 6 and No. 7 1/2?

I would go straight 6's..... Or even 5's since its late season and the pheasant might flush a bit far.....

And if you are going to use factory, shoot Fiocchi Golden Pheasant loads. Nickel-plated hard shot that penetrates well and patterns well from every gun I have tried it in. Available in 5s or 6s. I use both and typically shoot 15 or 20 pheasant each year

Since you are hunting in March, I assume that you will be hunting game farm birds. If so, they tend to get up closer than wild birds and light loads of 7 1/2 shot will work fine. Same for chukar.

465H&H

Wild chukar in the mountains or preserve chukar? For wild chukar in the mountains and other difficult terrain I just use the same 5 or 6 shot size and load I use for pheasants. Wild chukar are hard to hit and can be flushing out far. In chukar country here in Hawaii we can run into Erkel's francolin that are large like pheasants and tougher. So I just use the same handload for both.

For preserve chukar 7 1/2 would probably be fine most places (I'll admit I've only shot preserve chukar once and it was not hard).

I load 32gr UK #3 for geese and 28gr UK#7.5 for all other game birds in SA including Guineafowl. I use lead shot. In fact the biggest Spurwing I shot was a high flying bird and I used the 28gr load and the full choke on my O/U. That bird was HUGE! Use what gives a good pattern and avoid long shots. Enjoy your shoot.

Forgot to mention that I shot Chuckar in Cyprus and we used 28gr trap loads 7.5's. I borrowed my cousins gun and it did not fit me well but it sure put the birds down. Trust me the Chuckar in Cyprus are VERY gun shy so shots were around 40yds

+1 for #6 shot. It's worked well for me for the last 27 years. If you expect farther shots, just change your choke tube if your gun allows. If it doesn't, go and buy one that does.

Got back from our hunt with Pheasants Galore Hunting Service in Sublette, Kansas. The weather turned ugly on us, 15 degrees and sleet blowing sideways, but the hunt was a good one. Even though we had good dogs, the pheasant did a great deal of running as if this wasn't the first time they had been hunted. We bagged nine, missed that many, and saw that many more that we never got close to.

The chukar were just released birds, but flew well, and certainly used the wind to their advantage.

The hunting year closes for PGHS this coming weekend, but I would recommend them to anyone, and will probably hunt with them again late this year. Kyle Simmons was an excellent host/guide. He used short-haired pointers, britteny spaniels, and a lab as his flusher. The dogs knew their business.

We hunted the full package combined hunt; 6 pheasant and 20 chukar per gun, for $710 each.
The accommodations and meals were very good. I have no complaint.

That drive back to Amarillo Sunday was a bitch. It was iced over solid down to Pampa. Drove past a number of overturned trucks, and had a guy towing a U-Haul trailer get loose in front of us, coming our way. He was lucky. He did a 360, got onto the shoulder, came back onto the road, straightened it out, still had the trailer behind him, and kept coming. My son said the driver and his wife had eyes as big as dinner plates. (Got back into Dallas and learned a friend had just received word his grandson had been killed in a weather-related car accident in Kansas.)