Birdshot is a type of shotgun ammunition loaded with small pellets, and it’s used primarily for hunting birds and small game, shooting clay targets, and pest control. The pellets range from about 1mm to 3.8mm in diameter depending on the shot size, with each size suited to different animals and shooting situations. It’s the most common category of shotgun ammunition sold in the United States.
Hunting Birds and Small Game
Birdshot gets its name from its original purpose: bringing down birds in flight. The small pellets spread into a wide pattern after leaving the barrel, which makes hitting a fast-moving target far more realistic than trying to aim a single projectile. Different pellet sizes match different game, and choosing the right one matters for both effectiveness and ethics.
For small, light birds like dove and quail, #7.5 or #8 shot works well. These sizes contain 350 to 410 pellets per ounce, creating a dense cloud that compensates for the relatively fragile targets. Grouse, partridge, and rabbit also fall into this range, with #6 and #7 shot offering a good balance of pellet count and individual pellet energy. For larger, tougher birds like wild pheasants, prairie chickens, and chukars, hunters step up to #4 or #5 shot. These larger pellets carry more energy per pellet, which is necessary to cleanly take down birds with heavier body mass and denser feathers. Turkey hunting typically calls for #4, #5, or #6 shot, since turkeys are large and often shot at greater distances.
The general rule is straightforward: smaller birds get smaller shot, bigger birds get bigger shot. Using pellets that are too small on a large bird risks wounding without killing, while oversized pellets on small birds reduce your pattern density and make misses more likely.
Clay Target Sports
Trap, skeet, and sporting clays are the three main clay target disciplines, and all of them use birdshot. Most clay target loads are filled with #7.5, #8, or #9 pellets. These small sizes are ideal because breaking a clay disc doesn’t require much individual pellet energy, so the priority shifts to throwing as many pellets as possible into a tight, consistent pattern.
Skeet shooters typically use #9 shot, which packs around 585 pellets per ounce, since targets are relatively close. Trap and sporting clays shooters often prefer #7.5 or #8 shot for targets at longer distances. Competitive trap shooters sometimes use loads with higher antimony content (4% to 6%) in the lead pellets, which makes them harder and helps maintain rounder shapes for more uniform patterns. Pre-season practice at a clay range is one of the most effective ways bird hunters sharpen their shooting before the season opens.
How Pellet Size Affects Performance
Birdshot sizes run on a counterintuitive scale: smaller numbers mean larger pellets. A #9 pellet is tiny, while a #2 pellet is substantially larger. Here’s how common sizes line up with their typical uses:
- #9: Skeet shooting (585 pellets per ounce)
- #8: Dove, quail, trap, sporting clays (410 pellets per ounce)
- #7.5: Grouse, partridge, rabbit, dove, quail, trap, sporting clays (350 pellets per ounce)
- #7: Squirrel, grouse, partridge, rabbit (300 pellets per ounce)
- #6: Turkey, squirrel, grouse, partridge, rabbit (225 pellets per ounce)
- #5: Turkey, pheasant (170 pellets per ounce)
- #4: Turkey (135 pellets per ounce)
The tradeoff is always the same: fewer, heavier pellets hit harder individually but leave more gaps in the pattern. More, lighter pellets cover a wider area but each one carries less energy. Matching the right size to the right game is the core skill of choosing birdshot.
Choke Tubes and Pattern Control
A shotgun’s choke, a slight narrowing at the end of the barrel, works together with birdshot to control how wide or tight the pellet pattern spreads. Chokes don’t make pellets fly farther. They control the density of the pattern at a given distance.
For close-range shooting like quail hunting in thick brush, an improved cylinder choke keeps the pattern wide so you have a better chance of connecting on a quick, close shot. For turkey hunting, where shots may be at 30 to 40 yards, a full choke squeezes the pattern tight to concentrate as many pellets as possible on the target. Trap and skeet shooters select chokes based on the station and expected target distance. Getting the choke-and-shot-size combination right is what separates clean kills from frustrating misses.
Lead, Steel, and Non-Toxic Alternatives
Lead has been the traditional birdshot material for centuries, but it’s toxic to waterfowl and other birds that ingest spent pellets from wetland sediment. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service began phasing in a ban on lead shot for waterfowl hunting in the 1987-88 season, and the ban went nationwide in 1991. If you’re hunting ducks, geese, swans, or coots, you must use non-toxic shot. Some states extend non-toxic requirements to other species or specific public lands as well.
Steel shot is the most affordable non-toxic option, but it’s less dense than lead, which means each pellet carries less energy downrange. Hunters often compensate by going up one or two shot sizes when switching from lead to steel. Steel works fine on doves, quail, and preserve pheasants, but it struggles to cleanly take down larger, hard-flying wild birds at extended range.
Bismuth is roughly 23% denser than steel, which gives it better energy retention at distance and tighter patterns. It’s also soft enough to safely use in older shotguns with fixed chokes, which can be damaged by steel. Tungsten blends sit at the top of the performance ladder. Because tungsten is denser than lead, hunters can use smaller pellet sizes while maintaining lethal energy, which results in denser patterns and better hit probability. A #2 tungsten pellet carries significantly more energy than a #2 steel pellet of the same diameter. The downside is cost: tungsten loads are the most expensive option by a wide margin.
Why Birdshot Isn’t Recommended for Self-Defense
Some people consider birdshot for home defense, reasoning that it won’t overpenetrate walls and endanger people in other rooms. The problem with this logic is that if birdshot can’t reliably penetrate drywall, it also can’t reliably stop a threat. Penetration is a necessary component of incapacitation. As a birdshot pattern expands, each individual pellet becomes less effective against a human-sized target, and birdshot starts out less effective than standard defensive loads. Buckshot, particularly 00 buck with eight pellets, remains the standard recommendation for shotgun-based home defense.
The Medical Term: Birdshot Chorioretinopathy
If you searched “birdshot” in a medical context, you may be looking for birdshot chorioretinopathy, a rare inflammatory eye disease. It gets its name because an eye exam reveals cream and orange oval spots on the retina that resemble the scattered pattern of birdshot pellets. It’s a chronic form of inflammation affecting the back of the eye, and it can lead to permanent vision changes or complete vision loss if untreated.
The first signs are typically floaters or blurred vision. Unlike many eye inflammations, it doesn’t usually cause pain or redness. Other symptoms include decreased peripheral vision, difficulty judging depth, night blindness, problems distinguishing colors, and sensitivity to bright lights or glare. It’s a serious condition that requires ongoing management by an eye specialist.