It's been so long since I've had a chance to hunt wild quail that I don't remember what size shot we used in the old days. I'm going to OK next month, and was planning to use the same 1.25 oz load of 8 shot that I use on doves. Now the outfitter is telling us not to bring #8 shot; he gets too many cripples from hunters using 8s.

But then he also said that most of his hunters used a 20 gauge, so I'm thinking that issue is more likely that they are using 7/8 oz loads of 8s.

I remember using 6 shot on quail late in the season, but I think we mainly used 7.5 and 8 back in the 60s and 70s. What say the aldeer experts? I'm gonna load some shells using Unique instead of my usual Green Dot because I know the Unique is less likely affected by cold weather. I thought of mixing some shot sizes; not sure if that's a good idea or not.