So I picked up 3 boxes of them, 12ga, 2¾, max (1330fps), 1¼oz, #5. I hoped to use them for squirrel and rabbit.
From my 26" mossberg, with F, M, and IC, they failed to produce quality patterns at 30, 35, and 40 yards. Maybe at 30 with the IC, they were tight enough for birds, but would likely only place one or two pellets on a squirrel.
I noticed the wad is a special 2 piece design, which on the tighter chokes, separates and breaks up, causing worse patterns than the IC.
We tested them against clays as well, and found with the IC they did, in practice, breaks clays at longer distances than my go-to walmart bulk pack winchester #7½. We left the pattern board up at 50 yards, and tried to throw the clays low and straight out to make actually hitting them easy, so we could wait and get them to fly out further. The hi-birds did seem to break to about 35-40 yards, where the winchesters would only make it to about 30, despite their pattern on paper suggesting them being a 40yard load.
I found the federal game-shok #5, 1¼oz, 1220fps to pattern better with a full choke, being a traditional cup wad. They put far more pellets, nearly double the density on the board. We had much greater success grenading clays with them than the two previously mentioned loads. They either grenaded it, or it landed unscathed (obviously the skill of the shooter caused the clean-miss) due to the tight patterns.
Yes I switched chokes up, but I wanted to compare the tightest possible pattern of my gun and shell combo. Quite frankly I don't care which choke I hunt with, so long as it provides the necessary pattern to bag the game. Normally I have good success with the federal and winchester high brass, regular wad, #4s or heavy dove loads in 7½ using a mod choke for squirrel and dove respectively.
To conclude the ramblings of a madman, has anyone had success with the hi-bird shells? What is producing the best patterns for you in #4 or 5 shot without moving to turkey loads (which is wholly inappropriate for squirrel)? Anyone tried prairie-storm (flightcontrol birdshot)? I have a hard time ponying up the money for prairie-storm which might actually be too tight for closer shots.