The Most Popular Shotgun Cartridge Brands Revealed for 2017

The Game Shooting Census by GunsOnPegs and Strutt & Parker asked its 11,000 respondents, do you have a loyalty to a particular cartridge brand?

40% of people said they have a loyalty to a particular shotgun cartridge brand, a figure that is increasing each year.

The sample pool increased this year, with the help of members of BASC, Countryside Alliance & The GWCT, so it is not possible to compare with previous years but these results give you each of the cartridge brand's market share within game shooting.

Cartridge preferences change with age… 

With guns under the age of 55, Gamebore are proportionately stronger with a 32.4% share of the market, followed by Hull (21.5%) and Eley (19.3%).

With guns over 55 years old the order is reversed, Eley are the largest brand with 24.4%, Hull have a 23.7% share and Gamebore have 21% of the market.

The marketing efforts of Gamebore over recent years, with products such as the Black Gold Dark Storm, have given them particular success with younger age groups.

Does the amount we spend on cartridges make a difference? 

Interestingly, Hull come out on top for those who spend more than £10,000 a year on their shooting. 25.9% use Hull, 24.3% use Gamebore, but only 12.6% use Eley. However, Gamebore have significantly increased their share of the market of big spenders in the last year.

Hull users purchased an average of 13 days last season, whereas Gamebore users only purchased an average of 8 days and Eley only 7.

Of the GunsOnPegs members surveyed, the average planned spend of a Hull shooter this year is £6,926, up by £400 from last year. The average spend of a Gamebore customer is now £7,871, up massively from £5,986 last year. For Eley, their average customer spends £5,043 a season on game shooting, up from £4,625 from last year.

Hull Cartridge have a strong following with the wealthier spenders and their High Pheasant Extreme has helped them maintain this.

What are the best shotgun cartridge's for Grouse?

Each of the main cartridge brands has launched a product to focus on specific quarries in recent years but Hull stole the march on Gamebore with their Driven Grouse cartridge by a season and this is shown here. With those who shot grouse last season, 27.4% use Hull, 22.4% use Gamebore and 16.3% use Eley.

Hull's Driven Grouse cartridge helped them steal the march on Gamebore in this sector.

Does the gun matter?

If you shoot an over and under, you're even more likely to have a loyalty to Gamebore with 30.7% of all o/u shots compared with Hull at 20.8% and Eley with a 19.6% share. If you shoot a side by side though, Hull have the greatest loyalty at 27%, followed by 26.1% for Eley and only 18.4% for Gamebore who have recently launched their Regal Game cartridge to try and close this gap.

Gamebore's Regal Game is their new cartridge aimed at targeting Hull's loyal side by side shots.

Brands outside the big three?

Lyalvale Express were once considered one of the most popular brands to use but seem to have fallen away and now have almost the same market share as RC who do virtually no marketing here in the UK. RC are probably most well known for their Sipe cartridge which has a very loyal following amongst some high bird shots. Their market share does not seem to be changing that much in recent years though.

We asked an expert for his thoughts on the results. Charlie Bull, owner of JustCartridges.com, a site that will deliver cartridges to your door, said: "Our sales very much reflect the statistics from the survey. We find that game shooters in particular want what they want and they are rarely swayed in to changing brands – it’s all about confidence in the product."

Just Cartridges' Xtreme Game cartridge is loaded by Gamebore but sells at an incredibly competitive price.

As many people have said, if you put it in the right place it doesn't matter what you're using, but a good performance usually starts in your head. If you're confident in your gun and cartridge, you'll shoot better and that's a fact.

If we can make one suggestion to everyone though, take some boxes of varying loads of cartridges, of different brands if you can, and try them on a clay ground with various chokes (if you have that luxury) and ranges, and find out what suits your gun and you. Even better, pattern plate them!

Charlie Bull of JustCartridges.com concurs: "Our best advice is as you say, pattern test a variety of products to find which one suits your gun best. And if you are getting on well with a particular product, don’t change for the sake of it, because your choice of cartridge will be the first thing to get the blame!”

At the end of the day, it's the clean killing of the quarry that matters and nothing else...

The Game Shooting Census is a collaboration between GunsOnPegs and Strutt & Parker, producing the biggest survey in game shooting each year, giving wonderful insight into the sport and the trends that develop.