Best pellet for use

I'd say:  Keep it simple !  

Try this Kruza:

I went through the whole having a couple of different pellets and having drop charts, but then I found my brain just went bllarrrgh!

I cheated and voted twice for one pellet and a few.

Guys like Kruza has trained himself to carry his range finder and mildots mostly in his head and can adapt himself - OR the rifle scope - to suit the ballistics.

A target shooter wants 1000% consistency so it's always going to be that one pellet - also because mind games are critical to competitive sports so all variables must be eliminated where possible. Hell if I wanted to win the World Champs why WOULDN'T I weigh and measure and carefully select my projectiles?

A hunter puts up with sh*t conditions of all kinds and I tend to go that way - best advice (for ME) is from both Kruza and Pete. Shoot at bottle tops and if you can't het them almost every time you shouldn't shoot animals at that range. Me, I'd add an almost to the "every time" because I ain't that good and I guess I am more willing to risk a miss or much worse, wounded animal dying in misery.

But hey such deaths are sadly very very common in game bird shooting with scatter guns and I was brought up with that - why we had very well field trained dogs - and later mostly NZ Field Trial Champs in our kennels.

Now here's digression:  The Champs came to us after Dad began to be given the Champs when their trialing career was over at a time the generous Dr Leon Mortenson was usually holder of Pointer and Setter wins - except for a while one dog, Flynn, beat his trainer. Flynn likely still has lots of his genes flowing in today's English Setter gundog stock in NZ I'm guessing but he was a hard AF dog and a bit of a nutter and if he would play ball he was unbeatable in a contest or in the field. But he could also head for the hills or just ignore his master. Flynn had so much energy Leon tried an electric collar for the first time but Flynn ignored that so he tied one front leg to his collar to try and slow him down hunting quail and pheasants. Also with limited success. I loved Flynn and only a month after I named my Springer Finn did I realise I had most likely subconsciously named him after Flynn:-)

And Finn was a cracker I trained exactly as I was to train from watching the experts do it. The first time in the field near Gisborne Finn retrieved the first pheasant of the day straight to me. "He's a beaut!" said Roger, my much better skilled shooting mate and he should know because he shot that first pheasant. I had only heard the shot from the other side of the bushy gully but Finn got there before Roger's dog. It was proud Dad time!

Anyway my real and third vote goes to another option:  Pauly5's wisdom. Two pellets in an ideal world = two rifles, whether hunting or target shooting. Anything else is a compromise and I prefer heavier pellets for some jobs. Or the same pellet in both .177 and .22 to give the option.