Black Powder Shotgun Basics

[Dick Dastardly]

This isn't what I was lookin' for, but I found it so interesting that I brought it over here for consideration.  A lot of what is said carries over to our CAS shotguns and bp ammo.

http://members.aye.net/~bspen/shotgun.html

Enjoy!

DD-DLoS

[Sunwapta Haze]

Thanks for posting the link, Dick.  There be some valuable information.

[Paladin UK]

Ho Dick.......
Great article, that dipper what was shown  is very similar to my little beauties!!





I got them at an arms fair 2 yrs ago and use them fer reloadin my scatterguns

Paladin (What lurvs his dippers ) UK

[sundance44`s]

Nice pic of a dubble rock lock too !

[Sunwapta Haze]

So I gets to thinking that I could use this information to get a better pattern out of my old SxS.  This beauty hammered scattergun was manufactured in 1883 but sometime between it's makin and my git'n the barrels lost 2 inches in length.  So what ever choke, if any, is long gone.  I know she blows a wide pattern with the loads I been using. 

I use MagTech brass hulls with Circle Fly card and wad components.  My normal load is 4 cc of FFg pushing 4 cc of 7.5 shot.

My hypothesis - if'n I  use 1/3 more lead than powder and one shot size bigger (#6) I should get an improved pattern.  And just for good measure I'll try some shot cups too.  But I don't want to go out and buy a bunch of plastic wads that I hope never to have to use so I make up some shot cups from card stock. I also decide to test adding more shot to the powder load I been using against reducing the powder charge under my normal shot load.

And the results are ...

• increasing the shot load (5.3cc) and holding the powder charge (4cc) made no difference
• holding the shot load (4cc) and decreasing the powder charge (3cc) tightened the pattern
• using one shot size larger tightens the pattern
• using shot cups tightens the pattern but ...

Three of the test loads with the shot cups resulted in effectively making a slug load while two provided nice tight pattrens.  I surmize that because the shot cups did not have any slits in them that they did not disengage from the shot column.  I'll make up some more cups with some slits to allow them to open up and see what happens.  I'll post the results later.

But for now, the bottom line is that a square load is not the best load for my old SxS.  Reducing the powder charge will not only give me a better pattern it will reduce my costs as well.  How good is that !