An old BP load

[Hubertus]

Recently I came across an online auction for a Purdey 20 gauge breech loading shotgun. The make is about 1870 to 1880 and it’s a beautiful gun. Well, most probably I wouldn’t even buy it if I had the 10000 Euro to spare :p

But what caught my attention was a photo of a label inside the accompanying case which depicted the recommended loading. I don’t post the picture because I don’t want to infringe rights, but it reads:

“Powder: 2 3/8 drams
Shot: 7/8 ounce
Sawdust 38 grains

Purdey’s Medium Grain Powder be used.
For loading Cartridges, a thick Felt Wad must always be used over the Powder, a plain Wad over the shot, and measures skimmed, both for Powder and Shot.”

The powder, shot and sawdust is in quill written the rest is printed.

Now, may the sawdust have been used as kind of a shot buffer/protector?
There is no information about additional wads. This leads me to believe that the sawdust was used in the same compartment as the shot to prevent deformation of the shot travelling through the bore.

What is your take on this?

I think I will try some loads in my 16 GA SxS. Originally I had pondered the idea to try a load with grits as a shot buffer but under a wad like this: powder/felt or two card wads/grits/wad/shot/wad. What do you think?


Hubertus

[Ricochet]

Hubertus, have you gotten around to trying your plan yet? IMO what they were talking about is using the sawdust as a "cushion" wad over the felt and under the shot. A collapsible wad column was long thought desirable, even necessary, to "protect" the shot from the "sudden shock" of the powder "explosion." I remember ads for felt and fiber cushion wads promoting that idea when I was a kid, and when Remington/Peters' Power Piston wads came out, they really touted the springy, collapsible section between the overpowder cup and the shot cup that acted as a "shock absorber" to reduce shot deformation. When Federal came out with their version of the plastic overpowder cup and shot cup, in two pieces to bypass patent protection, they included a collapsing post on top of the overpowder cup and named it the "Pushin' Cushion." I'm in the process of loading some MagTech brass 12 gauge shells with .720" pure lead balls (for a cylinder bore.) I'm using Pyrodex RS as the propellant, and what I came up with for a wad column is a thin, stiff card punched out of a shoebox with a 3/4" arch punch over powder, and sawdust filling the space in the shell of quantity sufficient that when it's compressed as hard as I can push it in by hand the top of the ball is just under the mouth of the case, and the ball will be held in by a thick bead of wood glue around the sides, no top wad. My reasoning is that the card would pucker and collapse if pushed directly against the round base of the ball, but with the precompressed sawdust between the card and the ball the pressure will be evenly distributed and the thin card will stay flat and seal OK. It will also distribute the pressure evenly on the base of the ball so it won't deform under acceleration as some have reported the bottom of the ball flattening against wads. For loading with birdshot in the muzzleloading gun I am awaiting, I'll use a load of sawdust between two cards between the powder and the shot. Then a card on top, of course. I'd thought of other compressible granular materials, such as ground corncobs, but I could get sawdust easily for free. I thought this up on my own, but figured others must have thought of it long before me, and they have. Searching the Web turns up mentions of both sawdust and corncob being successfully used as fillers in the wad column, and W.W. Greener in his 1910 edition of "The Gun and Its Development" mentions that one English manufacturer of shotshells used oiled sawdust as a wad. Back to the Purdey you saw, 2 3/8 drams of powder is just about what you get if you dip the powder with the same measure used for 7/8 ounce of shot. I'd bet the 38 grains of sawdust is what they got when they used the same dipper on the sawdust. Equal volumes of powder, wadding and shot is an old formula that's been used successfully since the days of the flintlock fowlers. :D

Wadded paper is another old, popular filler that I was planning to use before thinking of the sawdust. It's harder to get it consistently crumpled, and some have had problems with smoldering paper falling on the ground, a fire hazard in dry vegetation. I don't think the fine sawdust, even if ignited by the powder, will make it to the ground burning. It may be a nuisance blowing back in a headwind.

I'd have already loaded and fired these things if my improvised plan of seating primers had worked, but it didn't. I had to order an RCBS Cowboy 12 ga. brass shell holder so I can use the priming arm on my Lyman press.

[Ricochet]

Ha! Just found a mention on an Australian discussion board of members of a club using oatmeal for filler wads. That was the first thing I thought of trying. But I really hate to use anything that I can eat, or have to pay for, no matter how little. :wink:

[Hubertus]

Ricochet,

Sorry for the delay in answering.
The spring time is around the corner and we'll have a little shoot at the end of April.
If all goes well and I can join I'll try some loads with grits.
Oiled sawdust, although adding more weight, might be a better choice, I agree with you. Especially during the summer months.

Lately I have been playing with my 28 gauge flintlock almost exclusively so the SxS got a little jealous - have to change that.
In the flintlock I have also tried a load with tow as a buffer but didn't get proper seal only with tow. Next time I'll try with cardboard wad and tow. That again might be worth trying in the 16 ga shell, too.

Hubertus