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View Full Version : BP shot shells 10 and 2



omgb
02-11-2006, 11:45 PM
I went out shooting Chuckar the last two days using my BP shot shells. 10 shots dropped 10 chuckar. 2 birds were clean misses. The boom is outrageous. Guys want to know what gauge cannon I'm shooting. I'm loving this to death.

Buckshot
02-12-2006, 08:39 AM
..................Have to admit, there IS something special about it, isn't there? Just keep thinking that as you stand there at the kitchen sink scrubbing cases :-)

Didja gitcher MkI Mod 2 wad masher dealie back yet?

...............Buckshot

omgb
02-12-2006, 11:22 AM
MkI Mod 2 Wad Masher is super! I'll be using it tonight. As to the cases, I'm a lazy buck. I de-cap them and put them in a large plastic jug filled with hot soapy water. I shake for a few moments and pour it all out. Then I add a pint of vinigar and a pint of tap water. I shake to mix and let stand for 5-10 minutes. I drain them, rinse in hot water and set out to dry in the sun.

I found that to duplicate the velocities from early 20th century loads I either have to use almost 120 grains of GOEX 2F or, I have to use 100 grains of 3F. The old dram measures that I have don't toss a heavy enough charge. I suspect that if I used Swiss powder the measures would work. Swiss seems to give about 10-15% higher velocity than GOEX. However, since I get GOEX at about 11 bucks a pound verses almost 19 bucks for Swiss, I'm sticking with GOEX. Also, to get a good full pattern, I've begun using 11/4 oz of #7 shot as opposed to 11/8 oz. The extra .25 oz fills in some of the holes in the pattern. I was shooting over dogs so I set my gun up using IC and Mod chokes. Two birds were taken out at 35 yards give or take so this combination does work.


There is another point I keep mulling over as well. I don't hink I'd use these shells in dry rushes or in some of the dry sunflower fields I hunt in. A whole lot of fire and smoke comes out of those tubes (I've shot skeet at night with them....very spectacular) and I'm concerned about fire.

Any way, load of fun (pun very much intended).

Buckshot
02-13-2006, 09:46 AM
................1-1/4 oz. Ouch! You're wise for being fire conscience but I really doubt that is a consideration. I've never read anything about there being a fire danger unles you were using newspaper as wadding. If I'm not mistaken the cardwads are treated with something as a fire retardent. None of Sam Fadala's stuff (or anything else I've read) on BP shotguns mentioned the problem, except as noted.

Not too long out of high school the guy I grew up with and I got into BP shotguns. Rather he did, and I kinda followed. At that time there were adds everywhere for these cheap Spanish single barreld shotguns. I suppose you could as easily call then smooth bored muskets too. They were all percussion and cost like $49 or somesuch. Cheap enough so a kid with a few lawn mowing jobs could buy one anyway.

I was set anyway, job or not. I had my great grandfather's Wm Moore double 12 guage. My buddy Steve had bought one of the $49 specials and I think it was purported to be a 32 guage. Neither of us had much money for such nicities as wads of any sort so we used newspaper. On top of that, we never did buy any shot. My dad was a pressman and could bring linotype by the pickup truck load.

Our motus de shotmaking was to fire up a gasoline torch and melt lead in a tuna can held by pliers. We'd then climb up a stepladder and slowly pour it out into a bucket of water. Obviously one of us had read somewhere about shot towers, but I can't remember which one of us. Our shot WAS more round then not, but mostly bore a striking resemblance to teardrops.

I suppose we'd have had as much fun with firecrackers, but we WERE shooting. We went out hunting rattlesnakes one time up by Cajon Pass, in Devore. Naturally we never did pattern our shots, nor were our shot charges measured. I had a shotgun powderflask with an adjustable nozzle by 1/4 dram charges (goes up to 4 I think).

Our shot and possibles bags were a couple of our mom's old purses :). Of course we had them doctored to the point they were barely recognizeable as such. You'd just reach in a cup a correct looking amount in the palm of your hand, then pour it down the barrel on top of the newspaper wad, then put in some more newspaper and tamp it down.

I'll never forget we were walking down this dirt road on the side of this little hill. Off to our right was a creek thick with Sycamore trees. We rounded a corner and there was a big old rattlesnake stretched out crossing the road. I'd guess it was maybe 20-25 yards away, and both Steve and I shouted 'SNAKE!" at the same time. I raised the shotgun having cocked the right hammer and I was bringing it to my shoulder with my finger on the trigger.

I have a snapshot in my mind to this day of sighting down the barrels and squeezing the trigger as Steve pushed the barrels aside yelling, wait! He wanted to get closer. I just about fainted right there on the spot. If I'd have fired it would have cut him in half. I was really pissed off. He was oblivious. All he was excited about was making a big smoking hole in the road where the snakes head used to be.

Our guessed at, drop shot loads probably had holes you could fit a house in, but they'd sure do a number on trees. Birds being much more pleantiful then snakes, and us wanting to shoot made them the target of choice. Have one land in a tree and 3 charges of that drop shot whistling through and there'd be leaves and twigs galore showering down. You could just about de-foliate a small one with both barrels.

..................Buckshot

trooperdan
02-13-2006, 11:04 AM
Great story Buckshot! I kinda sense how you got your screen handle now! :)

omgb
02-13-2006, 11:41 PM
My loading process for the shells is a tad wierd. First, I knock the primers out using a Lee decapper. Then I wash the cases as I stated above. After sun drying, I take a Lee flash whole cleaner and clean out any ash. (The first time I loaded them I used a Lyman flash hole uniformer and deburring tool just to make things all the same) I re-prime using an old 19th century priming tool and magnum large pistol primers. Then, using a Belding and Mull powder measure, I drop the charges into the cases. An 11 GA nitro card goes in next. Then comes 1 full and one split 1/2" fiber wad (11 GA). These I pre-lube using a home brew of lard, bee's wax, lanolin and Jojoba oil. I just heat the mix in the microwave and dip each wad. I have to use the 11 GA wads becase the brass cases are so much thinner than paper. The larger diameter helps to seal the bore better. The next step is compression and filling the case with shot. For this I use an old Eagle brand single stage shot shell press. I place a penny over the wad column and place it all under the wad compression station. I then compress with 40 lbs of pressure. I knock out the penny (it was just to keep the wad from getting punctured by the compression rod) and at the same station, drop the shot charge using the 11/4 oz bushing. I then take the case, seat an over-shot card wad and using my super-duper MK1 Model 2 wad compressor, seat the card wad 1/8" below the case mouth. A small sticky disk with the load typed on it is seated over the card and three drops of thick CA (super glue) is used to lock the card wad over the shot. I can do about 25 cases per 1/2 hour if they are already cleaned and dried.

August
02-14-2006, 11:05 AM
Yessir, we've had a few brush fires start up at cowboy shoots when bp shotguns are used. Pretty interesting to see twenty, or so buckaroos stomping and carrying on to get the fire out. Be careful!

9.3X62AL
02-15-2006, 08:03 PM
I can now assert that Buckshot's famed "Asperly Aimless" had a precursor--"Steve and Richard's Seven Foot Shot Tower". It all makes sense now.

Once in a while I get a hankering for one of those 10 or 12 bore S x S muzzle loading shotguns--don't ask me to explain that, I have enough shotguns that feed shells to equip a rural county for a dove seaon opener. That BOOM from The Holy Black can't be duplicated by the smokeless fuel, no way/no how. Add in the fire-starting potential, and it's just a natural-born necessity.