As I just picked up a 12ga ML SxS this is a good find, thanks much.
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As I just picked up a 12ga ML SxS this is a good find, thanks much.
I bought this about 3 years ago and when it came in the mail I read it cover to cover (It's only about10 pages!). I was disappointed because all the shotguns he used he had jug choked and recommended the same. Shoot yeah, you jug choke a muzzleloader you can get some good groups but there's a way to get good groups WITHOUT messing with the barrels and he doesn't give one bit of help in load development for the straight cylinder tubed old percussion guns you're going to have.
Loading 12 ga slug. I have lyman slug mold no. 12 BX, hollow base (big), it mikes out at .705. My barrel is cy bore, the slug slides down the tube. It is too large to put it in a shot cup and load it. can I just drop it over a cardboard wad and place another cardboard wad over it, the big skirt may fill the bore on firing. I even thought of paperpatching the slug for a tight fit. Any thoughts?
Bill
Waksupi, since I made my Spanish-made Kentucky into a smoothbore, I will be trying to make some card wads. Since the cards you are using are a smidge thinner than the 3/32" recommended by Starr, do you change the number of cards you use? Or do you still use 2 cards over the powder and 1 over the shot? Thanks.
My Walmart did not have any of the heavy posterboard. I ended up buying a sheet of 20inch x 30inch Canson art board at Joann's Fabric. I thought that was thick enough, but on the micrometer it is 0.055 inches thick. The 3/32 inch from Starr is almost double that at 0.09375. After much research on the web, what is really needed is what is called "chipboard", which is cardboard that is not corrugated. Even with that, 3/32 inch is the thickest it comes. It is called 2X heavy chipboard, 85 point, 3/32 inch, which they say is about the thickness of two dimes. Just an FYI for anyone looking like I am. ALSO, can anyone tell me the year Starr wrote what he wrote? He mentions a contest that took place in 1948. So this must be written at least after that; just wondering when he wrote this.
I remember reading a reprint of his article in a black powder/hunting magazine my first year in College back in 1975, my guess would be that he wrote it sometime during the 1960's soon after the black powder boom started. I do have a question for you experts out there. I have 4 or 5 old original percussion shotguns, one is a W. Moore 12 ga, another J Hollis 12 ga, an English 16 ga, and two single bbl fowlers of English make (one 12 and the other 32 ga). They are all in pretty decent shape and I have shot them a lot, but with relatively light loads (60 grains FFG and 1 oz shot for the 12's and 50 grains FFG and 3/4 to 7/8 oz shot for the 16). Up until now all I have shot at were a few small critters and clay pigeons. My question is how heavy could I safely go if I wanted to hunt Turkey or Pheasant?
just seen this thread and am pleased...
the other forums I frequent have almost no interest in black powder. i took my sxs 12ga out for dove season this year and had lots of looks and grins. im using 1 1/4 pyrodex rs with a 1/8 nitro card and 1/4 pre-lubed wad. (just a 1/2" split in half) with 1 1/4oz #7.5 shot.
works great for dove.
Attachment 227324Attachment 227325
GREAT INFO! My printer bought the farm so I could not print out a copy for myself. I ordered a COPY from smile.amazon . Cost $12.95 plus shipping & tax.
I've been looking at getting my old Navy Arms SxS 12ga down off the wall. I bought it new around '83 and hunted with it for years. Then about 20 years ago, I put it in the living room gun cabinet and it's been there ever since. I think it's about time to teach the newer generation of squirrels a few things. And see if my grandkids have any interest in shooting the black powder instead of the black guns.
Now if I can just figure out where I put all the stuff that went with it.
Had mine out last Saturday.
Belgium 14 Gauge Attachment 266329
Attachment 266330
Izz funnn:bigsmyl2:
Agreed, great topic with really incredible information about the old shotguns!
I'd not seen powder loads measured in drams before and am wondering which
dram measurement was used for the book? Was it Apothecaries Dram (20 grains)
or Avoirdupois Dram (27.334 grains) if anyone should know?
I like the thought of using the larger grain 1fg powder too for perhaps a more effective
pressure development during the burn. A slower burning grain size is much safer for the
old guns and, as pointed out in the text, results in much lower peak pressures in the barrel
than would be the case with faster burning 3fg or 2fg.
Sea Monkey, it is Avoirdupois, which is 1/16 oz.
Good information here, backed up by experience. Interesting to find out that I'm not the only one who ever loaded shot w/o powder. After that I started using a clothes pin on the bbl I needed to avoid.
Anyone here ever use a buffer w/the shot for tighter patterns on cyl bore guns?
Great stuff. This'll help me out when I start working up shot loads for a repro musket.
V.M.Starr is who re-lined my 92 Winchester (25-20) back in the early 70's.
Hmm--I have a H&R 12ga. Huntsman ML shotgun just sitting in the safe. Might have to pull it out one of these days and try it out.