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Sporting Life July 1, 1883



Guns at the Riverton Handicap March 8, 1895
https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll17/id/54954
“It may be interesting to some to note the guns and loads used, and we give it below. It was a lamentable fact that of the 15 guns used only one American make was represented. This was a special pigeon gun of the Parker Brothers' manufacture, and was a beautiful weapon in every way, and was owned by Mr. Post, whose score of 93 on a hard lot of birds did not show that the shooting power was lacking.”
“All the guns were 12 gauge, and it was noticeable that not a full pistol-grip stock was among the number, and most of them were the straight-grip ‘pigeon gun’ model, nine being of this description, and six of the half-grip style. All were of the hammerless pattern excepting two; Mr. Welch and Mr. Robbing using hammer guns.”
Guns and loads used:
Capt. A.W. Money - Greener, 7 1/2 pounds.
George Work - Purdey, 7 1/2 pounds.
Post - Parker pigeon gun (AAH introduced in 1894)), 7 11-16 pounds.
Jim Jones - Scott, 7 3-16 pounds.
John B. Ellison - Scott, 7 1/4 pounds.
Fred Moore - Purdey, 7 7-16 pounds.
Leonard - Westley Richards, 7 1/2 pounds.
Mott - Crown grade Greener, 7 2-16 pounds.
J.S. Robbins - Greener hammer gun, 7 1/2 pounds.
R. Welch - Purdey hammer gun, 7 1/2 pounds
Downing - Scott, 7 6-16 pounds.
J.K. Palmer – Francotte, 7 1/2 pounds.
Edwards - Scott Premier, 7 pounds.
J. Wolstencroft - Greener, 6 15-16 pounds.
Eckert - Scott Premier, 7 1/4 pounds.
Shells were 45 - 49 grains (3 1/4 - 3 1/2 drams) smokeless powder and 1 1/4 oz. shot.
Capt. Money (2nd in the 1894 GAH) and George Work (3rd in the 1893 GAH) tied at 94 killed.

These guys were some tough old bastards.

Light guns, big loads. The kids today (me included) would be battered and bruised by a day of this.

My hat is off to them.

Of course, they needed the loads because of the lack of a shot wrapper and what today we would consider 'promo load' shot quality, if even that.

Those "big loads" with the bulk or dense smokeless powders of the day were at lower velocity than most all of today's loads and even in a big shoot like the GAH you would only fire at most 50 shells at your 25 birds, likely spread over two days. More time spent placing bets than actually shooting.

Another consideration before comparing recoil of vintage loads with modern loads would be the weight of powder.

45-49 grains of bulk smokeless vs 22-25 modern powder grains for a 'super pigeon' load would seem to push the recoil, as calculated by a computer recoil calculator, well into the 'ouch' zone.

It's not a great increase in ejecta weight, but that's all transformed into gas at a much higher velocity..... thus the recoil increase as shown by the computer of 25-30%.

If I'm missing something, what is it?

I'm 6'3" and 230 pounds of pure flab. I find a 3 dram 1 1/8oz standard target load tolerable if need be, but I surely prefer a 1 ounce load for a day of clays. Call me a wussy.

My pheasant load is a standard 1 1/4 at 1260 by the chrono. Recoil is overshadowed by the effectiveness of that traditional load and I don't shoot 50 of them. If I were to, a modern O/U with some heft would be my choice.

Let's compare with a standard online recoil calculator....

My load 26.5gr. WSF, 1260 fps, 1 1/4oz shows 25.5 FP free recoil energy. I'd call that a 3 1/2 Dr. EQ. load wouldn't you? This is calculated in a 8.4 pound O/U.

The above mentioned bulk smokeless load with 46 gr. of powder shows, in a 7 1/2 pound gun, 35.7 FP free recoil.

Now assuming that really IS a 3 1/2 Dr. EQ load, the difference is 10.2 FP or 40% more than my modern load. To equal the modern load in FRE, the bulk smokeless load would have to be slowed to 1,000 FPS.

Drew, As an aside, and being an old-time W.&C. Scott collector, I find it very interesting that 5 of the 15 guns used in this contest were Scott guns. Regards, Sandlapper