doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com LOW PRESSURE SHELL ADVICE?

B&Ps 7/8 and 1 oz loads are about perfect for our guns. The pressure is about 6600 psi and they are about 1200 ft/sec

On Sale now at Cabela's just ordered 2 cases -

B&P

I buy B&P's and load near duplicates. Have given a box to several shooters, they are instant converts. You can also get them from Aerostar outdoors delivered to your door in a few days. Although the last flat I bought was at Cabelas.

Boats

I never see pressures listed by the manufacturers. I shot 1 1/8 oz shells at 1145 fps. Where will the pressure be one those? Is that too much for a Parker Trojan (1921) or an Ithaca NID when shooting a fair amount of clays? What can I feed a Sterlingworth for turkey and geese?

No arguments w/anything previously posted. In simplest terms old wood is not appreciative of recoil, regardless of pressure generated by the cartridge. [lest it get mis-read, I am not inferring there is any relationship between pressure & recoil, thanks] That is more so w/side locks IMHO, because of the lesser amount of wood in their wrists.

I expect that Joe Wood, a frequent poster here has a much experience with shooting older hammer guns afield as most. His pref., unless I am mistaken, is PB for low pressure powder. Hard to come by any longer, but worth looking for just the same because there is a great deal of tested data for it ... & it works.

For most game behind dogs or targets 28 grams of shot is sufficient. Use larger sized shot for larger game, it is the most efficient way to go about it.

Also, in the FWIW dept. I find that a charge bar marked for 9/8oz. shot throws an almost perfect 28 grams of quality reclaimed shot, sometimes going + ten pellets, but not always. Something worth consideration? Perhaps.

addendum: Almost forgot, you will quite likely NEVER need more than 1200 fps loads if shot size [lead] is appropriate to game. That should open a whole new can, eh?

B&P High Pheasant 1oz. loads are in the 6K psi range and have proven deadly on wild pheasants and sharptails for me. My duck load is 7/8oz. ITX 6's over PB and my target load is 7/8oz 8's over Greendot, None are over 1200 fps and there aren't many cripples.

Pressure is not directly related to recoil. However, it is directly related to what can happen to the metal parts of a gun, as mentioned above. (And, as graphically illustrated by Sherman Bell in his destruction tests, reported in Double Gun Journal--although worth noting those were examples of EXTREME overpressure loads. Well above proof pressure, let alone service pressure.)

Unlike some, however, I don't think we need to look for 5,000 psi loads for our vintage guns. For one thing, sometimes ultra-low pressure loads don't perform well in cold weather. The old reloading manuals--for example, from Lyman--used to note on some loads "not recommended for cold weather". Sometimes low pressure, sometimes very low velocity.

Re gjw's earlier post on a low pressure hunting load, I've used something quite similar on pheasants for a long time. 1 1/8 oz shot in a Federal Gold Medal hull with Unique, Fed 12S3 wad. Also around 1200 fps and 7,000 psi. I would not want to shoot a round of skeet with that load in a light British game gun, but it's fine for hunting--and I don't need 1 1/8 oz for skeet anyhow.

Re recoil relative to shot charge and velocity, I shot a few Kent Fasteel loads at preserve chukars yesterday. (Preserve requires nontox.) 7/8 oz, 1500 fps. I was shooting a sub-6# Ithaca Classic Doubles 20ga. Thought the darned thing doubled the first time I pulled the trigger. Wow! Looking at my ballistics book, I find that load has a recoil energy of 24.5 ft/lbs. I'd never shot anything heavier than a standard lead target load, 7/8 oz @ 1200 fps--which has almost exactly half the recoil energy. (And most of the time, shooting skeet, I use 3/4 oz reloads.) Now I know why it kicked that hard!

Thanks for this; just ordered a couple cases myself. Free shipping for the remainder of today with the code 35HOT.

B&P Competition One 1oz and 7/8oz are listed at 6530 and 5804 psi respectively.

To stay in practice during the "off-season" I shoot some sporting clays with my SxS's. For the last 4 years or so when shooting the sporting clays I shoot the RST 3/4 oz., #8 shot. I like the shells - they bust clays and don't bust me. That said they seem to burn awfully dirty in my barrels. Anyone else had any experience with this round? I can shoot the 1 oz. RST loads and they seem to burn so much cleaner in my guns.

Thanks!

I like shooting the RST 3/4 oz shells too. They are noticeably dirtier than the 1 oz loads, but they don't kick either. They break clays just fine. I figure I'm going to clean the barrels after a days shooting anyhow. Nice thing about doubles is the fouling stays in the barrels...Geo