doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com loads used for waterfowl in 1874

In the 1870s, those well heeled shooters that could afford those evolutionary breech loaders were loading their own shotgun shells, or their manservant was. Average folks were still pouring powder wads and shot in from the front end. In the 1880s we saw the arrival of loaded shotgun shells being provided by local gunsmiths or sporting goods stores and smaller manufacturers like Chamberlin Cartridge Co.,





while the big manufacturers like Union Metallic Cartridge Co., E. Remington & Sons and Winchester Repeating Arms Co. provided the brass or paper cases, primers and wads. An errant 4th of July rocket blew up E. Remington & Sons ammunition plant in the late 1880s shortly before they went into receivership.

When Union Metallic Cartridge Co. began offering factory loaded shotgun shells, circa 1891, they offered 10-gauge shells loaded with as much as 5 drams of powder and 1 1/4 ounce of shot. By the 1893 catalog where the SMOKELESS and TRAP shells loaded with smokeless powders were charted separately from the CLUB black powder shells, the heaviest smokeless powder loads offered were 3 3/4 drams pushing 1 1/4 ounces of shot. For 1905, UMC upped the maximum 10-gauge load in their ARROW shell to 4 drams of bulk smokeless powder pushing 1 1/4 ounce of shot. The next year UMC upped the maximum 10-gauge load in their ARROW shell again to 4 1/4 drams of bulk smokeless powder (or 34 grains of dense smokeless powder such as Infallible or Ballistite) pushing 1 1/4 ounce of shot. That remained the heaviest smokeless powder 10-gauge load offered until Western Cartridge Co. introduced their high velocity, progressive burning powder, Super-X Super-Ten load of 1 5/8 ounce of shot in 1926.

The author of the book I was reading tells how many preferred the muzzle-loader over the breech loader for several reasons, like how easy it was to immediately tailor your load to the existing condition and how you weren't bogged down by paper or metal hulls.
He told how when shooting a breech-loader he had to stay up late at night loading his shells for the next day of shooting while his hunting buddies that shot muzzle-loaders were getting much needed rest.
Pete

Interesting thread.

When did reloading brass shells fall out of favor?

Could people buy boxes of preloaded brass shells?

When were the first preloaded, centerfire paper cases introduced?

Thanks,

OWD

Remington Arms Co., Inc. was still offering both "Club" and "Best" Quality brass cases in their 1923 catalog --



An undated Remington Arms Co., Inc. ammunition catalog from later in the 1920s, probably 8 or 9, still offered a few "Best" Quality brass cases.

The only "factory" loaded brass shells I know of are those ubiquitous military 00 buck loads from WW-II to Viet Nam, and those Remington Ducks Unlimited commemorative metal boxes of loaded brass shells from a few years back.

Very interesting. Thanks.

OWD

Researcher,
I have a container of those Remington DU brass shells. I always wondered what they were loaded with, and assumed it was with #5's. Was never curious enough to actually shoot one.
Karl

The Labrador duck demise was market hunters and the punt gun. The Labrador duck would group into very large groups off shore where one shot would kill dozens

Me, too Bill. Like a nor'easter.

SRH

I read a couple of article from people who knew/interviewed some old market hunters, they said their goal was to bag over 100 ducks a day, having hunted with a double 10 for over 30 years I'd say one would have to be a great shot to do that without something that put a hell of a lot of shot in the air at one time.

TM

There were also a hell of a lot more ducks in those days. And who said anything about 'in the air'? They used live decoys and bait, and would have shot plenty on the land or water.