doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Black Powder Goose/Duck Loads

Two seasons ago I made a mess of a goose with my 1880's vintage ten. After taking the advice of some very good folks here I wound up shooting one ounce of #2 bismuth over 4 drams of FF Goex, fiber/card wads and roll crimp. No idea about velocity but it was easy on gun and patterned perfect for decoying greaters.

Best,
Mark

You bet. I have shot ducks and geese with my 1906 Lefever G Grade 10-bore, choked full and fuller. I don't reload, but about 10 years ago I lucked into buying several flats of factory Bismuth 2 7/8 in. 1 1/4 oz. #3s and #5s. A great gun and an effective load. I've also shot turkeys with Gamebore black powder lead shells, with similar effects. Tons of fun. TT

Couple of seasons ago I used the Nice Shot #2 on some honkers with good luck. I have also used the bismuth #2 in the short 10. Since ITX is much cheaper and I have a bunch of 2 7/8" 10ga loaded with bismuth #2 I only loaded the ITX in #4 mainly for ducks. I figured it is about 85% the density of lead shot and a 1 1/4oz load of lead #4 has about the same number of pellets as 1oz of ITX. Therefore, it takes up a lot of room in the case. I was able to use the same low pressure 12 bore 1oz load as I use for clays (with a substition for a wad with more room). It is certainly better than steel shot but the load I was using was pretty much a decoying load. I don't usually take shots over 35-40 yards on ducks anyway. I did use a few of these loads for snow geese over decoys and I was as successful as the guys using steel shot loads. I was shooting much tighter chokes than they were. A tight choked VH 32" Parker. If you hit them they drop...
I have also used the #4 ITX on some honkers out of a 12bore with good luck over decoys and some shots approaching 50 yards. I occassionaly have geese come in while duck hunting and the #4 seemed to work just fine. Dead is dead.

For 12 bore I would shoot factory bismuth and TM if the gun and bores are stout. I have done so with an early parker #2 frame GH with no issues. For the short 10 you can order factory loaded nice shot from RST.

Gunnerman books has a 10ga short 10 loading manual that uses IMR 7625 exclusively. It is a great powder until it gets down into the single digits. One of the parker guys uses it in Alaska into the negative temps on clays. I usually load my hunting loads with smokeless because, after a long day of hunting all I want to do is eat a hearty meal, have a few drinks and socialize...not clean the bores of a shotgun.

Sorry, I just remembered you were asking about black powder. 4 drams seems like a lot of powder. Cripe, when I shoot 12ga 2 1/2 drams under 1oz of shot at sporting clays I am sore for two weeks. It has been awhile since I shot black powder 10's. I do not currently have a BP hammer gun in working order. But, if memory serves me that BP kicks a lot more than my low pressure smokeless. Well, I just pulled out an old table and you need a little more powder for the short 10 BP loads, Light: 4drams to 1oz shot, Normal: 4 drams to 1.25oz shot and heavy: 4 1/2drams to 1.5oz of shot. I was thinking some guys ran 5 drams for some really heavy loads. here is the link: http://www.tbullock.com/bpsg.html

Some of the old books talked about what loads they were using for specific critters. Seems like there was a lot of good information in one of Leffingwells books.

Reloaders Specialties is supposed to have a soft non toxic shot out for this fall. L.P. Brezny wrote an article in the last wildfowl rag. I went to the website but they had no information yet. I did not call to ask any questions. It may be a winner.

For that heavy load of 4.5 drams BP and 1.5 oz shot I would want a pretty heavy gun for that load. It may be just the load for an 11.8 lb parker lifter 10ga I have been working on...!!

Good luck and shoot straight,
Kurt

P.S. See ya this weekend Market Hunter

Guys that was a great amount of data..wow! Thanks for all the great input.

Kurt, per your last comment, I have a heavy Parker hammer that I want to use for duck/goose so the loads above would be find.

Yes, BP seems to kick alot more but for me, thats half of the fun.

Thanks all for your input...again great information here for the small community of folks that like to use these great pieces of history.

BP will kick more for the same load. You're pushing a bunch more weight down the barrel in the form of blackpowder crud.

Blackpower skeet is great fun.

My hats off to you guys that shoot 1 and 1 1/4 ounces of #2 at geese. At any kind of range, the pattern density is so low that you really must be fine shots to be centering them every time.

Out of my hammer gun I shoot 1 3/8 or 1 5/8 ounce loads when I can get them. I've got some black powder bismuth loads that are backed up with 5 drams of black powder and that seems about right for real goose shooting.

How many shells do you really shoot at geese anyway? On a good day with an early or late season 8-10 bird limit, if you're any kind of gunner, you're going to shoot maybe 20 shells? What's a little blue on the shoulder when you've had a day like that?

Give the birds some respect, bring out the big guns and the big shells. If you want to shoot 1 ounce loads why don't you just borrow a nice 20 gauge from your ladyfriends.

Big Birds should equal Big Guns & Big Shells

If you want to shoot a 10 gauge, shoot 10 gauge shells. If you want to shoot 20 gauge loads then break out the women's guns.


Destry

Oddly enough, I like to shoot 1 1/4 oz 4 dram loads in my 10ga.

Mostly because that was the load my gun was designed for.



Notice: 'Charge 4 Drms 1 1/4 Shot'

10 gauge loads for game shooting, not a true fowling load.

That being said, 1 1/4 ounce for decoying ducks is dandy, even for big mallards and canvasback. The larger races of geese need more medicine dammit.

That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it no matter what anybody says. *sticks out lower lip*

Destry

W W Greener, 9th edition pagr 400;
"The most generally useful type of 10-bore is that of 8½ lbs to 9½ lbs in weight & using as the standard charge 4 drams powder with 1½ to 1 3/4 oz of #4 (US#5) or larger size of shot".
Greener was of the opinion the old 10ga load using 5drams of powder behind only 1¼oz was a load totally out of proportion & that any advantage the 10 possesed over the 12 was obtained only if the shot charge exceeded 1¼oz. I tend to agree.

That is what the 8ga's are for.