While I am certainly in agreement with being kind to 100± yr old wood it is in fact true that not all 100 yr old loads were the powder-puff loads of 1 1/8 oz @ 1100 fps mentioned. My 1913 catalog Lefever Arms Co catalog gives recommended loads in 12ga going up to 3½ drams or equivelent of black, bulk or dense smokeless powders with 1¼ oz shot. Thr old L&R Infallible powder in those days inpaper cases with card & felt wadding was rated in 12ga at about 8 grains per 1 dram equivelent, so the 26 grain cited by drew under 1¼oz would be a 3¼-1¼ load. The above quoted Lefever catalog lists Invallible up to 28 grains (3½DE) under that same 1¼ oz shot. By 1913 Infallible would have been a Hercules powder rather than L&R. In a series of articles appearing in the American Rifleman back in the 50's on propellant powders for Rifles, Shotguns & Handguns & repeated in the 60's in their handloades guide it was stated that Infallible & Unique were just two names for the same powder. Infallible had been listed for loads in shotshells with Unique appearing in loads for rifles or hndgun cartridges. At about the time of the original articles Infallible seems to have dropped from the scene & virtually identical loads began appearing in shotshell data using Unique. The oldest load data I have with pressure readings was published in a realoders handbook by the infamous George Leonard Herter with a copyright date of 1963. A 23 gr load of Unique under 1 1/8 oz shot in paper case with paper wads (card & fiber) shows 8,725 psi. A picture of his pressure gun shows a crusher set up, so presumely this was "Uncorrected" LUP's, common for the era. Now realizing the primers may have been hotter & other subtle changes over a half century may have given an increase in pressures, but anyway you slice it, even in 1913 28 grs of Infallible behind 1¼ oz shot was "NOT" a particularlly mild load. Also admittedly it was not the every day load of the average rabbit or bird hunter, but it was a listed load of at least one gunmaker for use in their guns & no caveat was given as to the type of bbl construction it should or should not be fired through.
"PS" Please note I am definitely not advocating firing such loads through 100 yr old guns, only stating what was shown from the actual time frame they were being built.
Last edited by 2-piper; 03/22/10 08:52 PM. Reason: Caveat Added
