The book mentioned in my post was "Hitting vs Missing With the Shotgun" by S.T. Hammond copyright 1898.
Several of you seem to think that He was shooting the grouse close up, an the ground. If you read the book you will see that this is not the case.
From the pages of the book: "The charges that I have used for many years in a 12-gauge seven pound cylinder bored gun, with entirely satisfactory results are, for the right barrel-wich I nearly always use first-three drams of good black powder with five-eights of an ounce of No.10 shot, and for the left barrel the same amount of powder with seven-eighths of an ounce of No. 8 shot. These charges give good penetration and pattern, while the recoil is scarcely noticeable....
Many cylinder bored guns will do good work with these charges...
I was once shooting quail in North Carolina with my friend Harry Reade, when his shells gave out and I handed him some loaded with No.8 as above described, but he could do nothing with them, missing one-half of his birds, while those that he hit were so badly torn that they wereworthless. I then gave him some loaded with No. 10, and with them he did some excellent work, killing eight or ten without a miss, and so well did he like them that he declared that he would use no other charge.
(He mentioned here that he was shooting quail but in most of the book he is using the load on grouse.)........
"You should bear in mind that the barrel you use first should make a well spread, even pattern at twenty yards, as in nearly all your shooting-in cover at least-your birds will be from fifteen to twenty-five yards away when shot at, and that from five to ten yards further will usually cover the distance for the second barrel."
The conditions of his shooting seems to be the same as today.
but I can't see why he uses No.10 shot.
I use 7 1/2 for grouse.
Pete
