Now that the weather is starting to moderate I will be doing some simple pattern testing with a couple long barreled tightly choked 16 gauge guns using fiber wads with Sprd R inserts and roll crimps. From what I have been able to garner from looking at various data from public and private sources it appears that chamber pressures are somewhat less with fiber wads while velocities are higher.
The load I intend to test is A Cheddite Paper Hull trimmed to 2 9/16th inches, 17.9 grains of Unique, 7/8th ounce of shot using 1/2 inch fiber wad with 1/8th inch nitro cards on either side of the fiber wad a Sprd R with 1/8th ounce of teh shot on top of the disc and .030 overshot card. My control load is a cheddite plastic hull, Gualandi 1621 wad with 17.9 grains of Unique and 7/8th ounces of shot. If anything interesting shows up I'll post again on Sunday.
Wyobirds I think for you to get any appreciable increase in pattern you will need to use some sort of spreader device weather it be a SpredR, X or soda straw
For those who retain any interest/curiosity in spreader load effectiveness in tight choked barrels I finally got around to counting pellet strikes on my pattern paper shot last weekend a chore I avoid like the plague but in this instance not too bad.
Remember this is by no means a scientific study but a simple comparison using a small sample size to satisfy
my curiosity about the effects of Spred-R device on pattern at normal hunting range.
The gun is a late 1880's Lefever 16 gauge, 30 inch barrels choked .040 which is .010 tighter than the modern full choke. Patterns were fired at 30 yards.
Ammunition tested were:
Load #1 7/8th ounces hard #8 loaded in Cheddite paper hulls trimmed to 2 9/16 inches using 17.9 grains of Unique with a 1/8 inch over powder wad, 1/2 inch Federal Waxed ring fiber wad topped with another 1/8th inch nitro card. 3/4 ounce of shot was loaded into the shell followed by a SpredR disc and topped with another 1/8th ounce of shot. The shell was closed with a .030 overshot card and roll crimped with a 3/16th deep crimp. Estimated MV 1180 fps chamber pressure at or less than 8,000psi. Pattern results were about as expected shot #1 64% density but there were four voids that would result in a missed clay target or quail. #2 produced a 70% pattern density with 2 voids that would result in a missed target or quail size bird.
Loan #2 (control load) 7/8th ounce hard #8 shot loaded in a plastic Cheddite hull trimmed to 2 9/16th inches using 17.9 grains of Unique under a Gualandi 1621 wad roll crimped with a .030 overshot cared with a 3/16th deep crimp. This load also performed as expected shooting 99% patterns at 30 yards. Pattern was about perfect with even shot distribution and a good solid 19 inch inner core.
Load #3 was an add on to confirm or dispel the notion that folded crimps are superior to roll crimps. Since I didn't have any empty Cheddite hulls I had to result to a load consisting of 7/8th ounce of hard shot loaded in a Remington SP hull using 16 grains of Unique under a Remington R16 wad. This is one of my favorite clay target and quail loads in my Fox Sterlingworth Brush model and has broken many targets and taken may birds but I was a bit surprised to see what the load looks like on paper. Pattern density was as expected at 99% but the distribution of shot was not nearly so even as the roll crimped loadss, the center core was a very tight 15 inches and distribution of the shot was in the shape of a football.
As I stated earlier this is by no means a scientific analyse and I am sure your results will differ, after all you probably won't be shooting your patterns with a 120 year old 16 gauge gun with .040 chokes but it does show the effectiveness of the Spred-R at modrate hunting distance using tightly choked guns.
