doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Light gun game loads

I acquired my first 20ga of my own in 1956 & to the best of my recollection have never been without one or more since. My favorite load for the 20ga in all these years since has been a 2�DE-1oz load of appropriate shot size for the quarry.
This load has always given me most excellent performance in spite of all the disadvantages of the smaller bore, a length to diameter ratio of about 1.57:1 "Out of Square" for the 20ga bore of .615". Once many years ago when I was still doing a good bit of Squirrel hunting with a shotgun (later I switched almost exclusively to a .22LR for squirrel) I loaded some 20ga 1 1/8oz loads of US #5 shot. This gave a ratio of about 1.77:1. It also proved to be the most effective loads I ever used for squirrel in a 20ga (never used the 3" load of 1�oz).
I do truly believe the necessity of a load being "Square" is extremely Over-Rated. If one shoos a small bore you definitely do not want to restrict yourself to that square load.

Whenever I patterned 20ga "short magnums" (1 1/8 oz), I got very good results. Same with 16ga "magnums" (1 1/4 oz). Neither was particularly pleasant to shoot in a light game gun, however. But that speaks more to the "rule of 96" than it does the square load thing.

This is my "Personal" opinion without extensive data to back it up. I do think however that much of this idea about long column loads giving poor patterns arrived from the very early days of smokeless powders when all available shotgun powders were of a relatively fast burning nature. Any attempt at heavier loads resulted in higher pressures, possibly even dangerously so, & likely did give a "Hammer Blow" to the shot column with resultant deformed shot & poor patterns. The development of progressive burning shotgun propellants however in the 1920's allowed heavier loads to be used with no increase in max pressure & did away with the overly sharp rise of pressure. Loads that are "Beyond Square" have been used successfully ever since. Prior to this the Square load was mostly applicable to only the 10 & 12 ga's. This was pure co-incidence as the length of column capable of being handlled without Excessive deformation just happed to work out to be of the approximate length of these two bore diameters. 1 1/8 oz has "Always" been a very practical load weight for a 12ga & it was a bit beyond square, having a column length of about the same as a 10ga bore diameter.Even with the early powders a pretty good 1�oz load could be used in the 12 if one didn't insist on maximum velocities. & this was definitely beyond square.

I've read this observation by someone shooting longer than "square" loads a number of times, and it still makes sense to me. Wish I could remember and credit the source. Something to the effect that all longer loads are square with another layer of pellets riding along on top (or bottom or middle or whatever). Point being -- other than recoil discomfort in a light gun -- the additional layer of shot, despite supposed increase in "flyers", adds to pattern density and number of hits on target.

Even in the days before modern shot cups, does anyone think the % of pellets deformed by bore friction was less for the "square" part of the shot column than for the additional shot layer? As for the effect of increased pressure, I don't know anything beyond what Miller explains in his last post. And my pattern results tell me not to worry about it.

Jay

Charlie;
The theory behind the square load is that the longer the column the more shot are stacked up in front of the lower ones, closest to the wad so they are more deformed from the compression created by the inertia of the forward part at rest. If though a 12ga gun can with effectiveness use a column of .730" length, then if you have a column .860" long the forward .730" still has that same Square length as you said. It is as you have pointed out ridiculous to assume that every pellet in the lower .130" of the column are going astray & none of them will land within the pattern. This raises the load to 1�oz which has always been an effective load for a 12ga but is no longer square. Further if a 12ga will shoot a column .73" long why will not a 20ga or a 28ga shoot the same length, it will have the amount of shot stacked on top of the lower layers as the 12, though they are no lomger square simply because the bore is smaller.

There was an increase in pressure when we transitioned to the then-new 2 3/4" loads like the Super-X during the 1920's. SAAMI even had different proof and service pressure limits for both. As reported by LTC Calvin Goddard, "Army Ordnance" magazine, 1934: 2 5/8" 12ga, mean proof pressure 13,700 psi, service pressure 9500 psi. 2 3/4" 12ga, mean proof pressure 15,900 psi, service pressure 10,500 psi. Given the date of that information, we need to interpret psi as LUP, since it would have been measured with lead crushers .