doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Various 2-1/2 inch loads for damascus

I have a very nice francotte (1891) gun with BP proofs. I shoot it with nitro low pressure loads and Fiocchi trainer 7/8 ounce loads. It is very nice to shoot.

It is bored .007 and .028 and would make a great wild pheasant gun!

I am considering what I can shoot in this high condition gun.

I have Gamebore Pure Gold 12 28 68 felt
RST 12 2-1/2 1 oz 2-3/4 dram
and, B7P 12 30 2-1/2

I know the B&P are about 8400 PSI but don't know the others.

What do you think about shooting these in this gun.

I typically shoot under 7000 psi

Thanks for your opinion.

By the way the barrels are in great condition.

The RSTs are made for guns like this

Assuming it is in safe condition

What are you doing! Don't you know damascus barrels are killers. Shoot that gun and you'll lose all your fingers and you'll be blinded. Don't take my word for it though, when you go to the bar tonight just ask Bubba or Goober, they'll set you straight! In the mean time you'd better send that Francotte to me so that you're not tempted to endanger yourself with it.

Steve

I have used the B&P High Pheasant 1 oz #6 load on wild birds in MT and WA and they work great. They are listed by the manufacture at 6500 psi./450 Bar and $90/case.

http://aerostaroutdoors.com/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/2_99/products_id/98

Oskar-thanks for the info. The High Pheasant loads I have a friend brought me about 10 years ago. They are 30 gram~1-1/16 ounce of shot. The B&P site used to show pressures for their shotshells, but I can't get the current site to function.

On a Gamebore site I find that Pure Gold shells have a 1400 fps velocity. They can't be low pressure.

RST doesn't list velocity for their loads either. I guess I could call them. They have been helpful in the past.

You might want to also consider Polywad Vintagers - they are $11/box of 25 for the 12 gauge loads. I have shot about 6 boxes of 7.5 shot through my 1892 Damascus barreled Greener Forester. Low pressure but they still vaporize clays.

Did the link I provided work for you?

This is the current B&P speed/pressure chart, but is several years old and some of the products are not available from Aerostar. It should be in modern piezo transducer measurements
http://carolans.com/R/bp-1/content/Speed-and-Pressure-Chart.pdf

Oskar's link to a dealer with B&P shells works fine. Trouble is, shipping to Alaska because of haz mat resrictions is very expensive. No stores here in Anchorage regularly handle 2-1/2" shells of any brand. I have talked with the good folks at RST about shipping here and they offered to assist but it still ends up with shells more expensive than I want to use. I mentioned the three shell types here because I happen to have them on hand.

Oddly, individuals like me legally pack a few boxes of shells in with our airline checked baggage when we can get them somewhere outside AK.

This all makes some of these old guns kinda tough to own and operate up here.

One the other hand, I do reload, and a fellow named Dave from the PGCA gave me a spreadsheet containing low pressure loads. Some of these 2-3/4" loads I use in my damascus Francotte (has long forcing cones).

Thanks for the B&P data Drew! I remembered correctly that the 30 gram High Pheasant loads were 8416 psi. It's higher than I wish to use in this gun.