doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Food for thought . . . .

My "super-duper" .410 load is slow, at around 1150 fps. Exactly where I wanted it to be. It carries 3/4 oz. of true nickel plated shot. I have dishragged doves with it at a measured 40+ yards. DITA (dead in the air).

I normally try to keep my shots at 35 yards or less, even with that excellent load. But, I make mistakes occasionally. I have made a few 45 yard kills with it. Armchair experts would say that such a load shouldn't pattern well. They'd be wrong.

IMO, lower velocity does not hurt long range gunning at all. On the contrary, I believe it helps.

I also believe a gunner is better off shooting every thing he shoots at nearly the same velocity, whatever that may be.

The only folks who think low velocity hurts patterns are people who have not patterned, counted and compared low vs high velocity loads.

Re same velocity.

My preferred velocity is 1180-1220 fps.

Clean kills, at long range requires retained energy, hits to vital areas which requires penetration and dense enough pattern to get those hits in numbers to be effective. Yes, there are real golden BBs. Counting on fluke hits never works for me. When I need long range options I go to larger size shot. A 9 shot at 50 yards has very little retained energy but a 6 true 7 does. Pushing small size shot to hyper velocity will not give them retained energy enough at long ranges. They shed velocity and energy to quickly. I’d rather start with larger shot at normal velocity that pattern well in my gun.

Unless you pattern loads at long range you don’t know what potential they have. You can find retained energy tables for different sizes shot. But nothing beats real pattern work.

My favorite dove load is half ounce of true sevens at moderate speed. In my Model 42 full choke it delivers great patterns. My kids have nicknamed my gun “wing-breaker” because under 25 yards it seems like I break wings on birds which are centered. Birds killed
Instantly and one or both wings broken. Funny thing is the breast does not get shot to pieces.