Have been recently working up a bismuth load for goose hunting with my mag 10 British guns.1 1/2 oz. of bismuth 2's.Took some samples of my latest effort for testing yesterday,using the W.P.Jones 3 1/2" 34" steel,full & full hammergun.After touching off the first round at the plate at a measured 40 yds.and walking up to see the result,I was a little stunned.Only two pellets outside of a 30"circle and most pellets within 24". A second round produced a similar pattern with five pellets outside the circle.No more excuses when pass shooting.I am now the weakest link...
Awesome pattern, Terry. A true long range duck or goose load!
How 'bout some pics of that Jones hammergun?
SRH
Terry:
What kind of pressures are you getting with that load?
Thanks.
Rem
Hello Rem, To the best of my knowledge the load should be around 9500 psi.It is a buffered load that I built using info from various sources including Tom Roster and other manuals.I know that tampering with published recipes etc. is frowned upon, but I used to do a lot of reloading with lead for waterfowling and still have my vision and fingers intact.All my mag 10's are nitro proofed for 4 Tons/psi or 1200 Kgs.
Thanks, Terry. Interesting gun ........... back action locks combined with fluid steel barrels.
What does it weigh?
It appears you've got the same issue with the gun shooting high as I do with the 20 ga. pump I recently bought from Lloyd3. My patterns are 100/0 with it. I'll work it out tho'.
SRH
Just threw it on my scale and it weighs 9lbs 14 oz.with empty chambers.Actually I pulled that first shot high.Did three others and they seemed to average about 60/40 so not an issue.The gun balances about 2 1/2" ahead of the hinge pin so no problem with follow through once you get it swinging.
60/40 is fine, for me, too.
9 lbs. 14 oz. isn't too bad for a big gun with 34" barrels.
Big medicine.
SRH
This is a question out of complete ignorance and I'm asking merely for informative purposes, but is #2 bismuth sufficient for pass shooting honkers at range?
As an aside, that is a beautiful gun and I bet those 34" tubes are fantastic for swinging on waterfowl.
I do a lot of shooting on Snow geese where the #2 bismuth seems to get the job done to about 60yds.On big honkers I would think 50 would be max.for body penetration.About the distance I also start to fail...
Interesting... Thanks Terry!
OK. Somebody 'splain something to me. "A chamberless 12 that later morphed to a 3.5 inch 10"????
Hello Perry,The term "chamberless 12" is actually a bit of a misnomer in that the barrels actually had a chamber with very thin forcing cones,which was made for a thin brass 12 bore case that could be up to 3"long and an 11 bore wad was used to fit the case and the oversized bore which was also 11 bore. These guns were basically built on a 10 bore action and barrels.This gun has 3 sets of proof marks.The first is 12 bore black powder,the second is 12 bore 3" nitro,and the last was done in 1962 when the gun was rechambered to 3 1/2" 10 and nitro proofed to 4 Tons /sq. in. with a bore diameter of .765 which it has today.It has 45 thou of choke in both barrels. Hope that all makes sense...
Terry-amazing that bismuth can handle geese at 50 yards. You are talking about the latest bismuth, not the original stuff? What is the velocity?
The Bismuth I have is the original product.I had an opportunity to buy 35 lbs of it a while back at a very attractive price.I know that there can be be some problems with it being somewhat brittle. The earlier loadings I made were not buffered and while the patterns were acceptable they were not as dense and there was evidence of some flyers that could have been split or damaged pellets.Buffering made a huge difference in density and completely eliminated the flyer issue.Cross referencing some other published recipes I would put the velocity at around 1250 ft./sec.
It does now Terry. I see now that the chamber was apparently reamed out and lengthened. What about the bore diameter? Has there been any change in that, or was the change only to the chamber to effectively change the "gauge" classification of the gun? This is probably simple to most/many of you, but certainly new news to me, so please pardon the questions.
The original bore designation was 11 which covers bore sizes from .753-.763 I suspect that the original bore was likely .760 and had a fine bore to the current size before reproofing as a 3 1/2" 10.
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Major kwel! Glad that you are experiencing the results you describe. Expect it may be lost on many, but genuinely appreciate your achievement; it is significant. Also like the island locks and fence treatment on your gun!
Good opportunities to you!
