doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Shotshell "Spreaders" & "Concentrators"

Peters Victor Spreader Load



which were still offered in the 50s

Western Field Thicket Load (see Researcher's post on p. 2)



Ranger Brush

Spreader loads have been discussed for years on this forum. Many, especially hunters criticize them as a danger to the dogs in upland hunting situations. I've used RST Spread-Rs and Polywad doublewides enough to have some opinions.

They're useless past twenty yards because they spread too much to effectively kill anything and become a real danger to the bird dogs. Within twenty yards though they'll make a better shot of you as well as convert your tight choked guns into bird killers, and any bird dog shot with them is the hunter's fault for shooting too close to the dog or the dog jumping into the line of fire.

Good information on the history of these interesting alternative shotgun loads in this thread...Geo

I killed two doves with one shot with Fiocchi Interceptors and my HE Fox, two seasons ago. Both were dishrag dead before hitting the ground. They were at about 25 yards, crossing, when shot. The maximum distance at which spreaders are useful depends on several factors, IMO, one of which is how much choke constriction the barrel has to begin with.

I'm a huge fan of the Fiocchis for close rabbit targets and really close crossers on a sporting clays course.

Capt. Charles Askins and E.M. Sweeley “Ballistics of the Shotgun” series; Outdoor Life March 1923 “Shot Spreaders”
https://archive.org/details/sim_outdoor-life_1923-03_51_3/page/198/mode/2up

I have 2 old old box of federal 16ga spreaders never tried them.

I have posted about this before, but will add it here for the benefit of anyone looking to develop a spreader load. I had a Beretta 425 12 gauge that I wanted to use for doves. It was choked F/M and the tight barrel would completely destroy a dove at 25 yards. Since I like to eat them, I had to figure out a spreader load if I wanted to use the gun.

I tried several types, but the polywad post style seemed to work best when patterning. It did have something of a hole in the center of the pattern, but I heard about a guy who solved that problem by putting part of the shot over the post. I used the Federal plastic hulls that have a very large capacity. A one ounce charge bar was used to drop the shot, then I added the post, and then another 1/4 oz of shot over the post. That eliminated the hole and the gun shot a very consistent modified pattern in the tight barrel. The spreader had some effect on the modified barrel, but not nearly as much as the full choke barrel.

Those shells took a little extra time to load, but they made the gun useful.

Sporting Life December 1, 1886
https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll17/id/51527/rec/7
"...kills game at 100 to 140 yards..." !

Sorry for the necro post but I'm going back through the forum looking for Damascus case restorations. I actually have one of these sporting shrapnel shells that came to me in a gun case. I think that a person would hope to find the empty clamshell after firing one and at least some of the time recover it in order to re-use it.