doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Pressure vs recoil in old guns

Good question, Mike.

First of all, I don't like 1 3/8 oz in a vintage 12ga, because the max load available in my 1940 Shooters Bible for the 2 3/4" 12ga is 1 1/4 oz. Assuming we're talking a gun with original short (2 5/8", in the 12ga) chambers, which was the genesis of this discussion, heaviest load available for those was 1 1/8 oz. Thus, I interpret that load as being inappropriate for the gun--certainly for the stock, if not for the metal--and seriously inappropriate for the guy on the butt end of the gun.

However, I'd also avoid the 1 oz load like the plague. Add in a little extra pressure because of the too long hull, maybe a little more because my reloader dropped a little too much powder--I'm over current SAAMI max pressure. And way over max pressure for a gun built with short chambers.

In other words . . . two bad choices. And while I appreciate Miller's expertise, I also appreciate Rocketman's. And the fact that both SAAMI and CIP focus on PRESSURE standards, not RECOIL standards. That in spite of the fact that recoil has increased significantly with modern loads--some of which pack 1 5/8 oz of shot into a hull that, back when those vintage guns were built, contained a maximum of 1 1/4 oz. (That's half an ounce more than was offered in the short 12ga hulls--at the same velocity of 1250 fps that the maximum 1 1/8 oz load achieved in the 2 5/8" hull.) With all that additional recoil (but note, still within SAAMI pressure standards) . . . why aren't our modern doubles shooting loose, if that's what happens as a result of recoil?