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How much powder for dove load?

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Blackpowderart

Blackpowderart

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I'm shooting a 12ga pedersoli sxs with screw in chokes this year. It's a new gun to me, only shot it a handful of times around the house. I went out yesterday evening to pattern it, and this is what I got. I was loading with

85gn ffg swiss
3 thin os cards
1 1/4 7.5 lead
2 thin os cards

These are the patterns I got. I was wondering if I should add some more powder to try and open it up or if this looks good to yall. The kick wasn't bad, nothing like a turkey load. I could stand some more powder. I will try it again next weekend and see what it looks like, but I wondered what others use. I will be hunting a pressured public dove field in NC.

The paper is 35in from top to bottom
 

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Last edited:
I guess I need my glasses changed because I can't make out most of the shot holes on that color paper.:dunno:
 
YUP - I can now see those holes when I zoom in!
 
Not saying there is anything wrong with it, just wanted others opinions. I don't have anywhere I can shoot skeet, so the public dove field will be my practice. How much of a lead do you put on a dove with blackpowder shotgun
 
Blackpowderart said:
Not saying there is anything wrong with it, just wanted others opinions. I don't have anywhere I can shoot skeet, so the public dove field will be my practice. How much of a lead do you put on a dove with blackpowder shotgun
Click to expand...
Same as modern...

With dove I don't know..

Those skeet are different but good practice.. hand thrower is nice for birds practice too.. or a string pull thrower..

There all different but the action motion is the same..

a Pheasant flying crossing a field you can daisy do it with a long slow aiming swing till you fire and miss lol.

Shoulder for it swing Past the bird. you can shoot in front minimum 3 feet.. I'd even say minimum 5 to hope you get it.

More or less the sight picture is funny issue.. I shoulder right for them I guess I like to be a little low and behind for the first sight picture.

I don't aim a distance in front.. the faster the birds the swing is almost a snap in frontn pull.

Is just in front.

I use to miss more by stopping the swing by aiming for feet in front moment to pull.

Shouldering the gun to. It puts you on the path.. if you shoulder above the bird ect.. your swing is funny up down level out.. not a strait threw motion.
 
I know it was like 3 or 4ft lead with a modern and since black powder is so much slower it would have to be more. We don't get alot
Of shots around my way, so I wanna make
The best of it
 
I am an avid dove hunter so as far as lead goes it depends on the range and speed of the target. Like Brit said you 3Fg for wing shooting. I use 20 gauges and shoot 3Fg at 75 grains and 1 once of shot. Have no problems hitting dove inside 40 yards.
 
Blackpowderart said:
Not saying there is anything wrong with it, just wanted others opinions. I don't have anywhere I can shoot skeet, so the public dove field will be my practice. How much of a lead do you put on a dove with blackpowder shotgun
Click to expand...
Something an old timer drilled into me, on a passing bird regardless of range, get a ten degree angle in your mind's eye and always use that lead. I never tried it on dove, but it's a starting point.
 
Perhaps I will try some 3f swiss as well this weekend. However it's worth noting I was using 2f swiss and the swiss is a finer powder in 2f than some other brands 3f.
 
If you're going to try to measure lead you are going to miss. The right technique will put the barrels where they need to be when you pull the trigger. More or less powder may open or tighten a pattern some. However, the static paper pattern doesn't tell you much about shot string on a flying bird. The static patterns are useful to see the difference between one load and another regarding shot density at a certain distance. One of the nice things about doves is the multiple opportunities. What I did when I was figuring out a dove load was to stick to one all day and keep track of hits to misses, whether the bird fell dead or wounded, and eyeball roughly how many pellets hit the birds (evident when cleaning them). The next time I purposely switched the load and did the same. One load seemed superior to the other. Switched it up again and after about 5 times total I finally settled on a load and then used it again to see if it was still producing hits, kills, etc. like the first time. It was - so that is my dove load in that gun. I tried 7/8-oz, 1-oz, 1 1/16-oz and equal amounts of powder by volume. Then I cut the powder for each amount of shot and tried those loads. For the gun I am using for doves, about a 1-oz scoop of powder (level not heaping) and then a 1 1/16-oz of shot was the sweet spot. I pre-load a lot of tubes so some have shot and some powder to get me going. In the middle of action it is easy to use the wrong scoop or lose one when you have to keep track of two. The following year I tried using #8 shot instead of #7.5 and quickly figured out it was not the same "dove load" I discovered the year before, so I stick to the same brand 7.5 shot now too.
 
Dove season started today, but I have to many irons in the fire.
It looked like you're patterns were striking low. I saw more pellets under the bird than above. I'd use a fuller front bead. I also use fffg.
I agree it don't look like it needs spreading more.
I have trouble with wing shots, but approaching and leaving I use more up and down lead and do pretty good.
I stop my swing often.
Good luck!
 
Sparkitoff said:
If you're going to try to measure lead you are going to miss. The right technique will put the barrels where they need to be when you pull the trigger. More or less powder may open or tighten a pattern some. However, the static paper pattern doesn't tell you much about shot string on a flying bird. The static patterns are useful to see the difference between one load and another regarding shot density at a certain distance. One of the nice things about doves is the multiple opportunities. What I did when I was figuring out a dove load was to stick to one all day and keep track of hits to misses, whether the bird fell dead or wounded, and eyeball roughly how many pellets hit the birds (evident when cleaning them). The next time I purposely switched the load and did the same. One load seemed superior to the other. Switched it up again and after about 5 times total I finally settled on a load and then used it again to see if it was still producing hits, kills, etc. like the first time. It was - so that is my dove load in that gun. I tried 7/8-oz, 1-oz, 1 1/16-oz and equal amounts of powder by volume. Then I cut the powder for each amount of shot and tried those loads. For the gun I am using for doves, about a 1-oz scoop of powder (level not heaping) and then a 1 1/16-oz of shot was the sweet spot. I pre-load a lot of tubes so some have shot and some powder to get me going. In the middle of action it is easy to use the wrong scoop or lose one when you have to keep track of two. The following year I tried using #8 shot instead of #7.5 and quickly figured out it was not the same "dove load" I discovered the year before, so I stick to the same brand 7.5 shot now too.
Click to expand...
One ounce scoop of powder? That sounds like a pretty stout load. 100 gr.+?
 

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