Is My Bird Gun A Deer Gun?

I tried every wad combination I could think of yesterday trying to pattern my Pedersoli 20 gauge. None of the patterns were satisfactory, so my next step is to use shot cups. Anyway, just for kicks I shot three .610 round balls wadded with just wasp nest. Only 20 yards, but not bad. The middle bead really helped with aiming.

It does look ready to launch balls at deer.

Looking good!

He!! Yeah !! Nice ! Ready to make meat

Try loading the bird gun with 75gr 3f, 3 thin overshot cards 1oz shot, 1 overshot card. Should produce a good bird pattern

To answer your question... Yes it is a Deer gun with the right load.

Once you figure out your shot load, it looks like it will be both!

Nothing wring with those .610 hits. I'd do it...

Walkabout said:

I tried every wad combination I could think of yesterday trying to pattern my Pedersoli 20 gauge. None of the patterns were satisfactory, so my next step is to use shot cups. Anyway, just for kicks I shot three .610 round balls wadded with just wasp nest. Only 20 yards, but not bad. The middle bead really helped with aiming.

Click to expand...

What was your complete load? What combinations did you try? Just curious. I have no problem with any of the 3 20ga’s I shoot. I use the same load in all 3 and they pattern fine out to 40 yards. I mainly hunt birds, waterfowl, dove, snipe, woodcock and small game like rabbits and squirrels.
I use leather for the over powder wads and wool felt soaked in beeswax and olive oil for the under/over shot wads. I do not understand why people have such a hard time with their smooth bores? I have owned 8 Pedersoli’s and never had a hard time with patterns. Also, I shoot mine over a chronograph to verify shot velocity with a minimum of 5 shots per barrel, which allows me to see how consistent a load is. My 3 20’s are imp cyl and modified.
What wads are you using? What type of shot? What type of powder?

Load her up, hit the fields, and show Bambi “what fer!”

Seriously, the double barrel shotgun was used for everything in them days.

If I had to part with my other guns, as sad as I’d be, my Pedersoli 12 gauge side by side would do everything I needed a gun for!

My youngest son uses his 20-gauge SxS for deer. He does have two different sized projectiles. Each just fits into the barrel since the gun has some choke. It's .626 Right and .610 Left in his gun. He loads 80 grains powder, card wad, bare ball and OS card. Using the 2 beads on the barrel as "sights" he makes a figure 8 and puts the top of the 8 where he wants the balls to land. It is dead-on at 35-yards with one big hole if you shoot a shot from each barrel. A little closer or further distance will still land both barrels shots in an 8" circle or smaller. Since taking a deer with this as a kid, he really likes the bang-flop that happens most of the time or the obvious blood trail other times. He always takes this gun to the ground blind or treestand where we have them set up for 20-30 yard shots. I am not surprised your shotgun performs likewise.

Same gun is a great bird gun. He's patterned and played with components extensively. This gun like 1-ounce of shot (even though its a 20-gauge) and an equal volume of powder from the 1-ounce scoop. It also prefers medium sized shot - 7, 6, 5 patterns best. It also does best with a hard card over the powder and a thin card over the shot. The hard cards are 19-gauge but the OS cards are 20. When we shoot ducks over our pond he switches to 1 1/8 ounce scoop for powder and shot, and #5 Bismuth. Same card wad configuration as the 1-ounce loads. He does as well as the rest of us with 12 or 10 gauge and even modern guns. Same for turkeys although the #5 may be lead.

Funny thing about his shotgun..... If you go down to #8 shot it patterns less effectively than a little bigger shot. If you go up to #4 shot it patterns less effectively than a little smaller shot. And he's tried a lot of cushion wad, felt wad, card wad combos but the simple 19 gauge hard card and 20 gauge OS card always produce the best patterns with 1 - 1 1/8 ounce of shot and equal volume of powder with shot sizes 7, 6 or 5.

You have a very versatile gun! A little experimentation should prove that out. I think you just need to keep messing around with component combinations until you find the right formula.

Shotguns have killed a lot of deer, some places even limit deer hunting to shotguns.

I often loaded a barrel of my CVA 12 with a ball when seasons overlapped. Hard to beat the flexibility of a SXS shotgun.

You do have to pick your shots and keep the ranges down (hunting not shooting becomes most important)

Don't know if you live where dogs are allowed for deer hunting, but hunters in that situation often use shotguns, and also where human deer "drives" are popular.

Buckshot is another option for deer, and you might try patterning some of the larger sizes (000 and 00) Of course you are going to need to be even closer in than for a single ball.

Never used a 20 gauge before so I can't help much with your shot patterns. I do know the Skychief's Load link provided at the top of this forum has been helpful to many.

Good luck and happy hunting.

I have a Gustomsky 20ga trade gun, I tried every kind of load including cardboard shot cups to get it to pattern. The shot cups worked great if they opened up but about half the time they slugged and didn't open up. Shooting shot with just over powder and shot wads my pattern was so bad that I didn't think I could kill a squirrel with the gun at 15 yards.

I tried the Skychief load out of my gun when I found out about it, that is what my gun wanted. This is a 25 yard, cylinder bore pattern shooting 1 1/4oz of #6 shot and 75gr of 1F powder loaded in the Skychief configuration. The gun shoots to the left with shot and ball, I was aiming at the crease on the cardboard, I haven't gotten around to bending the barrel.

My 20 ga. is a flintlock smoothbore but has a rear sight. I seldom use shot so my focus was on working up a good round ball load for deer. Best results came with patched ball loaded the same as in a rifle. But I also found that accuracy could be had using a bare ball (no patch) with a properly worked up combination. The accuracy difference between prb and bare ball was significant but not greatly so.

At 50 yards firing 3 shot groups gave an average of under 3" with prb but around 4" to 4-1/2" with the bare ball load. Occasionally the bare ball groups would be nearly the same as the prb. But at 50 yards a 4-1/2" group will equal a dead deer every time. I consider them about equal under field conditions.

The rear sight worked well with shot loads. With #6 shot the center of the pattern was about 2" low which is easily adjusted by aiming 2" high.
.600" patched ball over 75 grains of 3F.

Bare ball on left and prb on right. Notice how close they are in group size.