I have plenty of OE FFg and just ordered 4 lb's of Swiss Fg to try out
Can you guys give me an idea of powder charge weights and shot weights with the 3Fg? I am really curious because I have plenty of 3Fg to burn as well
Well since you have 2Fg with 1Fg on the way, I presume you already have a rifle or gun that uses 3Fg?
Why waste the 3Fg on the big bore, when it's likely that the 4 lbs. of 1Fg won't do well in whatever you have that currently uses 3Fg?
I must disagree with my esteemed fellow shotgunner from the UK. It
will make a difference. It will kick more when using the same powder load of 3Fg compared to 1Fg. The acceleration is faster so the resulting backward jolt is quicker, and thus you may feel it more. Whether it's perceptible enough to mean a difference to you, is another matter.
I've always used "old standard" loads as a beginning guide when working up a shotgun load.
You see when manufacturers first went to smokeless powders for shotguns, they had to duplicate the well known black powder loads in performance. IF they did not, word would spread and the product sales would suffer. Those black powder shells were made to duplicate what folks had previously been using in their muzzle loaders, which is lucky for us. So companies selling smokeless powder loads for shotguns would post "dram equivalent" markings on their shotgun shell boxes. As time wore on and smokeless powder shells became the norm, the companies continued to use the old labelling practices, pretty much until the 21st century. NOW they post velocity on the boxes. But you can find examples of old shotgun shell boxes and the information online today.
So here you see a vintage 20 gauge box label.
2¾ dram equivalent powder which in a black powder load would be 75 grains... of 1 ounce of... #6 shot.
Here is a an even more modern box of shells on a 12 gauge box. I think this is circa 1972...clearly a time when it was hard to find BP shells in most places...yet the antique load measurement is still being used. I doubt many of the users understood it. I didn't back in the 1970's and neither did my dad.
3¼ dram equivalent would be converted to black powder, 88.725 grains...rounded up ...90 grains of black powder with 1 ounce of #8 shot.
but you are using 10 gauge, so here are a couple 10 gauge boxes for you...
So these two boxes are in your gauge and using the shot that you mentioned. The first appears to be using a dram equivalent of 4¼ powder, and the second is definitely that. That "dram equivalent" equals 116 grains of BP when the math is done..., or rounded... is 115 grains of Black Powder when converted back to a BP load...(or even 110 gains of BP if you have a measure that only does 10-grain increments). Both use 1¼ ounce of shot, either #4 or #2.
But...remember that these are for use in a full choke barrel in all likelihood. So, you will need to pattern such a load from your 10 gauge Pedersoli and probably adjust upwards the amount of shot. The 10 gauge Pedersoli tends to be cylinder bore and improved modified going from right to left...
Don't, however, start out trying to duplicate the distances and results one would get from a modern magnum shell from a full choked barrel. I think that too many folks out there "push" their BP muzzleloading shotguns too much by trying that. Get a good pattern first, then go from there, would be my advice.
LD
