buckshot loads

[Supercracker]

yeah, but I think they're planning on making shots of a few feet. Not even yards.

 

[BrownBear]

It wasn't the hunters so much as the guides following up on wounded cats. A couple of buds grew up over there- one a guide and the other a big game biologist. Both dropped their large rifles for SxS 12 gauges when they had to wade into close quarters on a kitty blood trail. Their use was more for leopard than lion, and they say there was nothing better for leopard. They had very few lion encounters with the shotguns, but say it always did the job.

 

[Wes/Tex]

That's the actual secret to buckshot loads, if 'secret' it is. That old picture of Bill Doolin in the Guthrie, Oklahoma morgue with 18 big holes and one skid mark between chin and floating ribs shows very graphically what a double 10 full of "blue whistlers" could do!

 

[Dphar]

i would like to know if many folks have used buckshot in their shotgun and how well they pattern with it. i want a shotgun but dont bird hunt much but would use it for deer hunting if it done good with buckshot.

Buckshot is a good wounder of deer.
Personally I would not use it.
At very close range buckshot in pretty fearsome but the velocity is low less than 1300 fps MV Sometimes only 1200 and as the patterns spread it rapidly becomes less fearsome. So unless you think a 32-36 caliber rifle is a good deer gun buckshot, especially in open choked guns is not a good choice.

In Africa its used as a close range stopper. Close range, in feet for the most part. For bear medicine in AK they use slugs.

Dan

 

[crockett]

I think you hit the nail on the head- it is a clsoe range option. The other big thing is some poor shots think that by using buckshot with a pellet spread that they might increase their chance of hitting something, it's just the opposite- you want all the pelets as close together as possible. I think Elmer Keith even fooled around with the pellets linked together like a beaded necklace. For deer and neck shots I think the range of a few feet can reliably be taken out to about 25 yards or so provided the pellets all cover a small area- say 10".

 

[Zonie]

Out of curiosity I did a Google search and ended up 'borrowing' this information from another website. (Thanks Reginald).

It is a listing of powder measure sizes and the weight of #7 1/2 shot that they will throw.

(As with any borrowed information I don't know if it is right or wrong).

50 grain setting = 3/4 ounce of shot
60 grain setting = 7/8 ounce of shot
70 grain setting = 1 ounce of shot
80 grain setting = 1 1/8 ounce of shot
90 grain setting = 1 1/4 ounce of shot
100 grain setting = 1 3/8 ounce of shot
110 grain setting = 1 1/2 ounce of shot
120 grain setting = 1 5/8 ounce of shot

That would make the powder measure for your 1 1/4 ounce of shot, 90 grains.
That would be a 3.3 Dram, 1 1/4 oz load.

Sound about right? :hmm:

 

[Joel/Calgary]

That would make the powder measure for your 1 1/4 ounce of shot, 90 grains.
That would be a 3.3 Dram, 1 1/4 oz load.

Sound about right? :hmm:

I've seen that table before (Don't we have a copy of it somewhere?) and similar results posted from folks here. This is for using typically narrow powder measure to measure shot. The numbers are somewhat different than the equivalencies one finds with the traditional larger-diameter shotgun combination powder and shot measures, with the smaller diameter measures giving less shot or more powder, whichever way you want to look at it. In the shotgun measures and the traditional published equivalencies, 1.1/4oz of shot = 3dr of powder. The difference is due to the ratio of shot diameter to measure diameter and efficient hexagonal close packing in the middle but places around the periphery where there is not room for a shot pellet. This effect gets larger as the the ratio of shot diameter to measure diameter increases, regardless of measure diameter, but is naturally less in a larger diameter measure - larger pellets always throw a lighter weight than smaller ones in a given measure, and a narrow measure always throws less weight of a given shot than a wider measure of the same volume. Powder weights do not vary similarly because the grains are much smaller than the measure dimensions, and they are not spheres of uniform size.

Regards,
Joel

 

[BrownBear]

...larger pellets always throw a lighter weight than smaller ones in a given measure....

Modern reloading machine rather than hand held shot measure, but I can sure verify that. We used a 1 7/8 oz charge bar to drop charges of #8's (don't ask why!), and the resulting shells just about tore our arms off. Got out the scale, and while the bar did in fact drop 1 7/8 oz of #2 shot, it was feeding us just over 2 1/8 oz of #8's!

Who knows what pressures we were generating....

 

[Roguedog]

Yeah it does Zonie. My gun states on the barrel a maximum charge of 89 grains of blackpowder. Based on your chart, that should be consistent with a 1.25 oz shot load which is about as heavy as I go.

Jeff

 

[Darto]

Another place for reasonably priced round ball is down near the bottom of this page:
http://gadcustomcartridges.com/

 

[satx78247]

To ALL,

I hunted (years ago) with my grandfather's compatriots (all of them "walked on" >25 years ago.) & they effectively took a LOT of deer with their muzzleloading shotguns, with buckshot.
(Our "deer woods" are THICK BRUSH & SWAMPS, where you can seldom see more than @30 yards. - BTW, my first cousin took a 9-pointer, year before last, at NINE LONG STEPS with "double ought" out of a 13 gauge fowler.)

yours, satx

 

[BrownBear]

It's hard to beat first-hand experience!

Excellent, and thanks. :hatsoff:

 

[Joel/Calgary]

larger pellets always throw a lighter weight than smaller ones in a given measure, and a narrow measure always throws less weight of a given shot than a wider measure of the same volume. Powder weights do not vary similarly because the grains are much smaller than the measure dimensions, and they are not spheres of uniform size.

Finally remembered another thing that will give different shot-charge weights: mixed shot sizes will generally give heavier charges than uniform shot in a given measure, and the wider the range of shot sizes, the heavier the resulting charge weight. [mode=geologist] It's the same thing with sediment & sedimentary rock - the better the sorting of the grains (= more uniform size shot), the higher the porosity (= lighter charge weight). [/mode]

Regards,
Joel

 

[satx78247]

To: BrownBear,

Those "old gents" were obviously my grandfather's friends but they treated me with great courtesy & never made the "wet behind the ears kid" feel small, as I was "The Senator's grandson" & therefore got to "tag along". - After he "walked on" in 11/1961, I still was allowed "to tag along".
(For example, "Mister Roy" Shankle gave me my first "semi-official" drink of 'shine, straight out of the fruit-jar, when I was 13. - I remember him saying, "You got to learn to handle your guns & white likker sometime & this seems like near the time".)

yours, satx

 

[Wes/Tex]

Had an 'Uncle Bill' (real name Millard??!!) who did about the same for me...only basic difference was he favored sour mash, namely Henry McKenna! "Her you go, try a gargle of my sore throat cure"!! It's a wonder we lived to be normal!!

 

[nkbj]

After coming back from being sniper in France my grandfather used No.4 buck for deer hunting rather than a 30-06. Yeah, experience.

 

[satx78247]

YEP. Exactly so. - Otoh, I don't remember that a gulp of white likker ever hurt me much. - In NE TX, we measure corn production by the half-gallon, rather than by the bushel!
(FYI, my mother was NOT really happy with "Mr. Roy", when someone "slipped" & told off on us.)

Btw, one of the main reasons that we "swamp-stompers" and river bottom folks use buckshot, in breechloaders & muzzleloaders, is SAFETY. - When you cannot see beyond 30M, shooting a round/minie ball or modern bullet can be "a real problem".

yours, satx

 

[daniel collums]

last week i tired 6 different loads through the single shot. i used 70 grs powder and 9 pellets of oo. then tried #1buck, at 25 yards i got 3 pellets in the heart lung area in all the shots except 1 and made a head and neck hit in it. but when i moved back to 35 and 40 yards the kill hits left in almost every shot, and most of the shot left the target. its not what i was hoping for so i will stick with the 50 and 54 cal. and leave the buckshot shooting for the modern shotguns.

 

[BrownBear]

Good test and report. Thanks!

 

[crockett]

Yeah- good information. That was sort of what I figured could be obtained with buckshot in a muzzle loader. You ought to try a PRB- I bet the accuracy is far better.