Buffered loads?

[bigbore442001]

I just aquired a TC Black Mountain 12 guage magnum with a removable full choke tube. I really like it and plan to shoot some loads this Sunday. Hopefully I will be able to shoot it for the rest of the turkey season. I might even get a bird if things get better for me.

Anyways. I was wondering about adding some corn meal or grits to the shot in order to make a buffered load. Would that work? Better yet, would it be safe to do? Has anyone done this on the board? I am looking for the tightest possible turkey load and figured that if modern shotshells are buffered, why not load a column of buffered shot ? Thanks for any replies.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Unless you use a synthetic buffering substance, the natural substances like corn meal or " grits " will soak up moisture from the air, and cause additional pressure in the gun. I doubt it will endanger the gun or the shooter, but the recoil you get might be a big surprise. And the pattern might not be as tight as you thought, when you patterned the load with DRY " grits". If you seal the bore with a couple of OS cards, any moisture getting to the buffering substance should be minimal, no matter what the weather. In Flinters, I would be much more worried about moisture getting through the vent hole to the powder charge, than to the buffer.

I don't know how well that will work. It works well in modern cartridges because we use Plastic shotcups to hold the shot, and protect the bore from leading streaks. In a MLer, the lead pellets are still rubbing against the bore, leaving lead streak deposits, and rubbing flats on the those outside pellets. Pellets with flats on them are going to quickly slow down, and leave the main pattern, so unless you also use some kind of paper or plastic shot cup with the buffers, I don't think buffers are going to fill your pattern much better.

BTW, putting buffers down the barrel with the shot takes more time, and works best if you put in some shot, then some buffer, then more shot, then more buffer, etc. If you put all the shot down the barrel first, the buffer has to be small enough to work its way down between the pellets to fill in all the voids. Corn meal, and " grits" usually are not fine enough to do this.

Try it out. The worse that happens is that you don't see any improvement, and try something else. If you do find some success, share it with the rest of us. :thumbsup:

 

[Leatherbark]

I believe its on "Caywoods" site that there is an article about using "Jiffy" corn meal mix in the shot for buffer and only using overshot wads (3or4) and one over the shot......After the powder is loaded down the bore you put the 3 or 4 overshot wads down in the barrel an inch or so and put the shot in on top and sprinkle the "Jiffy" mix in and shake the gun to get the buffer down into the shot and then with an overshot card ram the mess down the barrel.................This was developed for open bored guns though..................Bob