The late Robert "Curly" Gastomski was nothing, if not inventive. Any of you who had the treat of meeting him in the flesh, know what I mean. He was probably the leading force in the popularity of the Northwest Trade Gun. His North Star Enterprises has transformed into the current North Star West, one of the leading makers of muzzleloading guns. Curly was always fiddling around with his guns and came up with the following shot cups made from shotgun shell hulls.
He used 28 guage empty hulls to make shot cups for his .62 smoothbore. Basically, the method is to crimp the empty shell and cut off the brass base of the hull. From this point, the open end is "UP" and the crimped end is "DOWN". He cut out three 'wings' or 'flaps' at the bottom, immediately above the crimp. The 'wings' were 1/2 inch long, or 'up', and 1/4 inch wide, left attached at the bottom. The method was to insert the hull into the bore, making sure to see the 'wings' were in their cutouts to prevent shot from touching the bore and being damaged. The shot load was poured in, a over-shot card laid on top and the whole pushed down on the card and wad already seated on the powder. The shot cup protected the shot and landed about 15 to 20 feet beyond the muzzle. Obviously, the 'wings' opened as the hull left the bore and caused the drag that allowed the shot to fly on to the target. Interestingly, he noted the shot mass seemed to stay together out to about 20 yards until beginning to open up. This allowed Curly to win a number of trap shoots and take several turkeys with a .62 cylinder-bore smoothbore.
Recently, I found my long put away info on this and thought I'd see if the idea of using the next smallest shotgun shell hull would work for each guage, basically a 28 in a 20, a 20 in a 16, a 16 in a 12 and a 12 in a 10 guage. Didn't work out that way. The following is what the normal "standard" bore size is and the actual outside diameter of the different shotgun shell hulls miked out to be.
10 guage...(bore).775"...(hull diameter).825"
12 guage...(bore).729"...(hull diameter).785"
16 guage...(bore).662"...(hull diameter).712"
20 guage...(bore).615"...(hull diameter).675"
28 guage...(bore).550"...(hull diameter).596"
Obviously, these sizes indicate a 28 does work in a 20 guage but things don't work out well after that. A 16 should work in a 12 but that's it. Then I remembered that Fiocchi made some odd European guages, namely 14, 24 and 32 guage. Since I didn't have any of these to mike, I found the standard guages ran about 91% to 93% when comparing "standard" bore diameter to actual hull diameter. Using 93% as a standard, it being the larger diameter and would figure out to be the largest diameter possible, I figured this for those odder guages.
14 guage...(bore).693"...(hull diameter).746"
24 guage...(bore).580"...(hull diameter).625"
32 guage...(bore).501"...(hull diameter).540"
These might be workable with .540" in a .55 bore and if the bore is a bit large, the .746" in a Brown Bess bore of .75 or slightly larger. All I can recommend is you try and see how things work. The Fiocchi brand has a web site and do know Graf & Sons did carry them but don't know about theri current stock. You might find odd shells at gun stores and gun shows before buying a full box of odd guages. The results might truly be worth the effort. Good luck guys.
He used 28 guage empty hulls to make shot cups for his .62 smoothbore. Basically, the method is to crimp the empty shell and cut off the brass base of the hull. From this point, the open end is "UP" and the crimped end is "DOWN". He cut out three 'wings' or 'flaps' at the bottom, immediately above the crimp. The 'wings' were 1/2 inch long, or 'up', and 1/4 inch wide, left attached at the bottom. The method was to insert the hull into the bore, making sure to see the 'wings' were in their cutouts to prevent shot from touching the bore and being damaged. The shot load was poured in, a over-shot card laid on top and the whole pushed down on the card and wad already seated on the powder. The shot cup protected the shot and landed about 15 to 20 feet beyond the muzzle. Obviously, the 'wings' opened as the hull left the bore and caused the drag that allowed the shot to fly on to the target. Interestingly, he noted the shot mass seemed to stay together out to about 20 yards until beginning to open up. This allowed Curly to win a number of trap shoots and take several turkeys with a .62 cylinder-bore smoothbore.
Recently, I found my long put away info on this and thought I'd see if the idea of using the next smallest shotgun shell hull would work for each guage, basically a 28 in a 20, a 20 in a 16, a 16 in a 12 and a 12 in a 10 guage. Didn't work out that way. The following is what the normal "standard" bore size is and the actual outside diameter of the different shotgun shell hulls miked out to be.
10 guage...(bore).775"...(hull diameter).825"
12 guage...(bore).729"...(hull diameter).785"
16 guage...(bore).662"...(hull diameter).712"
20 guage...(bore).615"...(hull diameter).675"
28 guage...(bore).550"...(hull diameter).596"
Obviously, these sizes indicate a 28 does work in a 20 guage but things don't work out well after that. A 16 should work in a 12 but that's it. Then I remembered that Fiocchi made some odd European guages, namely 14, 24 and 32 guage. Since I didn't have any of these to mike, I found the standard guages ran about 91% to 93% when comparing "standard" bore diameter to actual hull diameter. Using 93% as a standard, it being the larger diameter and would figure out to be the largest diameter possible, I figured this for those odder guages.
14 guage...(bore).693"...(hull diameter).746"
24 guage...(bore).580"...(hull diameter).625"
32 guage...(bore).501"...(hull diameter).540"
These might be workable with .540" in a .55 bore and if the bore is a bit large, the .746" in a Brown Bess bore of .75 or slightly larger. All I can recommend is you try and see how things work. The Fiocchi brand has a web site and do know Graf & Sons did carry them but don't know about theri current stock. You might find odd shells at gun stores and gun shows before buying a full box of odd guages. The results might truly be worth the effort. Good luck guys.
