For the opening 3-days of dove season I used a composed pair of what are really 13-gauge SxS ML's. When I say a pair, they are the same company, stock dimensions, barrel length - in fact they were made just 2-years apart. The one and only difference is that one is choked Sk/IM and the other is LM/IM. That's how they measure and that is factory.
Anyway, I had a loader with me. He is learning ML's and shooting and wanted to observe and help. For simplicity I set up 3 dishes. One had powder, one corn meal and one shot. This simplified and expedited loading. Same scoop of powder, corn meal and shot followed by a thin over-powder card. The scoop was set at 1-oz and the shot size was #8 (hard shot). The system worked well and as intended but the results were'nt what I am used to.
Usually, I load powder, hard card (1 for an ounce, 2 for 1.125 ounce and 3 for 1.25 oz) shot and over-shot thin card. During a day using "cards" I may load a damp fibre wad if the loading gets rough or the bores seem very dirty. I use these guns and this combo on 90% of all shotgun needs for about the past 7-years.
My shot to hit ratio was lower than it has ever been. After a few sits on the doves, I went to a standard trap machine, shooting from the house (not the 16-yard line). I did not hit any of the 8 (two shots per barrel both guns) where I usually get all of them. This is with the corn meal loads.
For the last sit I went back to the cards and did not use corn meal. My hits on doves went up noticeably. More curious, I went back to the trap machine. Loading with the cards, I hit all the clays.
Apparently these guns don't care for corn meal. There's too much history and repetition to say it was a coincidence or just a bad day. I wanted the corn meal to work, as I thought it was easy and quick to load and deal with when stationary hunting. It must be effecting the patterns somehow, or a significant change in velocity. I wonder why?
Anyway, I had a loader with me. He is learning ML's and shooting and wanted to observe and help. For simplicity I set up 3 dishes. One had powder, one corn meal and one shot. This simplified and expedited loading. Same scoop of powder, corn meal and shot followed by a thin over-powder card. The scoop was set at 1-oz and the shot size was #8 (hard shot). The system worked well and as intended but the results were'nt what I am used to.
Usually, I load powder, hard card (1 for an ounce, 2 for 1.125 ounce and 3 for 1.25 oz) shot and over-shot thin card. During a day using "cards" I may load a damp fibre wad if the loading gets rough or the bores seem very dirty. I use these guns and this combo on 90% of all shotgun needs for about the past 7-years.
My shot to hit ratio was lower than it has ever been. After a few sits on the doves, I went to a standard trap machine, shooting from the house (not the 16-yard line). I did not hit any of the 8 (two shots per barrel both guns) where I usually get all of them. This is with the corn meal loads.
For the last sit I went back to the cards and did not use corn meal. My hits on doves went up noticeably. More curious, I went back to the trap machine. Loading with the cards, I hit all the clays.
Apparently these guns don't care for corn meal. There's too much history and repetition to say it was a coincidence or just a bad day. I wanted the corn meal to work, as I thought it was easy and quick to load and deal with when stationary hunting. It must be effecting the patterns somehow, or a significant change in velocity. I wonder why?
