Learning to shoot a 12ga SxS

[YJake]

I’ve shot unmentionable shotguns my whole life and even experimented with shot in my Brown Bess for a bit, but I finally decided to get a Pedersoli SxS to do some real patterning and clay shooting. All for fun of course.

My model has the interchangeable chokes. Not terribly HC, but I bought a pair of cylinder bore chokes to provide more options and be more HC when I want to.

For reference, all of my shots were taken with the following shot column and a square load of 2.5 drams.
- Powder/Nitro Card/Shot/Shot Card

Here’s a pattern shot at about 25 yards. Modified choke right, full choke left. I was fairly impressed for only 1oz of #7 shot.

I was 18 for 20 on hand thrown clays. It can be difficult to tell if it was a solid hit or not due to the smoke cloud, but it sure was fun vaporizing them. I went to a slightly heavier 1-1/8oz square load here that still seemed light on recoil compared to a 12ga unmentionable.

Now I decided to experiment with the cylinder bore chokes. I was never able to shoot round ball well with my Bess using military paper cartridges so I decided to patch the round balls in the SxS. My charge was 80gr FFg, nitro card, and a .69 round ball patched with red pillow ticking. VERY impressed! Both barrels stay on the steel plate shooting offhand at 25 yards. Recoil is stout but with a little work this load could be used for deer at close range. Nice muzzle blast too!

The last thing I tried was a pattern with buckshot. I chose 80gr of FFg, nitro card, 9 00BK pellets, and a shot card. From a cylinder bore again, very impressed! At 25 yards all 9 pellets were on the steel plate!

Overall I’m very satisfied with the shotgun. The chokes obviously help the shot groups, but I was very surprised how accurately it shot .69 round ball and even more impressed how tight my buckshot load was at 25 yards. I plan to run a few clay courses with it for fun, the slow reloading and attention to detail made it an enjoyable day on the range.

-Jake

 

[jdesro]

Nice! I have a Pedersoli on the way to me right now - though I got the one with fixed chokes. I'm looking forward to trying it out - I hope the results I get will be similar to yours!

 

[Howie1968]

very nice!!! i was seeking some of thew same info our loads are similar but i use 6 shot and 1 1/4 of shot 80 grains powder. those pedersolis have some recoil for how small they are i have a pedersoli kodiak 72 sxs and i like my 12 bore sxs better, alot lighter

 

[YJake]

very nice!!! i was seeking some of thew same info our loads are similar but i use 6 shot and 1 1/4 of shot 80 grains powder. those pedersolis have some recoil for how small they are i have a pedersoli kodiak 72 sxs and i like my 12 bore sxs better, alot lighter

I was holding my face too forward on the stock the first few shots and got a few good thumps on the cheek. A little repositioning fixed everything up. I’m looking forward to doing some more clay shooting and trying to zero my round ball loads at 25 yards. If only it would cool off a little bit outside!

-Jake

 

[4575wcf]

I have been trying to get Lyman's Foster slug to work in my old Navy Arms 12 gauge for awhile. I thought it would perform like a minie ball, so I loaded it right over the powder. It shoots just awful. I think I will try it with a card under and a card over and try to get it to squeeze out to bore diameter like the shotshell loaded ones are supposed to do in my new to me heavier Navy Arms 12 gauge. If it can be made to work one of those in the most accurate barrel while bird hunting would make a close shot on a deer possible. I could get pretty silly over one of those double rifled .72's from Pedersoli, but too much green for my blood.

 

[Britsmoothy]

I have been trying to get Lyman's Foster slug to work in my old Navy Arms 12 gauge for awhile. I thought it would perform like a minie ball, so I loaded it right over the powder. It shoots just awful. I think I will try it with a card under and a card over and try to get it to squeeze out to bore diameter like the shotshell loaded ones are supposed to do in my new to me heavier Navy Arms 12 gauge. If it can be made to work one of those in the most accurate barrel while bird hunting would make a close shot on a deer possible. I could get pretty silly over one of those double rifled .72's from Pedersoli, but too much green for my blood.

Couple of nitro cards should fix that.

 

[3Setters]

To me, those are great patterns if you are looking to hunt turkey, but way to tight if you are hunting small game.

 

[YJake]

To me, those are great patterns if you are looking to hunt turkey, but way to tight if you are hunting small game.

I have an IC choke to try if I plan to hunt small game at closer distances. I hadn’t really intended to do much hunting with this thing but now you’ve got the gears turning and you’re right, that full choke is about perfect for a turkey’s head at 25 yards or maybe even farther.

I may try recording a pattern with each choke that I have at several different yardages so I have data to reference in the future.

I would have to pull the barrels but I believe the max load stamped on them is 1-1/4oz shot over 89gr of powder. Seems conservative to me but I haven’t even worked up a load that high yet.

-Jake

 

[4575wcf]

You really don't give up that much performance with the black powder shotgun. The cloud of smoke can interfere with seeing the bird go down alright, and the gun is a dirty thing to handle in the field. I usually come home looking like chimney sweep if I have shot the equivalent of a box of shells through it. The leads, and the ranges seem to be about the same otherwise. The gun does slow your hunt down, and you are a bit more selective about the shots you take. My bird to shot average is usually a little better than with a modern shotgun. The percussion double is still my favorite bird gun, and I think a high quality flinter could be a great deal of fun too. Teal, quail, chukar partridge, pheasant, and one coyote have been taken with my first Navy Arms double over the years. My kit has arrived at a big powder flask, a wooden shot flask, a homemade canvas copy of a CW forage bag with compartments sewn in for caps and tools, with two wad pouches sewn on in the front. A rain gear liner sewn into the main pouch with a couple of grommet holes at the bottom serves as a game bag. And away I go.