Mike Belliveau Load

[Stobey]

In the latest Muzzleloader magazine and in one of his videos Mike Belliveau advocates 100 grains ffg and 2 ounces of shot in his 20 gauge.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Skychief]

Dental work is expensive, comes to mind! :haha:

 

[Juice Jaws]

My thoughts are this, what are you trying to kill? Shooting paper or iron targets way too much. Killing bear, up it another 20 grains of powder.

 

[Stumpkiller]

If you can't wing shoot well, shoot lots. ;-)

I think that was the motto of the Iraqi anti-aircraft gunners in Desert Storm. :haha:

 

[tenngun]

Its more then what I shoot, but I dont think it unsafe.Bunnies dont seem to care.

 

[George]

While working up a turkey load for my 20 gauge smooth rifle several years ago I tried loads which were essentially that. I was working with 3F at that time, so I loaded 80 grains 3F, closely equivalent to 100 grains 2F, and a full 2 ounces of shot, #6 and #7 1/2. I got good patterns with both at 25 yards, even and dense, with about a dozen lethal hits on a full-size turkey head silhouette. Penetration was better with the #6 than the #7 1/2. I carried the gun loaded that way on a couple of hunts, never got a shot to test it for real. I continued working on the load, found patterns just about as good with 80 grains 3F and 1 1/2 ounce of shot, so switched to that because of the reduced recoil.

I've watched Mikes video, and am going to be increasing my small game loads for a while to see if his ideas work for me in the field. Loads similar to his, or even heavier, are described in the old literature as being routine for 'shooting flying'. Thomas Page, 1767, shot an equal-volume load of 123 grains powder and 2 ounces of shot.

Spence

 

[coloradoclyde]

What Mike shoots is what Mike shoots.......

Me? .....I'm fond of lighter loads...like a 50 3/4 load.....
To each their own..... :v

 

[Juice Jaws]

They would of done better shooting well.

 

[BlackJack]

Yeah, agree with that. Mike said in his video that this is the load he's worked out with his French Fusil de Chasse and likes it. Doesn't mean it's the final word on all loads for all 20ga instruments.

Mine is a 38" bbl and does well with 65gr of 3f and 2 oz of shot. My turkey load is a mix of half 6's and half 7.5's. Thats the powder load I push .61 round balls with also (fixed measure, don't you know) but I'm probably going to kick that up because they tend to hit low.

 

[Zonie]

I guess I'm strange but the idea of shooting a 10 guage or 3 1/2" 12 guage load of shot out of a 20 guage seems to be stretching things more than a little.

It sounds like a good way to over-stress the gun barrel and stock to me.

Oh well. Different strokes for different folks as the saying goes. :shake:

 

[Alden]

I think he knows what grain of powder goes in a .62 longun for starts...

 

[gmannx217]

I played with my 20 GA smooth rifle up to 110 grns 2f. I never thought recoil was bad; No more than my remaining 7600 carbine in .30-06.

And I think I'm recoil sensitive.

 

[Tinker2]

In the latest Muzzleloader magazine and in one of his videos Mike Belliveau advocates 100 grains ffg and 2 ounces of shot in his 20 gauge.

What are your thoughts?

What Mike Belliveau advocates is ”¦. Entertaining ?
That all it is meant to be, he is a writer


William Alexander

 

[tenngun]

A smooth rifle might have a bit more barrel to absorb recoil then a fusil. I think you should shoot what works for you, but you can't get deader then dead. I just can't see that the bigger charges are going to make it a better killer.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

I have seen that load used on the rabbit clay shot at the ML National's Quail walk.

They are hard clay discs that are thrown along the ground and tough to break.

The other 9 shots are aerial clay bird shots at various speeds and angles. These are shot with a more typical load.

 

[spudnut]

shouldn't hurt the gun if its loaded properly .I only use 90 of 2F and 1 and a half measures of shot in my brown bess,
doesn't hardly kick at all

 

[Zonie]

Well, let's see....

2 ounces of shot equals 2 X (7000/16) grains.

That makes the shot load equal to 875 grains of lead....

875 grains loaded over 100 grains of 2Fg powder still seems to sound like a case of overkill..

Especially in a light weight shotgun. :hmm:

 

[pargent]

I tried them last comp on clays and rabbits , improved my scores (with flint 20 gauge ) :thumbsup:

 

[Pete G]

I built a Chambers 20 ga fowler and when starting to work up loads I first tried the standard practice of 60 gr of FF and 1 oz of shot. This load patterned OK out to about 20 yds, but was getting pretty thin at that point. I reasoned that to get more shot in the pattern I would simply put more down the bore, so I opted for what is pretty much a standard 12 ga load of 90 gr of FF and 1-1/4 oz of shot.
After one shot from the lightweight gun I decided not to do that again. That load made the gun deadly on both ends :shocked2:
I have since settled in at 75 gr of FF and a little over 1 oz of shot and try to keep shots at about 25yd or less.

 

[Rifleman1776]

One of our members recently posted a pic of a buff he killed using a charge of 80 gr. But, I suppose a 100 gr. charge would make that buff dedder. Wouldn't it? :shake:
No need for super heavy charges, IMHO. My 20 ga. fowler only weighs one ounce over 5 lb when loaded. A 100 gr. charge would create an unpleasant recoil.f