My 12 ga shot load

[PEARL DRUMS]

I am new to throwing shot from a muzzle loader. So I naturally leaned on the Skychief load. It seems to work okay and I hunted it last spring. Yesterday I decided to play around more with all the cards and wads I have. In the end the tightest and best load I came up with was really quite simple. 80 grns 3F under a thin card, then 1.5 ozs of #6 shot followed by another thin card on top. At 25 yards I would have sworn I had a full choke and not an open cylinder. I shot (6) rounds with this load and each of them really peppered my turkey target. Not one of them would have taken a step after the trigger pull. I'm impressed with my results and am looking forward to next spring. I will say the 1.5 ozs of shot lets you know when you pull the trigger. It's a cheek slapper and that always makes me smile. Just thought I would share my results. I love tinkering.

 

[WALT53]

I am new to throwing shot from a muzzle loader. So I naturally leaned on the Skychief load. It seems to work okay and I hunted it last spring. Yesterday I decided to play around more with all the cards and wads I have. In the end the tightest and best load I came up with was really quite simple. 80 grns 3F under a thin card, then 1.5 ozs of #6 shot followed by another thin card on top. At 25 yards I would have sworn I had a full choke and not an open cylinder. I shot (6) rounds with this load and each of them really peppered my turkey target. Not one of them would have taken a step after the trigger pull. I'm impressed with my results and am looking forward to next spring. I will say the 1.5 ozs of shot lets you know when you pull the trigger. It's a cheek slapper and that always makes me smile. Just thought I would share my results. I love tinkering.

Yuppers and less junk to carry around easy pezzy .

 

[TCMonts]

So, I think pics of the gun and the targets would be in order.

 

[PEARL DRUMS]

The targets are already recycled. Here are the barrels after I refinished them last Saturday. I refinished the wood months ago. I put new main springs in both locks and tuned them up, fixed a stripped nipple thread and tuned the triggers as well last weekend. She’s top shelf again.

 

[TCMonts]

Nice color on the barrels did you use oversized nipples?

 

[PEARL DRUMS]

Thank you. I ran a 1/4-28 tap into a 3 mm thread. It worked great and the 1/4-28 nipple threaded down tight and straight. The extra .014” was enough to re-cut the threads. I don’t plan on removing it, ever. Right or wrong, it worked for me this time.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Thank you. I ran a 1/4-28 tap into a 3 mm thread. It worked great and the 1/4-28 nipple threaded down tight and straight. The extra .014” was enough to re-cut the threads. I don’t plan on removing it, ever. Right or wrong, it worked for me this time.

6mm.
I've not removed a nipple for years now!

 

[PEARL DRUMS]

Sorry, yes it was a 6mm CVA nipple and I chased the threads with a 1/4-28 and installed a TC nipple.

 

[Timber Wolf]

Nice, maybe I will get my CVA SXS out someday. I did swap it over to Musket Nipples a while back. No real reason except I bought a thousand Musket caps back when caps first got scarce (glad I did too!)..

 

[TCMonts]

How did you do the barrels?

 

[andy52]

When I'm turkey hunting I load both barrels and don't take any additional gear. Not too many second chances with turkey. I use a duplex load for turkey of equal weights of #4 and #6 shot.

 

[PEARL DRUMS]

The barrels were scrubbed, sanded and buffed clean and smooth. Degreased 3x with Dawn dish soap. I used BC Perma blue on them. Five coats got the darkness I wanted. I love a grey barrel, but turkeys have good eyes and figured a dark barrel would be better.