Navy Arms Wild Turkey Federation Anniversary

[F_Thomas]

I purchased a Navy Arms Wild Turkey Federation Anniversary model - 1983 off this site a few weeks ago and have been assemblying the components needed to take it to the range and out hunting.

I know that one barrell is full choked and I believe that the other is modified. I don't have access to a Boremaster to measure the barrels, but guess I could pay a gun smith to do that for me. I don't know if that is really necessary though.

Does anyone here have any recommendations for loads for this particular gun. Additionally, I would like to shoot PRB from one or both of the barrels. I could only find a CVA manual online and Navy Arms said that they turned all their information into the ATF and no longer have anything to offier. I also have found information in a black powder book on recommended loads and thought that I would start with 70 grains of ffg and 1 oz of 7 1/2 for shot and 70 grains ffg and a .69 PRB with a .15 to .20 lubed patch.

I really am excited to get to go out and try and hunt some quail. I think I have read somewhere that decreasing the powder charge will open the pattern up and vice versa. I don't feel the need to go with more than 70 grains. I hope that this is where I begin to learn the true versatility of a black powder smoothbore!

 

[mathews]

Increasing the powder will open the pattern.

 

[F_Thomas]

:idunno:

Thanks! Increase powder to open the pattern.

 

[Congress Own Regiment]

welcome to the double black powder world. Nice shotgun by the way.
Is lead still legal in south CA?
Will you be using fiber wads or plastic?
Is quail the only game you will peruse?
sounds like you are on the right track of thought on loads. Every shotgun is different and it will take a bit of tinkering on your part to find the loads that work best for your shotgun and type of competent you choose.
Pattern your shotgun on paper as if working up a turkey load to see ware it hit and how tight the pattern is and to find out if the load you are using shoots doughnut holes in the pattern.If it is shooting doughnut holes the back off powder a few grain and see if it goes away. if that does not work change wad or how wad is loaded.
PRB it is most likely that you will only have one barrel that you can get to be close to point of aim. but some times we get lucky.
Ballistic Products or Track of the Wolf would be great places to find you shotgun supply needs.
Any problem you encounter can be answered if asked here there is shore to be someone that has been there done that on this forum.

 

[F_Thomas]

Having just read Bob's Black Powder Notebook on Black Powder Shotgun Basics I question the need for the cushion wad over the top of the over the powder card.

Any thoughts and experience without the cushion wads verses with?

 

[BrownBear]

Any thoughts and experience without the cushion wads verses with?

I've been getting terrific results with a lubed .125" cardboard wad and nothing else between the powder and shot. They're hard as nails, and in fact scrape fouling from the bore as you seat them too, as an added bonus. Track of the Wolf calls them Type A wads. Initially I just dipped them in olive oil and let them sit overnight. But after a few days it soaked in too much and they got too dry. Lately I've been coating them with a mix of 7 parts olive oil to one part beeswax. It works well too, plus it doesn't soak in and disappear.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I still believe cushion wads were simply filler wads to be used in brass, then later, paper shotgun shells, particularly when the switch was made to using smokeless powder.

I have tried loads with and without the cushion wads, and get better patterns without them.

I load an OP wad, 1/8" vegetable fiber on the powder, then I like an OS card, so I have a slick, smooth, hard surface pushing the load of shot out the barrel. Then the load of shot, followed by one or two OS cards( I use two cards to lock the OS card, and shot in the barrels of my DBL shotgun. In a single barrel fowler, there is no need to use a second OS card, provided that the cards are the right diameter.

The last thing I have begun doing is running a greased cleaning patch down and up the barrel, to lube the bore, eliminate lead streaks, reduce deformation of the outer pellets of the load that rub against the bore, and then soften the BP residue in the barrel for easy cleaning. Loading this way, I basically keep the fowler one shot "dirty" at most. The tight fitting OP wad will scrape most of the BP residue down the barrel into the next( new) powder charge, to burn up, or be blown out the barrel, when the shot is fired.

Only when I observe condensation of moisture on the inside of the barrel on very humid days in the field, will I stop and wipe out the residue after each shot.

There is NO ONE RULE that works all the time. Shooting BP anything requires the shooter to THINK, OBSERVE, and MODIFY his loading and cleaning procedures to meet the circumstances, particularly changes in weather. :hmm: