Patterned the new 20ga kibler fowler

[Texcl2]

Not very scientific but this pattern was at 30 yards with about 1 1/8 oz of #3 bismuth, hornet nest over the powder a thin felt wad greased with olive oil, shot and regular over shot wad. I charged it with a pretty stout load of powder by accident and was pleasantly surprised with how little it kicked and how well it patterned. I shot roundballs with 60 grains of goex 2f and she shot exactly where I was aiming. Unfortunately with the short days and sub-zero weather I didn’t get to shoot as much as I would have liked. I have next week off and will probably chase Hungarian partridge and sharptail grouse as there are a bunch this year. Maybe a pheasant or ruffy if I’m lucky. I have to mention, this gun has the fastest ignition of any large lock I’ve ever owned by a large margin and I’ve owned a bunch. I guess I won’t need to get her jug choked, this pattern is good enough and I haven’t even done any real load development. In my experience un-buffered bismuth usually shoots worse patterns than lead or steel so this is a good start.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Very happy for you it's just why all the various wadding. Why make it complicated?

 

[Texcl2]

Hornet wadding protects the powder from the lube in the felt wad and creates a better seal, the felt wad holds the lube. Plain hornet wadding will work fine but your barrel will foul quicker. The thick fiber wads will often blow patterns so I don’t use them often.

 

[Zutt-man]

Hornet wadding protects the powder from the lube in the felt wad and creates a better seal, the felt wad holds the lube. Plain hornet wadding will work fine but your barrel will foul quicker. The thick fiber wads will often blow patterns so I don’t use them often.

I think what Brit is saying is “don’t over think it”. Find one type of sealer/wad and use just one.

I’ve done this with lubed wads (over powder and over shot) with great success

 

[Britsmoothy]

Hornet wadding protects the powder from the lube in the felt wad and creates a better seal, the felt wad holds the lube. Plain hornet wadding will work fine but your barrel will foul quicker. The thick fiber wads will often blow patterns so I don’t use them often.

I just use thin OS cards X3 over the powder and one on the shot.
Sometimes I scoop some homemade lube from a tin with one of the cards.
Super easy.

 

[Texcl2]

I have a theory that hornet wadding should pattern pretty well since it disintegrates as soon as it leaves the barrel plus it’s free for me. I will test it as an over shot wad too and see what happens though the cardboard ones are super convenient. The only downside is no lube. I don’t find it a whole lot more complicated to add the felt wad, especially target shooting since I usually have all my stuff sitting on a table. I think the over shot card as a wad is good too, it’s just not free lol. Although I’ll probably get a punch eventually. When I hunt I keep my components in tubes and load them from there so it’s all together and easy to quickly load. Sometimes I’ll load the more traditional way too. I hear what y’all are saying though. I will definitely take your advice and try it out.

 

[Leatherbark]

After shooting your Grouse/Patridge, use dry wads and run a greasy patch down the barrel. The late Paul Vallandingham (I molested the spelling) who was a very helpful member here recommended that if I remember correctly. The greased bore helped the pattern.

 

[Texcl2]

I tried a bunch of combinations today, they were all good to be honest. I feel good out to 35 yards which is good for the type of wing shooting I do. The one load that really shined was powder, thin felt wad greased with olive oil, shot then another felt wad as an over shot card. Certainly simplifies things. Might try melted Crisco as a lube for these. In the temps I hunt in, crisco won’t foul the powder. The wasp wadding under the felt wads does seem to increase the velocity and has no effect on the pattern of these loads so will continue using that as the initial load and just carry felt wads for field reloads.