Test fired my antique 10ga. today

[Todd Rickard]

I received an antique double shotgun in 10 ga. this week. I spent a day repairing the stock and cleaning years of crud out of the tubes. It seemed to be in sound condition, so I decided to prove it safe to shoot.
I fired the gun remotely using a tire and sandbags.
I loaded 120 grains FFg and 827grains of lead. After several shots I changed to 90 grains FFg and three loosly patched .62 balls (975 grains). After six such loads were run through, with no damage visible, I decided to soot it from the shoulder.
I loaded 85 grains FFg and an ounce and half of #7.5 shot. I hand tossed a clay bird, mounted the gun to my shoulder and fired, breaking the clay! What a hoot!
I continued shooting it, trying heavily patched .62 balls, buckshot and shot loads. I even shot four .50 balls at a target board @ 35 yrds. The four balls struck in a pattern about 14" accross and just low of the POA.
I'm looking for a mold to cast .760 or .765 balls for this beast, as well as some 9 ga. wads. The 10 ga. wads were just a bit too easy to ram down. I wouldn't trust them to stay in place when hunting. Anyone need 950 - 10 gauge nitro wads and 990 overshot cards? I'll trade for WHY.

 

[DJ33]

Sounds like you had a fun day of shooting! How old is that 10ga? Congrats on your new gun. How well does it shoot buck shot? What size buck shot? I wouldn't mind trying to shoot that stuff.

 

[Todd Rickard]

The gun was built sometime in the later part of the 1800's, in the USA.
I have several molds I make buckshot in. I use hard wheelweight lead. I used 17 balls about .28 cal. for the load today. It seems to like the buck, but I didn't shoot patterns with it, just knocked down blocks of firewood. I will post when I do some patterns. I just bought a .31 cal mold to make (#1 ??) buckshot for this gun.
I was very impressed with the four .50 balls. I will try it again to see if the small pattern (14") is typical or not. Four .50 cal balls weigh just over 700 grains, so it may be a slow moving load and penetration would have to be tested too.

 

[paulvallandigham]

At the short range you would shoot a shotgun, those .50 cal. 180 grain round balls will penetrate deep. I used 1inch pine boards, spaced an inch apart, and the 50 round ball, at about 15 feet. Went through 6 boards, and smacked the 7th. Since 1 inch pine boards are actually cut at 3/4" , that was 4 1/2 inches of pine wood, and 6 inches of space that was penetrated by the round ball out of a rifle. In flesh, you would expect the round ball shot to completely penetrate the broadside shot on a deer. On a man, it would go out his back on any frontal angle shot.

Here are the diameters for lead buckshot:

#4 Buck = .24"
#3 Buck = .25"
#1 Buck = .30"
#0 Buck = .32"
#00 Buck =.33"
#000 Buck = .36"

I wold assume that your .28" diameter round balls would be approx. #2 Buck, but its not listed, and I suspect it has not been made or sold in years.

If you weight those round balls you get a better idea of why they penetrate as well as they do.
For instance, the OOO Buck weighs in at approx. 45 grains. #0 Buck at .30 cal. weighs in at about 38 grains. #00 Buck at .32 caliber is a little over 40 grains. The .24 and .25 caliber round balls are in the 20 grain area of weights. They make up with quantity what they lack in weight, at close ranges, creating massive wounds. But you want to use something like the 000 Buck, or your 2 .50 cal. round balls in your 10 gauge if you are shooting at some target further than 40 yards, and even those may not all hit the target at those ranges, even though they can kill well past 100 yds.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I went back through some older manuals, and found a diameter for #2 Buck = .27" in diameter. Thought I would add that to my prior posting.

As for determining the size of normal lead shot, we no longer seem to teach the " RULE OF SEVENTEEN", which is: You subtract the Number of your shot size from the number 17, to get the diameter in hundredths of an inch of the pellet. So, for example, If you are shooting #6 shot, subtract 6 from 17, and you get .11" for the diameter. Lead BB are .18, T shot is .20, and F. shot is .22" in diameter. The Iron BBs used in air rifles are .177" in caliber. You cannot use the Steel BBs that are .18 in most pellet rifles, as they will jam the barrel, which is often made of brass, and not steel, and ruin the gun.

 

[Todd Rickard]

The member resources thread actually lists .36 as 75 gr., .32 as 50 gr., and .31 as 45 gr..

As for the penetration of 4 (not two, Paul) .50 balls shot with 85 or 90 grains of powder... well they just won't penetrate like a single ball from a rifle. Mind you, standing in front of the target with four holes in a chest cavity size pattern made me think I would not like to be on the receiving end. I think it may serve well as a tree stand load for deer.
Still, I think buckshot suffers from overblown mystic and ledgend.
I know of a bear that was shot with 00 buck and then led the hunters on a mile long chase that ended dangerously close to a small community. Lack of penetration was to blame, as some of the shot had only penetrated about 4" into muscle and fat. Law enforcment stories tell of fat men wearing leather jackets who survive buckshot to the upper body.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Sounds like you're enjoying the "new" 10 ga. For buckshot to pattern well it must "nest" in the bore. Start a wad just below the muzzle with a loop of thread under it so you can easily pull the wad back out. Then you can drop various size pellets onto the wad and see how they will stack up. No one pellet should be larger than half the bore diameter, in a 10 gauge that would be about .375" which would allow two pellets side by side. Then the next layer of pellets would fit offset from the first layer and so on. Those .490" balls would form only a random stack and when fired they will jam against each other and be badly deformed and also likely lead the bore. The fact that you got a "pattern" of sorts with that load just shows that you never can tell about smoothbores, they have a magic of their own! :grin:

 

[paulvallandigham]

YYour observation about the ineffectiveness of buckshot is why I added the diameters about the size of buckshot. And weight. I would guess you will have to weigh whatever comes out of your mold to know for sure. All I know is that buck shot is for deer, NOT BEAR, and then at very close ranges, or on very small, dog size deer, like you find down South. Here in the Corn Belt, we have 6 month old yearlings that will weigh 120 lbs. live, and 85 lbs dressed. Compare that to the small deer found along the Atlantic Coast, and the Gulf Coast where a mature Buck with horns may not be 100 lbs.