testing Skychief's special load

[George]

In another thread, Skychief said:

Hopefully you will consider sharing this account in a thread of its own. Might get more attention versus buried within this thread. It's a heck of a hunting load which would benefit many here.

Happy to.

Under cover of the "shock and awe" of our 4th of July fireworks, I did a one-shot test of Skychief's special (and weird :wink: ) load using my flintlock smoothbore, 46", 20 gauge, cylinder bore. The load was 60 grains 2F, one 1/8" hard card, 1 ounce of #5 chilled shot, a thin overshot wad, topped with a 1/2" cushion wad soaked in olive oil to a weight of 35 grains. I set up a piece of cardboard 46" x 32" with a half sheet of typing paper 8.5" x 5.5" as an aiming spot taped on. Measured off 50 yards, aimed a bit high to allow for the drop and fired one shot.

When I counted the hits I was pretty surprised. There were 7 in the typing paper spot, dead squirrel, 162 in the top of the cardboard. That seemed strange, since 1 ounce of #5 shot has only 170 pellets. My stash of #5 shot has had a little smaller shot mixed in by accident over the years, so I suspected there might have been more than 170 pellets in my load. To check that I measured out 1 ounce of #5 from my stash and counted them, got 180 pellets. So, almost all the shot charge was on the cardboard, in an area 32" x 36". From a cylinder bore, at 50 yards? Impressive.





I had used this exact same load in this gun on my last squirrel hunt and got a shot at a big fox squirrel at 25 yards in the clear. It was very thoroughly killed, had to discard some meat.

I ran a patterning test with this load a couple of years ago at 20 yards, and had essentially the same result, pellet count was more like a full choke than a cylinder bore.

I plan to continue checking out this unusual load when squirrel season opens in August, will carry my double flintlock and load one barrel with Skychief's load, one with my regular load using 2 hard cards over powder and no cushion wad. I think the squirrels are in serious trouble, got 'em covered near and far. :wink:

There's little doubt in my mind that this load will reach out and get them better than most any other load I've ever tried, and I've tried a lot.

Skychief... :thumbsup:

Spence

 

[BrownBear]

Measured off 50 yards, aimed a bit high to allow for the drop and fired one shot.

Holy cow....

 

[The Baron]

Wow! And from such a mild load, too. :hmm:

I've added this exact recipe to my list to try on my next outing. Thanks! :thumbsup:

 

[Skychief]

At the risk of being labeled "biased", that's a heckuva 50 yard pattern. Not to mention from a cylinder bore! :shocked2: :shocked2: :shocked2:

Excellent result Spence. Thanks for trying the load and posting.

I'll get the grease hot. :wink:

Best regards, Skychief

 

[George]

I said, "I ran a patterning test with this load a couple of years ago at 20 yards, and had essentially the same result, pellet count was more like a full choke than a cylinder bore."

Truth in advertising....I checked my records, and that test was done at 25 yards, not 20.

Spence

 

[BrownBear]

At the risk of opening a can of worms, I keep thinking about this and what could possibly be going on.

Current candidate is that the top wad is taking the brunt of the air, and the shot trailing behind is less dispersed by the air. Kind of a "drafting" sort of deal, with the top wad not falling back through the shot column until the shot has already started to disperse. Idle speculation without a whole bunch of photos, but that's my current "makes sense to me" brand of thinking.

Whatever the explanation, it seems to work consistently.

 

[George]

Yeah, I've given it some thought and concluded that...it makes no sense.

The idea of drafting is as good as I can come up with, but....

It makes no sense, can't work, card trick, smoke and mirrors.

I'm waiting for Skychief to explain it to us. :grin:

Spence

 

[Skychief]

I said, "I ran a patterning test with this load a couple of years ago at 20 yards, and had essentially the same result, pellet count was more like a full choke than a cylinder bore."

Truth in advertising....I checked my records, and that test was done at 25 yards, not 20.

Spence

Even better! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[coloradoclyde]

At the risk of opening a can of worms, I keep thinking about this and what could possibly be going on.

Current candidate is that the top wad is taking the brunt of the air, and the shot trailing behind is less dispersed by the air. Kind of a "drafting" sort of deal, with the top wad not falling back through the shot column until the shot has already started to disperse. Idle speculation without a whole bunch of photos, but that's my current "makes sense to me" brand of thinking.

Whatever the explanation, it seems to work consistently.

I agree....Especially if you think about it mathematically... Any reduction in dispersion is translated down range even if it is only a milisecond....Both in the cone or triangle of the pattern and in terms of reduced velocity.
A modern shotgun wad does the same thing by preventing dispersion for a millisecond or two.

 

[Skychief]

It makes no sense, can't work, card trick, smoke and mirrors.

I'm waiting for Skychief to explain it to us. :grin:

Spence

I don't think so, huh-uh, no way! Or, as they might say in Britsmoothy's land....Not bloody likely!!! :haha:

 

[Skychief]

Say Spence, I wonder how your Colrane Turkey Barrel would pattern the same weight of shot, same size pellets, same distance??? :idunno:

Just a random wonderment, Skychief :hmm:

 

[kurts]

I think that the heavy wad up front keeps the shot in a clump and does not allow the shot to rattle down the bore with nothing to slow it down.

 

[George]

Say Spence, I wonder how your Colrane Turkey Barrel would pattern the same weight of shot, same size pellets, same distance???

An interesting question. That barrel is tightly choked, more than full, so I'm sure it would do well. I never patterned it at more than 35 yards, though, and that was with a turkey load of 80 gr. 3F and 1 1/2 ounce #6. The one shot I ever took at a squirrel with it was at 50 yards, and there was a fair meat damage, but it was with that turkey load.

Spence

 

[The Baron]

I think that the heavy wad up front keeps the shot in a clump and does not allow the shot to rattle down the bore with nothing to slow it down.

The drafting explanation makes sense, but this is also extremely logical. I believe the "Skychief phenomenon" (it's a new law of physics) is a combination of the two.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Your all wrong :rotf:

The heavy wad does not slow up quickly and veirs off without the shot column bumping into as it does with a thin and light weight card!

B.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Makes you wonder what else those old timers knew that has passed into the 'forgotten' category!

 

[swathdiver]

At the risk of opening a can of worms, I keep thinking about this and what could possibly be going on.

Current candidate is that the top wad is taking the brunt of the air, and the shot trailing behind is less dispersed by the air. Kind of a "drafting" sort of deal...

Speaking of cans, I wonder if that load has enough energy to penetrate a tuna or soup can at that distance? I reckon it does.

Our ancestors didn't build shot columns like we do today; they used tow or whatever else worked for them and kept the loading simple. Reading "On The Wing" by Bumstead, it seems it was not unusual to take game out to 40-50 yards with cylinder bore barrels.

We also know of what were they called... the candle loads made from tallow and beeswax; those could reach out and bring game to table.

I shall also try this next time out. Might need to pick another range, my regular patterning board is now set to maybe 30 yards.

 

[hunts4deer]

Spence, You wrote:
"The load was 60 grains 2F, one 1/8" hard card, 1 ounce of #5 chilled shot, a thin overshot wad, topped with a 1/2" cushion wad soaked in olive oil"

I'm Curious as to how you rammed. Was it one component at a time, or the whole column at once? Or some combination?

I worry that the tight seal of the 1/2 inch wad would tip the bottom hard card at an angle to let air pass.

Any thoughts?

 

[The Baron]

I don't mean to answer for Spence, but I load and seat each component individually. Powder gets poured in, then whatever over powder cards gets seated to compress the powder sightly, any extra wad then gets seated, followed by the shot, with an o/s card seated gently. Last but not least (if I'm using it that day) the Skychief special EVOO saturated fiber wad goes down by itself at the end. And when I'm using the saturated wad trick, I hold a rag or piece of paper towel around the muzzle to mop up the excess olive oil that squishes out.

 

[George]

I'm Curious as to how you rammed. Was it one component at a time, or the whole column at once? Or some combination?

I rammed each component separately. I do it that way with all my loads except in fairly rare special situations.

I think that if you loaded powder, rammed the 1/8" card, loaded shot, then you could ram both the thin overshot care and the 1/2" cushion wad together without causing any problem.

Spence