Think I have found my spring turkey load!
 

I loaded up a few light loads with DuPont FG and worked my way up in powder charge weights/loads today. My left barrel definitely has a tighter choke than my right. I started with 1 3/8 oz loads of #6 and worked my way up to a square load of 4.5 drams (116 grains of FG) and 1 5/8 oz load of #6 listed on track of the wolf. The best patterns came from a powder charge of 100 grains of FG along with 1 5/8oz of nickel plated #6’s. The recoil with the 100 grain, 1 5/8 oz load was pretty comparable, if not just a hair more recoil, to the RST 1 1/4oz loads. It was the funnest time I’ve had in a long time with my pants on.lol

Here are my best two targets out of the 10 rounds I tried today. They were patterned at 25 yards. I had 40 hits using one single 1/4” nitro card over 100 grains of DuPont FG and 1 5/8 oz of BPI nickel plated #6’s. I glued a shot card over the top. The second best load was exactly the same accept I split one of the nitro cards in half and seated it on top of the first nitro card.


https://i.imgur.com/5uuuikL.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/rTcnQDs.jpg


A few other targets with left a d right barrel comparison patterns. The right kept blowing the pattern.

https://i.imgur.com/WyFYjHx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/AmHeRAY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/COy8CDc.jpg

Here were my loads...


[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/DjKc4K8.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/DjKc4K8.jpg[/IMG]

Dead bird!

I videoed myself while trying them out. It makes impressive fire clouds.



https://i.imgur.com/5lp9RGv.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Syo7ofL.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/A8oa4Hu.jpg

Try this skinny turkey!

Nice flame thrower.

I just printed up a few of these targets and try my load across a chronograph at the same time.

I went out today and tried 40 yards and 50 yards with my same RST hulls using 692 grains of BPI #6’s and 100 grains of Fg. The only difference was I roll crimped them this time VS just gluing in an over shot card.

I had 12 hits in my turkey head target at 40 yards and only 5 hits at 50 yards. I then tried the same load but in a federal hull. I had 13 hits at 40 yards. I put a pop can behind my 50 yard target. Thd #6 BPI nickel plated pellets passed through the cardboard box my target was stapled to and then completely through the pop can I placed in the box to test for penetration. I don’t plan on taking a 50 a yard shot but if for some reason my bird hands up at 40 yards I won’t hesitate to shoot it. I can tell you if that was a real bird at 50 yards today it would have been dead as a door nail IMO. One pellet to the brain and one in the neck vertebrae. Same with the RST hull 40 yard shot. I guess I just get lucky a lot with a pellet to the brain.


My first target i shot with a roll crimp RST hull at 40 yards...


https://i.imgur.com/mErXePO.jpg

My second shot with the same load at 50 yards...


https://i.imgur.com/mLoJ4lv.jpg


And here was my last test at 40 yards with the same load but with a federal hull...

https://i.imgur.com/If2YL78.jpg

I must have had a “hot” pellet or piece of powder melt part of one of my RST cases. Here is picture of the fired hulls after I slid them onto my dowel and heated the crimps with a heat gun to straighten them out...

https://i.imgur.com/ZlZBRns.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/s6LoIP5.jpg

When I inspected it the hole did not burn all the way through but I took the shell out of service just to be safe. The other two cases look great yet. I might order some brass case in the near future.

So in the future if I didn’t burn a hole completely through a case I would assume I can still load it again?

Try using paper hulls and a fold crimp. I load 95% of my BP shells in paper and don't use plastic wads.

Never knew 10 gauge paper shells still existed. Where can I buy them? I plan on buying some 10 gauge brass shells in the near future.

That’s a fine load.

William

Forgot to show a photo of the 40 and 50 yard ammo I used for the targets. They were roll crimped with a quad pin roller instead of glued in shot cards.

https://i.imgur.com/GKqhYG9.jpg