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Dave Noreen
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Posted: Sat Jun 6th, 2009 08:15 pm |
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| Being more then a bit of a nut for information on old time shooting events, I've really enjoyed the "Iron Men of Gundom" in the last two issues of Parker Pages. One thing has me rather perplexed though. In the current issue on page 34 they discuss the ammo used by the American team in their 1901 shoot against the British. It says the American team used 12-gauge 3 1/2 inch shells loaded with 4 drams (44 grains) of powder with 1 1/4 ounces of shot. None of my old ammo catalogues of that period offer 12-gauge shells any longer then 3 1/4 inches, nor loads any heavier then 3 1/2 drams and 1 1/4 ounces. I'm sure that shells could have been hand-loaded heavier then the factories offered and I've seen both Parker Bros. and A.H. Fox records where a customer requested his new gun be targetted with loads heavier then the ammo factories were offering. Then at the top of page 36 we have a picture of the American team, and several member have pump guns! How did they get the long shells to function in those pump guns?
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Austin W Hogan
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Posted: Mon Jun 8th, 2009 03:14 am |
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Dave; I'll have to check back through the info for the article , but I think UMC was one of the sponsors.
Since the wild Indians were limited to one shot, reaming out a 97 chamber to be single loaded was no problem.
The scores indicate, however that the US team would have won if constrained to 1 ounce of shot in a 2 5/8 shell.
The drawing of the shells shown in the article was a scan of an ad / publicity column at the time of the shoot.
All in all; printed words and specs are great; but a good shop can make almost anything.
Best, Austin
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Dave Noreen
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Posted: Mon Jun 8th, 2009 05:15 am |
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| I can imagine being able to get a loaded long shell into a Model 1897, but once it is fired, getting it out would be quite a task!
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Austin W Hogan
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Posted: Tue Jun 9th, 2009 02:09 am |
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I wonder if they actually used them; was it just promo hoopla?
Best, Austin
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Don Kaas
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Posted: Tue Jun 9th, 2009 12:40 pm |
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I'm with Dave on this one. I've fooled with a few 1897s and I do not see how (or why) anyone could modify the gun to use 3 1/2" shells when you could shoot 1 1/4oz well wadded loads in 2 3/4" shells (which were widely used in pigeon circles in the UK, my 1893 Purdey pigeon gun's Whitworth barrels were originally chambered for them)...It does sound a bit like hoopla to me as well, Austin perhaps as they say today, the American team was trying to "get in their heads"...
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Dave Noreen
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Posted: Wed Jun 10th, 2009 06:54 pm |
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While working on something else, I stumbled on this report from the first day of the Anglo-American Trap Shoot, from the June 15, 1901, issue of The Sportsmen's Review.
Attached Image (viewed 82 times):
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Don Kaas
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Posted: Wed Jun 10th, 2009 08:41 pm |
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Charlie Budd's 32" DH sans safety and doll's head used in this match (very likely) was sitting for quite a while in the Gun Library in Cabela's Dundee, MI seriously bored out, polished and buggered by some very poor "gunsmithing" and at very high firm price...even I passed on it They didn't know what is was...if I recall it had 3" but not 3 1/2" chambers with thin walls over the chamber ends. On a swamped breech #2 frame, I wouldn't want to bored the chambers out to 3 1/2"Last edited on Wed Jun 10th, 2009 09:01 pm by Don Kaas
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