Old Shot vs. New

[Austin J Hawthorne Jr.]

The other day I was breaking down some old paper shotshells whose primers had failed to fire. They were loaded with #6 shot that had oxidized badly. Out of curiosity, I reloaded four rounds of the oxidized shot into a hunting load that I use, and compared the spread at forty yards to the spread of my regular loads at the same distance. They were both fired from a Full chock barrel. Pattern testing revealed a 77% pellet count with the new shot, and a 46% pattern with the oxidized shot. These are the averages of four shots.
Just something to think about when using vintage shells for longer shots.

[mobirdhunter]

Originally Posted by Austin J Hawthorne Jr.

The other day I was breaking down some old paper shotshells whose primers had failed to fire. They were loaded with #6 shot that had oxidized badly. Out of curiosity, I reloaded four rounds of the oxidized shot into a hunting load that I use, and compared the spread at forty yards to the spread of my regular loads at the same distance. They were both fired from a Full chock barrel. Pattern testing revealed a 77% pellet count with the new shot, and a 46% pattern with the oxidized shot. These are the averages of four shots.
Just something to think about when using vintage shells for longer shots.

Austin, I don't know what effect the oxidation might have, but I'm convinced that our contemporary shells will pattern better that older shells, all things considered. I also believe that vintage guns were choked for those shells, and generally produce tighter patterns with today's loads. Thanks for sharing your experiment.