lc smithlong range

[charlie cleveland]

today i patterned the full choke barrel of the lc smith... a 28 inch cardboard circle was used as pattern board at 40 yards..a federal field load low brass shell was used a 1 1/8 ounce of 7 1/2 was used.i cut open a federal shell and counted the pellets there was 342 pellet count..after i shot the target i counted the no of hits they was 314 hits in circle.. i used a calculator and did the divideing thing and came up with 91.5 percent of the load was in circle.. pretty good pattern... not as good as petes old 10 ga remington but close... charlie

[CraigThompson]

Very nice indeed !

I'd be intrested to know what it would do with handloaded #4 Buck at 40 yards !

[Mills Morrison]

Sounds like a good turkey gun too

[charlie cleveland]

i m out of no 4 buck at the moment maybe i can find a coupla factory shells and take the no 4 buck out and handload a coupla and see what they ll do at the 40 yard mark.. charlie

[Pete Lester]

today i patterned the full choke barrel of the lc smith... a 28 inch cardboard circle was used as pattern board at 40 yards..a federal field load low brass shell was used a 1 1/8 ounce of 7 1/2 was used.i cut open a federal shell and counted the pellets there was 342 pellet count..after i shot the target i counted the no of hits they was 314 hits in circle.. i used a calculator and did the divideing thing and came up with 91.5 percent of the load was in circle.. pretty good pattern... not as good as petes old 10 ga remington but close... charlie

Charlie, I hope it's a real tight shooting gun for you but I am confused by two things. First the standard for shotgun patterns is a 30" circle at 40 yards, if your gun really shot a 91.5% in a 28" circle it was probably an even a higher % inside of 30".

HOWEVER, I am wondering about your pellet count for a 1 1/8 ounce load of 7.5 shot. You stated 342 pellets. There are supposed to be 350 number 7.5's to the ounce. If you shot a 1 1/8 ounce load there should have been about 394 pellets. That would have given you a pattern of 79.7%, which is still dam good for a 12ga at 40 yards and inside a 28" circle.

Maybe you shot a 1 ounce load of 7.5's, if so you have the tightest shooting 12ga I have heard of or come across.

[charlie cleveland]

pete i looked up the pellet count on tatums list of no 7 1/2 shot and i came up with the sabout the same count you have for a ounce of 7 1/2 s. but i must state i made a errer in the name of shells used they are winchester universal loads ones with the steel heads..the load i stated is correct 3 dr eq 1 1/8 ounce of 7 1/2..this was the shell that was used for patterning..i cut open 2 of these shells one had a pellet count of 342 the other 345.. the reason i used a 28 inch circle is because i have a few thousand of these cardboard circles given to me by a friend.. maybe i should weigh the contents of one of these shells..im gonna go weigh one rite now..ya no pete now i m gonna have too reshoot this old smith in the 30 inch circle... charlie

[charlie cleveland]

i just weighed the shot in one of these shells it weighed 476 grains whichequals close to a 1 1/8 ounce.the ounnces of shot in the shell is correct but the pellet count does not come up right..i just counted t14hese i weighed twice.i came up with same no twice of 345 number of pellets...i ve counted 3 of these shells pellets and the number count has been 342 344 345 so if i divide 314 the number of hits in the 28 inch circle by the pellet count of 342 the calulator comes up with 91.5 percent... only thing i can figure out about the pellet count not coming up to par with factory figures is that the pellets in the shell must be closer to the size of a no 7 shot instead of the number 7/1/2 which is stated on the shell and box... the pellets in these shells are irruglar some are a slight bit bigger than others.. but i will shoot a 30 inch circle to see if i can bring the percentage up.. charlie

[Bill Murphy]

The number of holes divided by the count gives you the percenage, regardless of the size of the shot. 91 is one great pattern.

[Pete Lester]

I agree Charlie the pellets have to be closer to 7 than 7.5 to be that weight with that number of pellets.

Your a patient man to hand count them like that. I weigh 10 pellets to get a per pellet average weight. Then divide that number into the actual weight of the full shot charge to determine how many pellets are in a load.

Bill I agree a 12ga shooting 90% and better is phenomenal. I wanted to check in with Charlie because of the disparity between his pellet count and his stated weight for the shot size used.

Charlie I think you would pick up a few more pellets in the circle when the circle is 30" instead of 28". Let us know as that sounds like a great gun for long range.

I have been thinking about taking the load I used where I got 93% and using copper coated shot and buffer to see if it could be tightened up even further. I'll do that another day as it is pouring here now.

[Pete Lester]

Charlie, if you have the ability to take the measurements I would be interested to know; the bore diameter, amount of choke constriction and length of choke taper in those Elsie barrels. I wonder if it has a long force cone too.

Any gun that can shoot a 90+% pattern at 40 yards is a helluva shotgun! I don't think I have heard of 12ga that could do it that I can recall, anyone have a 12 bore here that can do that?

Scott K. had a NID Super Ten that was able to shoot 100%. He said it was hard gun to hit anything with and sold it.

[Frank Cronin]

Great post Charlie. After you get the pellet count all figured out at 40 yards with a 30" circle..... let's see what the Elsie LR barrels will do at 80.

[scott kittredge]

Charlie, if you have the ability to take the measurements I would be interested to know; the bore diameter, amount of choke constriction and length of choke taper in those Elsie barrels. I wonder if it has a long force cone too.

Any gun that can shoot a 90+% pattern at 40 yards is a helluva shotgun! I don't think I have heard of 12ga that could do it that I can recall, anyone have a 12 bore here that can do that?

Scott K. had a NID Super Ten that was able to shoot 100%. He said it was hard gun to hit anything with and sold it.

Yes ,with an 1 oz load of 7 1/2s that nid 10 ga shot 99.7%:shock:

[charlie cleveland]

pete i doint have anything to measure the length of the chokes with but i can tell you a dime stops at about 2/12 inches from end of barrel so its not a very long choke as your remington by far..and i dont believe it has long forceing cones the reason i say this is that a 3 1/2 inch 12 ga shell will only go in just a fudge over 3 inches without useing a little force to go in further.i only used a empty hull of the 3 1/2 inch shell to do this..i wish i had the tools to measure all these things... i sure wish i coulda got hold of that super 10 of scotts...charlie

[charlie cleveland]

boy 80 yards is away out there.. i think a load of no 5 s will be the load i shoot at this distance..i know the old elsie will put 5 holes in a dr pepper can at 70 steps but that extra 10 yards may be a challenge... charlie