Tight shooting Remington doubles

[Pete Lester]

Last year I acquired a Remington 1894 A grade 10ga ejector gun with 30" damascus barrels, it is choked .045 and .046 and threw 92+% and 93+% patterns at 40 yards using 1 1 1/8 ounce of magnum #6 pushed along with some 22 grains of Green Dot.

Tonight I put my Remington 1900 ejector 12ga to the same test. It has fluid steel 30" barrels choked .014 in the right and .024 in the left. I shot 1 1/8 ounce load of magnum #6 pushed along with 18.5 grains of Green Dot. I was surprised by the results.

The right barrel shot as expected, I viced the gun and put the bead on the orange circle at 40 yards and fired. The pattern was slightly high and I moved my circle and pellet count up an inch to compensate for it. The .014 of choke produced a pattern of 147/253 for 58%.

When I shot the left barrel I held the bead just below the orange circle and let fly. It resulted in a pattern of 223/253 or 88%. This is a tight shooting 12ga, given that it has only 24 thou of choke I was surprised.

The folks at Ilion sure knew how to make a tight shooting double gun when they were in the business of making them!

[Daryl Corona]

Funny you should bring this up Pete. I have a Rem. 1900 GED, 16ga. with 28" barrels. The chokes mic out to .009/.015 or roughly IC/Mod but when I shot it the first time with 3/4oz. loads it just balled targets up. So, I took it to my gun club and put it on paper. I don't remember the exact pellet count but in my notes the results were 67% and 76% with the 3/4oz. load of 7 1/2's, pushed along by 15.5gr. of 20/28 and a Dr16 wad at 30yds. That's more like a tight Mod/Imp.Mod. Must be something to your theory of those guys in Ilion and their barrel work.

[Dean Romig]

Are you boys using shot cups? The guns were patterned without them... but you knew that.

[Pete Lester]

Are you boys using shot cups? The guns were patterned without them... but you knew that.

Dean, How many Parker (or any maker) 12ga's have you patterned with modern loads that will produce an 88% pattern? How many 10's that will throw 93%? The ones I have tested won't do it. The best 12's get into the low 80's and the 10's high 80's. Using modern loads through each makers guns is an apple to apple test.

Scott has done a lot more pattern testing and he has found his Ithaca's have consistently patterned tighter than Parker's gun for gun. He even had a Super Ten that printed 99+%.

Scott shot some old pre shot cup paper shell factory ammo and got surprised when it achieved some tight patterns, in the order of 85% with #4's. Testing similar loads with and without shot cups is probably worthy of a finding out for myself testing because I think the results may surprise us and show less difference than we assumed.

[Pete Lester]

Funny you should bring this up Pete. I have a Rem. 1900 GED, 16ga. with 28" barrels. The chokes mic out to .009/.015 or roughly IC/Mod but when I shot it the first time with 3/4oz. loads it just balled targets up. So, I took it to my gun club and put it on paper. I don't remember the exact pellet count but in my notes the results were 67% and 76% with the 3/4oz. load of 7 1/2's, pushed along by 15.5gr. of 20/28 and a Dr16 wad at 30yds. That's more like a tight Mod/Imp.Mod. Must be something to your theory of those guys in Ilion and their barrel work.

Wow, that is surprising as well with so little constriction. What is the barrel lug stamped i.e. what were the patterns it achieved before leaving the factory?

The gun I tested last night is stamped 69 and "Mod" (Dave Noreen told me it is the first Remington he has seen without a number). Remington tested a 12ga with 1 1/4 ounce of 8 so the 369 would be a 72+%. Not what I would expect from .024 of choke. In Charles Semmer's Remington book he stated that due to lack of having any hang tags for reference it is unknown what weight and shot size Remington used for pattern testing 10 and 16 gauge guns.

[bob weeman]

I guess I better go pattern mine! Just got an 1894 Remington B grade with 26 inch barrels choked improved cylinder and full. Wonder if the short barrels will have the same results as you folks. Cool little damascus gun at 6.3 pounds.

[charlie cleveland]

my remington 10 ga a a e grade arrived today with 30 inch barrels.i did not get to shoot it on acount it has rained all day and hard..my barrel on the right side is stamped 53 the lefyt barrel is stamped 40 now what kind of a pattern does this gun throw... charlie

[Pete Lester]

Tonight I patterned another shell through the left barrel of the Remington 1900 with .024 of choke. It was the exact same reload that produced the 88% pattern a couple of weeks ago only this time all the wad petals were cut off and a 20ga .070 nitro card on top of the plastic wad to get the proper crimp. This time the gun produced a 71.1% pattern at 40 yards. A 17% decrease without a shotcup. So it would seem the petals of a shot cup make a pretty big difference in performance. I remain surprised that it still shot an honest full choke pattern with only .024 constriction. My two Remingtons still shot tighter than any of the Parkers I have tested but I was curious about how much difference a shot cup would make.

[charlie cleveland]

i have shot the big 10 remington and it is a can killer for sure it really likes theno 4 lead loads.. i think pete s right about these remingtons they sure knew how to make a close shooting gun.. pete i m kinda let down by the wad cup out shooting the one with no wad.. the remington factory loaded ten ga that i ve been shooting are really tight patterns i will pattern this load at 40 yards i believe the remingto will go better than 90 percent on paper we will see soon...charlie

[Pete Lester]

i have shot the big 10 remington and it is a can killer for sure it really likes theno 4 lead loads.. i think pete s right about these remingtons they sure knew how to make a close shooting gun.. pete i m kinda let down by the wad cup out shooting the one with no wad.. the remington factory loaded ten ga that i ve been shooting are really tight patterns i will pattern this load at 40 yards i believe the remingto will go better than 90 percent on paper we will see soon...charlie

I am glad you are enjoying that Remington 10ga AER. I hope when you count holes in the circle you get so many it makes you smile. Good luck and keep us posted.