In the three 20 gauge Parker’s I posses at this time I shoot most any “normal” factory 7/8 or 1 ounce load . Everything I load is 7/8 ounce although I have the correct wads for 1 ounce 20’s as well . I fully understand the thoughts about wood split/crack and yes it’s most likely a valid point . I just don’t worry about it a lot .

I acquired my VH 20 ga. (SN 192.***, mfg.1922) late this past summer. After examination I was satisfied that the Vulcan steel barrels and the wood were very shootable. I have shot about two flats of ammo (mostly Fiocchi and Winchester AA skeet loads) through it and have had no negative results.

I have a Mec Grabber multi stage loader set up for 7/8 oz. skeet loads with a slightly lower velocity/pressure set up. I have tons of AA and Remington 20 ga. once fires hulls and some wads but now lack powder, shot and primers of any quantity to load. I do have several flats of factory skeet AA's as well as some Fiocchi so I should be good. I personally need some loaded 2.5" 12ga and 16ga stuff however, for my Damascus guns.

I will continue to check the status of the wood.

Kyle:

3/4oz. is all I shoot through my 20's. Go log on to the.. ShotgunWorld site and look under reloading/20ga 3/4oz thread of justice. Lots of info there.

I load 20ga. 2 1/2" Cheddite hulls with 3/4oz. using the Gualandi wads and 14.8 - 15.2 grains of Unique. It's a great load I use in both my fluid steel and composite barrel 20s.

AA or Gun Club Hull
15 gr 20/28
Claybuster 1078 wad
7/8 oz shot
will get around 1200 fps @ around 7500 psi

drop to 14.5 gr 20/28 and CB 1075 wad for a delightful little 3/4 oz loads that I use alot on grouse.
And yeah I would shoot those Rem game loads, but would prefer lower velocity

Tomorrow or Saturday, me, the dog(Bert), and the Parker are going quail hunting. I'm going to take the RST shells that Garth gave me and go to my secret covey. Hopefully we have success. I'll keep y'all posted. Thanks for all the input!

Found this load in my reloading notebook--cant remember where I copied it from, but it basically matches my other loads with 20/28.
Cheddite 2 1/2" hull
Win 209 primer( I would also use a cheddite primer here)
14.3 gr 20/28 powder
Claybuster 1078 wad 7/8 lead--could sub 1075 wad and 3/4 oz
1200 fps @ 7200 psi.
I may load a box or 2 of this tomorrow and see how it goes.

Harold, I just had tested a very similar load BUT paper hull.
Cheditte 2 1/2,
Ched primer,
14.5 of 20/28,
7/8 #8,
Sporting 20 wad.
Came in at 1216 FPS and 10,395 PSI. I'm trying to get to 1200/8500 in paper for my 20s. Interesting, same load in plastic is significantly lower PSI. I gotta do some careful hull examination, not sure where but there must be serious volume difference plastic vs. paper, both Cheditte.

Yeah, surprising. Mine used a different wad. I will try and find where the load came from.

Saturday’s bounty. 2 scalies. Bert pointed both. I missed about 5 before bagging these 2 with the Parker and RSTs-#8’s from Garth. I need more practice with it.