When Sherman Bell blew up my VH and it withstood the same pressure as Oscar Gaddy's GH I felt more confident in shooting regular store bought shells through my fluid steel guns.

Harry,

Thanks for donating your gun to those tests. They are a real eye opener on what the guns can handle. I'm just a little more cautious on using a high pressure load on older guns. Other people have differing opinions. Sherman Bell's test provide me with peace of mind to say the least.

Out of curiosity, were you able to see any of the testing?

Ken

I had a lot of statistics in grad school, but I don't think a sample size of one is conclusive. I have, however put a lot of stout 1 1/4 oz loads thru my Fox Sterly

Ken,

No I did not witness any of the destructive test. I live in Kentucky and was visiting my daughter in Chicago. I took the VH to Dennis Potter in Wisconsin and he passed it along to Sherman Bell. When I got the gun back the stock was broken and the barrels a mess. There was a note from Bell that read something like, "If you you want scrambled you have to break eggs." I donated the barrels to PGCA. My cousin gave me a set of Damascus 2 frame barrels and Brad Bachelder recolored and fitted them to the frame. Donnie Gemes at Show Me Gunstocks in Missouri made a straight stock for it with checkered butt. It is great at wobble trap as well as dove hunting. I took two doubles and had my limit of fifteen dove in an hour my last hunt of the 2018 season.

Harry

Glad to hear/see that your abused experimental VH got back in the game, and with damascus bbls no less! It doesn't get any better than that. There's a VH12 in my family that could use the same treatment.

There seems to be a perception that lighter loads are not as effective as heavy loads. I have found almost the opposite to be true.

One things for darn sure . If the shooters in the least afraid of heavy loads it's going to be somewhat more difficult for the person to hit anything with them .

Harry,

Thanks for the background and pics of the updated gun. Glad it is still in use.

Ken

Agree with Mills, my opinion, shot size and density kills birds and breaks targets. Pushing velocity over 1200 feet has little effect on target at distance.

If the birds hard to kill use larger shot, tighter chokes give density needed for clay targets. No need at all for hot loads in vintage SXS Guns.

William

It’s been my observation that that those with much experience tend to gravitate to what I consider sensible loads for hunting……1200 fps for all bores with 12 bore 1 ¼ (waterfowl and turkey) and 1 1/8, 16 bore 1oz, 20 bore 7/8 oz and 28 bore ¾ oz. These are the loads I use for all my hunting. Although since I only use the 12 bores for waterfowl, I don’t load 1 1/8 12 bore shells. Not that the 1 1/8 12 bore load isn’t a good waterfowl load. It is and will kill all the fowl a man is allowed in short order at reasonable ranges. But I am married to the 1200 fps 1 ¼ oz. load since I have effectively used it for over 40 years, my guns shoot it so well and I have taken a ton of game with it. In my opinion, it is the single best hunting load for 12 bore vintage guns where shots to 45 or 50 yards are expected.