Quote:
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.
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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.
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"Doubtless the good Lord could have made a better game bird than bobwhite, and better country to hunt him in...but equally doubtless, he never did." -- Guy de la Valdene (from A Handful of Feathers )
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
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