Absolutely. When you start looking at these pre modern loads, some of them were real shoulder busters. I've heard many stories from grandchildren my age ( 65) how grandpa made his special hot loads that belched fire with heavy recoil and that were so much hotter than anything you could buy. Well, what you could buy were 1 1/4 oz 3 1/2 dram loads, and these were way heavier than those. Its no wonder that some guns shot loose, or barrels blew, or stocks cracked. I have a heavy fowler 12ga Bernard that the stock was cracked and the barrels were loose on face. No barrel bulges, no damascus cracks, barrels still fine. I have little doubt that cannon shells were run through those heavy barrels.
I'm kind of fascinated by the mechanics of the Lefever guns, which had their claim to three modes of screw adjustment compensation for wear from use and heavy loads. A Parker had none of them and there are not many loose Parkers, so you know people shot heavy loads and the guns were none the worse for it.
I think I'll order a couple more cases of 1 or 1 1/8 oz 3 dram modern loads for hunting. You know, something easy on the gun and my shoulder. For targets, I get modern shells even lighter than that.
|