f a loomis

[charlie cleveland]

yesterday evening late i got the old 8 ga loomis that destrey let me have out of the corner and decided to put a few rounds thru it...my target was the famous turkey head dr pepper can....range for first shots was 70 steps shot size used was steel bb s 1 3/4 ounce of them...first 2 shots fired there was no hits in the can at the 70 step mark...decided to close my distance now to the 45 step line..the shot at this distance was 5 hits in the can and what big holes a bb makes.... even such a small thing as ateal duck could not fly thru this at even ranges out to 50 steps...or even a squirl cutting a hickory nut on a limb...some of the loads i used shot collars some of the loads i did not use shot collars..i could tell no difference in the shot patters at the 45 step mark but makes a big differance in the patterns at the 70 step mark... now the barrels on the gun are fine damascus the bores are slightly pitted from chambers to the end of barrels...there has been no evendence of any damage to these barrels at all no streaking has been seen...i wish i had kept count of the number of times ive shot the steel loads it has to be several hundred now... im not telling any body its ok too shoot steel shot thru there guns but this is my findings on useing steel shot...all my guns used in testing have been at least modified choke... the old big bores can hold enough big shot in steel to make them very effective on game at even long shots..the steel bb will penetrate a plastic 5 gallon can thru both sides at 70 steps with lots of hits in it...these are my findings so far... charlie