More on that 28g/32-inch DH

[Dean Romig]

Great stuff Frank and though I am a huge proponent of the 28 gauge for the 'right' game at reasonable yardages, one entry in the description of the initial onslaught on the ducks that did not escape my notice is "Cripples could not be kept count of."... one has to wonder how many cripples there really were...?





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[Double Lab]

"With the heavens vomiting ducks" (which is another great phrase) I'm sure those two fellows were'nt worried with cripples. I hunt with a number of gents who shoot 12's and cripple quite a number of birds but I (we) have good dogs to recover such. They did'nt mention if they had dogs.

They complained of the low limit days but still managed to bag 100 or so birds. Poor guys.

[Researcher]

That 3/4 ounce 20-gauge load was a pretty hot load with 2 3/4 drams of powder.

Opening Day 1911, 32-inch, 20-gauge, DHE-Grade load.jpg

The 20-gauge bulk smokeless powder loads from Remington Arms - Union Metallic Cartridge Co. in their 1911-12 catalog were 2 drams pushing 3/4 ounce of shot, 2 1/4 drams pushing 7/8 ounce of shot and those 2 1/2 dram loads pushing 7/8 ounce of shot in the longer shells.

1911-12 ARROW 20-gauge bulk smokeless powder.jpg

I suspect there is a misprint in this catalog, as in other years Load #22 is 2 1/4 drams of bulk smokeless powder --

Rem-UMC Arrow 20-gauge shells bulk 1915-16.jpg

It is probably a bit of a jump, but one might expect that the load being used in the 28-gauge was the 2 1/4 drams of Scotch Empire pushing 11/16 ounce of #7 chilled shown by Frank in another thread.

[Double Lab]

Thanks Dave, I knew you would come through. I find the 3/4oz. load at 1200-1250 with modern components in both the 20 & 28 perform way above their pay grade.