W&C Scott 8 Gauge

[Kevin McCormack]

I suggest you contact Dr. Bill McPhail. He is a walking warehouse of knowledge about both British and American 4-, 6- and 8 bore guns, particularly those made in or imported from Britain to the Boston MA and Baltimore MD areas. I do not have his contact information unfortunately; other posters on this or other BBSs may.

[6pt-Sika]

Originally Posted by Arthur Shaffer

I have Black hulls in both persuasions. I don't think anyone could tell them apart. If I happen to lose the shell in the chamber, who would know. I'm an old guy and clumsy.

Yes sir , that’s one them there old 10 gauge guns

[ArtS]

Well, my new 8 arrived today and I was very pleased. It looks even better in person than the pictures. I believe it is in absolutely original condition, but the design, feel and balance in person is incredible. It looks like a small gun until you lay it beside my Parker 10 gauges. It feels like a heavy 12 guage trap gun, but it handles like a dove gun. It is much more dynamic than my frame 2 10 gauge lifter. It balances exactly 1/4" behind the hinge pin. Barrels ring like a church bell and lockup is incredibly tight. One thing that threw me is that the firing pin strikes theprimer from about a 45 deg angle down and also to the left. However, the lock is non-rebounding and doesn't have an intercepting sear. I was taken aback, thinking it would hang ithe primer and I didn't think it had a half cock notch. After fooling with it a few minutes, I realized that what I at first thought was full cock was the half cock notch. It is about 2/3 of the distance from the uncocked position to the half notch and then a very short movement to the full notch. The whole thing is very controllable and secure, I just took a little while to figure it all out. It is one of the easiest hammers to cock even though the strike is very strong. At half cock, you can hook your thumb over the hammer without moving your hand on the rest. A 1/2" pull and it is cocked.

I don't have a bore gauge that large, but I turned a piece of 1" bar and used it as a gauge. By slight reductions, I found that .840 wouldn't pass, neither would .837 but .835 would. From that, I believe that the bore is .835 to .836. However, the muzzle is also the same size. I honestly believe it was made this way, from the condition and amount of use. This was just a few years out of the muzzleloader era, so it's not outside the realm of possibility. I have three Parker 10 gauges from that era, and all three of them have from zero to not much choke and all have standard barrel sizes. One possibility this opens is a full bore round ball for large game, or one seated tightly in an SP8 type wads as a sabot. The barrel, for a sub 10 pound gun, are quite sturdy. The thinnest part of the breech is .37 inches. The point 2" in front of the chamber is well over 1/4"; 15" down the barrel is almost .2" thick and the muzzle is over .1" . The barrel is smooth and polished and doesn't have one pinprick anywhere inside. I suspect you could drive a big hunk of lead at a pretty good speed with no ptoblem

[6pt-Sika]

I’ve got a hollow base slug mold for a .775” 730 grain slug I’ve fired out of a couple 8’s . I’ve also got roundball molds from Tanner’s in the UK for .775” , .785” and .795” roundballs . I do something that a lot of folks told me wouldn’t work . I take plain old masking tape and puts wraps around them to be just slightly tight thru the choke . Does well enough for deer at thirtyish yards . Hopefully I’ll plunk one with a punkin ball this coming season . I will say however I only use a slug or punkin ball in one barrel and buckshot in the other . Usually when I’m fiddling with one I’ll shoot three from the right barrel on one target and three from the left barrel on another target . Whichever one has POI closest to POA gets the single projectile round and the other barrel gets buckshot . My strategy isn’t perfect but it’s done very well for me so far in all the gauges I’ve tried it in .

[charlie cleveland]

I like your thinking on the slugs and buckshot...my mold fpr round ball is .836 myend of barrels measure .842 yep my barrels been cut to 27 1/4 inches it was a 34 inch barrel before being cut...it really handles good with short barrel...charlie

[ArtS]

Ifound a roundball at .820 sold by Octobercountry. I was thinking of trying that nestled in a plastic shot cup wad in my .835 barrel when I get started loading a little.

[6pt-Sika]

Originally Posted by Arthur Shaffer

Ifound a roundball at .820 sold by Octobercountry. I was thinking of trying that nestled in a plastic shot cup wad in my .835 barrel when I get started loading a little.

All four of the 8's I've fooled with had plenty choke in them hence the reason for the sizes I ordered . I also took into acount the petals on the SP-8 wads . By no means did I wanna get it to tight .

The PH 8 I have left the factoru for a lumber company in the pan handle of FL and in the letter it says "to shoot close with buckshot" . I assume they had a gator or possibly black bear problem as this woulda been before the sub species of black bear in the FL pan handle became endangered .

Anyway that PH is the most open at the muzzle of any I've had . And I ordered the .795" specifically for it . Since then I screwed up my nerves and tried that ball in the others with pleasing results .

I suppose I'm overly cautiouse with the cannons , but it's a darn site easier and cheaper to order another $40 mold than it is to repair a ruptured barrel .

[6pt-Sika]

Something else !

When I first started messing with 8 gauge medium/large game loads I fold crimped everything .

Later I got an 8 gauge roll crimper for my drill press and started using the new REM hulls I had on hand . I also do roll crimps exclusively on my buckshot loads . Anyway my accuracy increased a bit with the roll crimped open end ball/slug loads as well as the roll over card buck loads . Not saying the fold crimp buck was bad but the roll gave a bit more room especially when used with the somewhat shorter Gualandi wad .

[ArtS]

Well,I got around to trying the gun. The first thing I shot was a round ball. I got the .820 inch balls from OctoberCountry and they were a perfect fit through the barrel. Just a few thousandths clearance. I was lucky (or unlucky enough) to get my third or fourth big bore with almost cylinder barrels. In my estimation, none have been reamed or honed, particularly this Scott 8 Gauge. The 820 balls weigh 1-7/8 oz. If they were .835 (which is what the bore measures) I am pretty sure they would be exactly 2 oz. I also discovered in measureing that the chamber is cut to exactly the dimensions of the enlarged section of the head of the Remington industrial shells. After making a die, I found I didn't need one.

I looked in Tom's book and found several 1-3/4 and 1-7/8 loads with different types of Clays powder, all with reasonable pressures. My reasoning is that a round ball without patching has to exhibit way less drag in the barrel than an equivalent shot load. I took a 1-7/8 oz load at 1250 fps and 8200 psi and reduced the charge about 15% for a trial. I suspect these are around 1050-1100 and down in the 7K's range.


I tried one by shooting into a clay dirt berm 20 yds away. A piece of cardboard with a circle served as a target. Recoil was mild in the 9-3/4# gun and the ball hit where aimed. I made the load up with a new Remington industrial case, the reduced powder charge, followed by an SP8 wad with the petals cut off. I thought this would seal the gas, cushion the ball and center the ball in the bore. The ball was coated with lube and a lump place under it in the cup. I cemented an overshot wad over it to contain the ball.

The ball hit a strip of grass in front of the target, cutting a 3" wide depression for a foot, hen went through the target and into the heavy clay. It literally drilled a 2" hole perfectly starigh for 15". I confirmed the measurement with a wooden dowel inserted until it touched the bullet. You could see the ball by looking into the "wound channel".

The case fell from the chamber, with the only change being the espansion of the thin part of the head to near the same diameter as the larger section. There was no measureable expansion of the head.

I was pretty impressed. I think this load would shoot completely through a deer. Since there is no choke to contend with, a similar ball cast of hard lead should do major damage to even a large animal.

I plan to try about 5% more powder, then shoot for accuracy.

I also am going to try the PolyWad approach to long distance shots with open chokes. My favorite was their 28 ga Gram Cr'ker. I still have a bunch. The concept was use medium size (5 or so) niclkel plated hard shot, well packed in a good buffer. I have a 30" 28 ga bored cykinder and skeet. For quail I shoot the first shot from the cyl barrel with a spreader load and the second from the skeet barrel with a 5/8oz gramcr'ker. They are devastating. I have patterned them out to 40-50 yds. They seem to almost never open up. I can kill doves and quail consistently at those kind of ranges with only 5/8 oz. It seems that the protection of the shot along with the hard shot and buffering avoids any damage at all to the shot to cause dispersion. I am going to try, as time permits, to adapt the concept to open large bores.

[6pt-Sika]

Art , FWIW most of my 8 gauge stuff are target loads 1 1/2 ounces of 7 1/2’s pushed with Clays . Same as what Armbrust has in his manual except I use red beans instead of nitro card wads to displace space . I also loaded a fair amount of 1 3/4 ounce loads using Universal Clays they thump a bit more but still work pretty well . I used International Clays some but saw nothing better so Clays and Universal Clays pretty much cover my needs in the 8 gauge . I’d say the heaviest payload I’ve done was maybe a slight bit over 2 ounces when I made up the 000000 buck ten pellet load , seems to me each pellet was about 90 grains so an ounce is 437 grains so 900 grains roughly equates into 2-2 1/8 ounces . I know when you touch that off from the bench or from a treestand it brings you to attention