Strength of Guns

[Bruce Day]

Sometimes its helpful to recall the Parker load tables

[David Lien]

If I am going to shoot a Parker more than twice. The first thing I do is have a good stock person glass bed the stock and install a staple in the head of the stock. At this point I shoot what ever I want. I check and clean the gun often, lube the hinge pin and in 50 or so years the next guy can go right on shooting the old Parker. He can do so with what ever his shot shell religion dictates.
David Lien

[Big D]

"Only head shots" - hmmm Your grouse must be a lot slower than our Michigan grouse

[Chuck Heald]

Regarding light loads, I primarily shoot 3" loads at upland game. No 2", 2 1/2", or light 2 3/4" loads for me. Bigger's better.

...I shoot full 3" magnum .410's

[Researcher]

Bruce,

Interesting table. I have been collecting old ammunition paper for some years now, seeking information about pressures of the early loads. According to my DuPont Smokeless Shotgun Powders booklets from the 1920s and 30s, those 3 1/2 dram, 1 1/4 ounce 12-gauge loads of bulk smokeless powder were pretty high pressure, 11,700 lbs with DuPont bulk smokeless, 11,800 lbs with Schultze. The equivalent in dense smokeless powders, 28-grains of Ballistite, 12,600 lbs. With the introduction of their DuPont Oval progressive burning smokeless powders, in the early 1920s, 40-grains would move that 1 1/4 ounce out at a velocity of 981 feet per second over 40 yards at 9400 lbs.

Dave

[Big Friend Ten (BFT)]

Dave,

Thank you for sharing the pressure information!

Mark

[Bruce Day]

Yes that is a stout load. Its from the Small Bore Shot Gun pamphlet. While I usually shoot light loads I've tried to point out that these guns are capable of some pretty heavy stuff.

[Researcher]

I haven't been able to find when American ammunition companies first began providing shotgun shells loaded with smokeless powders. From what I've read, the first smokeless shotgun powder to be introduced was the Wood powder in 1876. Capt. A.W. Money and his family came to the U.S. in 1890 and set up the American E.C. and Schultze Powder Company. According to Stadt, Winchester was providing smokeless powder shotshells to select shooters in 1893 and began offering them to the public in 1894. My collection of old Chas. J. Godfrey, No. 11 Warren Street, NYC, catalogues agree with this in that the first I have, August 1893 only lists UMC smokeless powder shotshells, but the August 1894 has both Winchester and UMC smokeless powder shotshells. These catalogues from the mid- to late 1890s show 3 1/4 drams and 1 1/4 ounce of shot as the heaviest 12-gauge factory-loaded smokeless shells. By 1903, UMC is offering the 3 1/2 dram bulk, or 28 grains Ballistite dense smokeless powder and 1 1/4 ounce loads. Those loads remain in the ammunition company's offerings into at least the early 1930s.

[J.B. Books]

One thing I notice in the table provided by Bruce is the loads are absolutely anemic in their velocity compared to what we are used to shooting. Those loads would be very easy on both gun and shoulder, but I don't think anyone is shooting sub 1000 fps loads these days, not even low pressure loads in composite barrels.

I believe chamber pressure stresses barrels but it is recoil that stresses stocks. If one's stock is even slightly loose the receiver then hammers the stock head at some very small points of contact.

Take the first load, 12ga 1 ounce at 903 fps, shoot that in a 7.5 pound gun and it develops 6 ft lbs of recoil. Step that one ounce up to a more normal speed used today, 1225 fps and the recoil doubles to 12 ft lbs. Step up to a familiar 3 dram 1 1/8 ounce trap load at 1200 fps and recoil increases to 14 lbs. Now step up to the old standard hunting load of 3 3/4 dram 1 1/4 ounce (1330 fps) and recoil jumps by almost four fold to 22 ft lbs.

Most of our guns are 80 to 100+ years old, some are damaged from oil. We all have a choice on how much we want to punish our guns and shoulders but I can tell you the increased payloads and velocity return only small improvements in performance in my experience.

PS. The 1 1/4 ounce load Researcher mentions at 981 fps generates only 14 ft lbs of recoil. Just in terms of velocity used now vs. then we may be stressing our guns more now than they ever were.

[Drew Hause]

This might be of interest
https://docs.google.com/View?id=dfg2hmx7_333g89dwqg8
It appears that the Top Guns were all using smokeless by 1895