Hello everyone, new to this forum. I just purchased my first antique shotgun. (Tom Bland and Sons 16 gauge) There are outfits in the States that sell low pressure 2.5 inch shells but I am having trouble finding them in Canada. I reside in rural north central BC and while the hunting is excellent the shopping is not. Any ideas out there on Canadian distributers. Importing from the States does not seem to be a viable option. The US manufacturers were RST and Polywad. I checked back 25 pages and did not see this covered. I may have to learn how to load shot shells by the sounds of things. There are worse things a guy could be learning.
Canadian low pressure shot shells?
- Thread starter Bland
- Start date
- Location
- West coast of Vancouver Island
Check with Elwood Epps.
Kent Cartridge Gamebore lists one 16 ga 2 1/2 inch load.
Contact info for Kent Canada :
Phone(800) 844-1880
Fax(905) 294-4921
E-mail: kentc@kentgamebore.com
Wholesale Sports stocks the 12 ga 2 1/2 inch but I have not seen the 16 ga
Contact info for Kent Canada :
Phone(800) 844-1880
Fax(905) 294-4921
E-mail: kentc@kentgamebore.com
Wholesale Sports stocks the 12 ga 2 1/2 inch but I have not seen the 16 ga
You can make your own, using black powder and muzzle loading fiber wads and either lead shot or bismuth depending on whether you are hunting grouse or migratory birds. I feel that you can safely shoot 2 3/4" plastic (but not paper) shells in a 2 5/8" chamber. I suspect your chamber is actually 2 5/8 rather than 2 1/2 inch.
There are smokeless powders that you can use if you keep your pressures down below about 7000 psi. at the same time if you drop down to 4 - 5000 psi loads, you will get a lot of unburnt powder in the barrel. I would suggest checking with an experienced shotgun reloader before loading with smokeless
cheers mooncoon
There are smokeless powders that you can use if you keep your pressures down below about 7000 psi. at the same time if you drop down to 4 - 5000 psi loads, you will get a lot of unburnt powder in the barrel. I would suggest checking with an experienced shotgun reloader before loading with smokeless
cheers mooncoon
Sherman Bell has done a lot of testing in this area. I wrote to him to find out what sort of pressures the 12 Bore 2&1/2" shells generated using black powder. His reply was 6,000 to 8,000 psi, with original black powder factory tending to be closer to 8,000 psi. He suggested that smokeless loads that stayed under 8,000 psi would be fine. One can do this with the right smokeless powders and the right shot weight. I have such a double shotgun myself and will be loading up my own. In general, it seems that staying around 7,000 psi is a nice safe region to operate it.
Thanks very much gentlemen. The learning curve has been steep since I took the plunge with this shotgun. I have a friend who is well versed in the finer points of reloading etc so I will be getting expert instruction if it ends up being the reloading route. My preference would be to buy the ammo as I simply do not shoot enough or have the interest to warrant the reloading route. I will follow these leads up and get back to you. My gun will be arriving this week and then it will be checked by a gunsmith for soundness. It will be my grouse gun; my year old Brittany (Harley) and I have big plans.
Just got off the phone with Kent Cartridge Gamebore and they are more than willing to deal with our local gun shop. The shells will be a phone call away. That worked very well. They have a number of dealers in BC which were not listed on their webpage. Also the web searches I initiated never brought Kent up. A bit perplexing in that regard. There will be plenty of time to get familiarised before September 10th. Much appreciated.
