Testing Buckshot loads

tokguy

tokguy

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My Father's Goose Gun followed me home after his passing and now I'm looking at building some Buckshot loads for Wapoose ( Cree for Showshoe Hare ).
How does one test for power? Penetration of boards? Chrono...yeah, right...film it for entertainment purposes, lol.
It's kinda tough to get any good info on Buckshot loads online, too much info? I'm going to be running 9 - 12 0.31 caliber balls as they stack nicely in 3's in the wads that I have. Overshot card and a roll crimp with an Elmer's seal to make sure it's got a firm start.
Any thoughts?
 
tokguy said:
My Father's Goose Gun followed me home after his passing and now I'm looking at building some Buckshot loads for Wapoose ( Cree for Showshoe Hare ).
How does one test for power? Penetration of boards? Chrono...yeah, right...film it for entertainment purposes, lol.
It's kinda tough to get any good info on Buckshot loads online, too much info? I'm going to be running 9 - 12 0.31 caliber balls as they stack nicely in 3's in the wads that I have. Overshot card and a roll crimp with an Elmer's seal to make sure it's got a firm start.
Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I think that pattern density will be a problem long before power will be with buckshot loads . especially for Wapoose. a single hit with the buckshot you are using should be plenty of power even if the loads are on the light side . I agree about the lack of buckshot info . it seems like you will have to do most of the load development and testing yourself .
 
I'm thinking of getting some buffer connived up, that should help.
God, a Goose Gun is a massive unit! I recall shooting deer with it as a young man. It's D & T (OEM) for a peep sight, wild unit indeed
 
i just used the same load recipe for a birdshot load with the same weight as 8-9 00 buck and reduced the powder charge a bit. i only had 5lbs of hornady 00 buck to play with so i didn't get alot of rounds made up. i haven't reloaded 12 ga for a while as i have limited space currently, so i've just been using the federal ammo can buckshot. Also my shotguns are all cylinder bore so it spreads to a 10" after 10ish yards if that. i believe i tried stacking them 3x3 and 2x8 with cream of wheat as filler.
 
I used the Lyman manual for buckshot loads. I tried some last year and had a lot of fun doing it but ran out of time this year. My method of accuracy testing involved using a regular sheet of blue paper, about 8X8 or 8X10 to approximate the vitals of whatever you're hunting. I'd fire 2-3 rounds one one each target. For deer I think you'd need a minimum of 4 pellets in the zone. Start at 20 yds and keep extending the range till you cannot get the minimum # of pellets on target. That would be your max range. As far as penetration goes what I've done in the past was to shoot at soaking wet phone books to determine what sort of penetration your likely to get. I use to do this a lot for testing cast bullets and think that whatever depth I got in the phone books I was good for at least 2-3X that penetration on a deer. My very limited accuracy trials with buckshot have shown that my max distance is about 25-30 yds though I've not tested for penetration. Best of luck
 
I use cream of wheat for buffer. Helped my buckshot patterns quite a bit but I don't remember exactly how much. Not sure where my records of that ended up.
 
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