Good day afield

[MeliusCreekTrapper]

I got a chance to get into a decent squirrel woods with my New England fowler yesterday. The sun was out and down by the creek there wasn't much wind. The squirrels were cutting and not skittish. Shot load was 65 grains 3F, over powder card, cushion wad, 1 1/8oz #6 shot and an overshot card. Brought enough home for a nice batch of biscuits and gravy.

[MuskratMike]

Well done. Those tree rats will eat just fine.

[Daryl]

Well done MCT. Pretty much a standard load, equivalent I guess, to about a 2 1/2 to 2 3/4dram 2F load.
Is your gun choked?

[MeliusCreekTrapper]

Well done MCT. Pretty much a standard load, equivalent I guess, to about a 2 1/2 to 2 3/4dram 2F load.
Is your gun choked?

It is jug choked. Some day I do want to try the sky chief load to see if it patterns better. I honestly don't think the jug choke improved the pattern as much as I was lead to believe it would.

[Daryl]

The sky-chief load may or may not help - only one way to find out.

The little jug I did on my .44 smoothbore back in the late 1970's worked very well
but I used a card on the powder, then a .410 plastic wad for the 1/2oz. of shot, then thin card on top.
I guess the plastic really helped due to the configuration I had.

[MeliusCreekTrapper]

Daryl,

I did play with plastic wads before I had the barrel choked. They definitely throw a nice pattern. I have not tried a plastic wad or shot cup since having the gun choked. I did try paper wrapped shot charges, but could never get them to open consistently. Sometimes there would be a great pattern. Sometimes the shot charge hit like a slug. Guess I just need to spend more time at the range.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I had success using post-it note papers to make shot columns, in my 15 bore Manton percussion double.  The density of my patterns improved dramatically.