Choked shotguns

[moleeyes36]

I have a Pedersoli 12 gauge double with choke tubes (Mod and Full) that I bought from another ALR member about a year ago that I've never shot.  I only bought it to tide me over until I can build a flint smooth bore fowler.  I keep waiting for Jim Kibler to come out with a smoothbore fowler or Chief's Trade Gun, but no word (or schedule) on that from Jim in some time now.  I want a jug choked 16 or 12 gauge.

So, I guess I need to get out to the range and do some load development with the Pedersoli so I can shoot some clay birds until I can build a nice fowler.  I have no experience with a ML (or modern) shotgun that has choke tubes, so I have no idea what the patterns will be like or what loads it will like.  Should be interesting.

Don Richards

[Daryl]

Regular 12 bore wads from Track should work fine, in that gun.  You should have the hard 1/8" card, then 1/2" fiber donnaconna wad, the the thin overshot "B" wad.
Regular load for me in a choked gun would be 3 drams of 2F and 1 1/8oz to 1 1/4oz shot.
Powder, hard card, then lubed fiber, then shot, then thin card overshot wad.
If you want to tighten up the pattern a bit in the centre, you can drill a 3/8" hold about 1/4" to 3/8" deep in the middle of the lubed wad.
That will hold a bit of shot and tighten up the centre of the pattern.
This was a "trick" used in non-choked guns, apparently in the London Field Trials in the mid 1800's.  a "Swedish Cup Wad" was also used at times. We've found simply
eliminating the thick cushion wad between shot and powder did the same thing, tightened up the patterns in non choked guns.
You can also use shot cups- paper or plastic. Be sure with plastic wads, if used, to put a hard card or 2 between the powder and the plastic. The flame of BP will melt the
plastic and coat the bore if the powder flame plays directly on it.

[moleeyes36]

Thanks.  I’ve had a few ML shotguns in the past and on the 12 gauge ones that were choked I found that using 13 gauge fiber wads in the full choked barrel made loading easier and didn’t seem to change the pattern.  This is the only gun I’ve had with choke tubes and I’m curious to see if it shoots any different than a shotgun with a regular choked barrel.

Don Richards

[Daryl]

Choke tubes at least can be changed to alter the patterns, as well as changing the load dynamics.
Yes - the results will be interesting.  In the past, regardless of choke, I have found standard black powder loads, loaded to the equivalence listed on the boxes, to pattern
tighter than those smokeless rounds in the same guns.
My 20 bore is barely an improved cylinder choke, yet with standard load building, it patterns about modified, 63% to 65% at 40yards.