doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com favourite BP and lead 10g 2 7/8" lead loads?

I took my old W&C Scott 10g hammer toplever single after Cape Barren Geese (and peacocks, but without success) last week (another story; I'll pop a few pics up in a while). I loaded up some 1 3/8oz #2 and BB over the same volume of 2F BP for the job, and they killed when I was on, but on refelction, I wonder if equal volumes may have been a little anaemic? What do others use? Thought I'd ask here, as the number of people using such a thing in my part of the world could probably be counted on one hand.

From the pictures you posted, I'd say that load worked pretty well. Seems like a well balanced load. You could up the black powder charge but why when it worked so well. Heavier charge would mean more recoil and I suspect that that single is not really all that heavy of a gun to begin with. Good shooting and Good hunting!

Yes, they worked when I did my bit; I've been re-reading a little of WW Greener and a few others trying to glean thoughts on 10g loads; consensus seems - even for the BP era - to be on heaver shotloads and stiffer powder charges than mine. Mine are going through a 7lb single, so I can't get too ambitious, but I haven't got a 10g just to put 12g equivalent loads through it...

I believe all the old powder/shot measures do an equal amount of shot and powder - at least the old ones I have.

I have 2 old dippers: ACME Co. NO. 15 and UMCO. Torrington, Conn. Both are adjustable, one side oz. shot and other drams powder. Range from 1 oz. to 2&1/4 oz. shot and 2&1/2 to 5 drams powder. They work great and I use them all the time for black powder loading. Just set, dip and load! One can find these at gun shows and flea markets Probably antique shops or internet. Just finished up loading some 10 ga. and now sorting hulls for the 12's. Nice way to spend a Monday afternoon.

Please remember the old 10 gauge loads that were used when your Scott was new were in fact lighter than many of our present 12 gauge waterfowl loads now. So you are not giving up much with equal dippers of powder and shot. That is the way it was.
Mike

Thanks so far for the input; I'm jut trying to get a sense of what sort of loads would have been sold and loaded in the late 1800s and what the gun would originally have been built for the Greener rule of 96 suggests only ounce and eighth for a 7 lb gun; I've seen 4ish+ drams and anywhere between ounce and eighth and ounce and half as era- and gun-appropriate loads... my loads did leave quite a bit of space to be filled with wads or more powder and shot...

I think the best course is to match the load to the gun. Weight range went from 8/8&1/2 pounds to over 10 pounds. Hulls anywhere from to 2&3/4 to over 3 inches. Brass to paper with less internal capacity. 2&7/8 was probably the most popular hull length and the space was just filled with wadding to match the load to the gun weight. A light weight gun would use a heavy 12 load and a mid weight a heavier load. Heavy guns would load even heavier charge and shot weights. My double is 8&1/2-8&3/4 pounds and load range 3&1/4 drams with 1&1/8 oz shot to 4 drams and 1&1/4 oz shot. The heavy water fowling guns maybe 4&1/4 to 5 drams powder and up to 2 oz shot. More powder and shot equal more pressure and recoil. If you would like to use heavy loads try to find a heavy gun and stay with the lighter loads for you light 10.

Hi Cadet. I have used 4 drams of FFG under 1.5oz of Bismuth in brass hulls in my 1894 Rem 10 ga with no ill effect. I got that load out of a black powder load flyer from Track of the Wolf.

Mergus

Did anyone besides me ever wonder about those markings on the old shot & powder dippers. Note on Erics dipper it expands to twice its size on the powder from 2� drams to 5 drams, but on the shot it goes from 1oz to 2�oz. If the powder doubled why did not the shot stop double to 2oz also. This seems to be consistent with nearly all the old dippers I am familiar with. I have concluded the answer is to keep things "Even" they usd � dram & 1/8 oz settings. At the base line though it takes 10 of the � drams to equal 2� but only 8 of the 1/8 oz settings to equal 1 oz. My personal belief is that the 2�-1 is essentially correct & the powder settings are pretty accurate, but the shot charge gets a bit light with each setting as you go up to a larger measure.
I tend to agree with W W Greener when he recommended as a general purpose load in the 10 gauge 4 Drams-1� oz shot, stating that when 1�oz only was used the 12 gauge would handle it so well there was no practical gain in going to the larger gauge.