doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 28ga 7/8oz Loads?

I'm looking for recipes for 28ga 7/8oz



I have BP wads for 7/8oz of shot and several brands of hulls. 



What are you loading?



Thanks!

I used to load 14 grains of Longshot with BP wads for late season pheasant with 7/8 oz of shot for the 28 gauge but have since gone back to 3/4 oz because after visiting the pattern board I readily found out that the lighter load was far superior.

The heavier the payload, the harder it is to drive it fast enough to be effective in smallbores. I have shot a lot of Dove in late season, with both 3/4 ounce and 7/8 ounce loads. I find the 3/4 ounce gives better results. I do drop down to 7 shot. I'd rather use 3/4 ounce, 7 shot driven at 1200-1250 fps than 7/8 ounce of shot driven at 1150fps. I do not like the 1300 fps loads. Too fast and it does not pattern well and too slow does not retain enough energy. Pick your poison. Longshot or 572 are excellent powders to start with.

It is all about tradeoffs. 1150, 1200, 1250 or 1300fps, 7/8 or 3/4 at a faster speed. Which patterns better? Which shot retains enough energy down range. As a young person I killed several hundred Ducks with a 28 shooting 1 ounce lead number 6 or 5 shot under very favorable conditions. Longest shot was 25 yards. I have killed several hundred late season dove with 3/4 ounce 7 shot. That does not give you many pellets, but the retain energy does kill birds in a modified or full choke gun. Load a few and pattern them to see what you have. The small gauges need the best components you can find because they have little margin of error and tend to unforgiving.

Absolutely spot on Sir!

My poison is the slower load. Speed loses its speed faster than a slower velocity load does. Simple physics.

Yes and no, Stan. Slow, with large pellets works better than small pellets are slightly higher initial velocity. And large pellets retain down range energy better than smaller pellets. The real key is multiple trips to a pattern board at different ranges. Give me several large shot hits, in the vital areas rather than many more non lethal hits by smaller pellets. Speed does not kill as well as retained energy.

Late season doves are fully feather, mature birds and much harder to kill than the "virgins" of opening day. On top of that they flying fast, with winds at their backs and with fully season of experience of staying alive. Kill a limit of late season birds and you have done something. I am happy with large(r) pellets, which pattern well for me in tight choked guns. I find faster loads seem to rarely pattern better than slower loads for me. My mentor use to tell me drive a load too fast and all you do is blow the patterns. So I work to find the tightest, most even patterning loads for hunting use. If that is 1150 or 1250 I do not care. But more times than naught my experience has been 1150-1225 seems to be the sweet spot. For hunting I load for single purpose and do not care if the hull is used up after just a single use, unlike when I am shooting clays when I try to find a load which I can use multiple times in the same hull.

Of course, simple physics tells us that faster pellets always arrive at the target sooner and faster than slower pellets. So, all else being equal (and patterning being of all else), faster is probably better and at least as good.

I'd go with the best pattern, so long as the velocity on delivery is adequate.

Me, too. And, I have another overriding requirement. Because I pattern loads regularly I also see how well my S X Ss are regulated with that load. I have found that in nearly all my vintage S X Ss a slow, but "heavy", load regulates the best. I will not tolerate going to the field with a gun and load that is cross firing by several inches, handicapping me out of the gate. A great example is my Fox Sterlingworth Ejector 20 ga. bird gun. When I got it I wanted to use 7/8 oz. loads at about 1250, over the counter stuff. They cross fired in it by 8" each, at 25 yards. It was determined that all it needed, wanted, to regulate perfectly was 1 oz. loads at 1150. I agree with your comments on pellet size, completely. And, I've never seen where going up or down in pellet size in the same load affected regulation. Velocity and payload sure do, though.

Checking POI and less often considered convergence, is a very valid points, Stan. Only way to know is a trip to a patterning plate. It amuses me the number of shooters and hunters who have never patterned a shotgun. Zero times. All my rifle shooting friends spend countless shots at range to figure both group size and point of impact. Convergence with the few double rifles as well. But a shotgun has that magical spreading pattern which must compensate for both operator error and gun payload limitations.

If you want to kill a high percentage of birds, with one well placed shot, you must do your homework. And then practice, practice, practice. If you want to use any small-bore you have to do even more advance work. And very few people can estimate distance worth a darn. Maybe a farmer can who has to train his eye to judge 4, 6, 8, 12, 16 and 20 rows. Most hunters are lucky to guess correctly within 5-10 yards at birds flying the true distance. And if your bird is five yards past your effective range and abilities, all you are doing is wasting time. If you can not put multiple lethal pellets, on a Dove, do not shoot.

For many years I used 18.7 gr of WW571 and Winchester AA hulls, wads and primers. Gave about 1200 fps. Worked well for me.
These are the old style AA hulls.
I still have some components that I should load this winter.
Bill