I'm heading to northeast New York in a couple weeks to hang out with an old Coast Guard buddy and give my young cocker some quality time in pretty good grouse country. One of the guns I'll be bringing along is my 1970s 20-gauge Darne R15. It has 65-cm (~25.6") barrels choked .005" and .020" and weighs 5 pounds 9 ounces. I'd prefer a bit less choke in the left barrel, but apart from that the gun seems like an ideal grouse and woodcock gun. It is certainly fast and handy in heavy cover.
I've tended to respect the "96" and "square load" conventions and generally shot nothing heavier than 7/8 ounce from this gun, but I see lots of 1-ounce 20-gauge game loads in 2.75 length. I'm not overly concerned about either felt recoil or chamber pressure in this triple-proofed 20, but I wonder if I'd be risking wood damage firing 1-ounce loads in a 5.75-pound gun. I see quite a few old Darnes for sale with fissures in the wood and assume it reflects overly hot or heavy loads out of these light guns (even with the mythical disques obturateurs). Anyone have thoughts or experience to share?
Bill
What you need is typical 7/8 oz target grade load of 7.5s. The one ounce should be left for 16ga guys. While 16ga is perfect for this task I bought one because shopping for 12ga or 20ga ammo in American gun shop or sporting goods store is like shopping for cereal at US supermarket or like shopping for cheese or eggs in European one ie. there are far too many choices to be had.
The low recoil often called "trainer loads" in Europe are special order item not be be found at local sporting goods store a gun shop because due to limited space they only stock what they can sell. In America "low recoil" or "low velocity" sells about as good as bread or milk well past "best if used by date".
