doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Sterlingworth 16 ga. and 10 cases Rem game loads?

I have a 1940 Fox Sterlingworth 16 ga. with original 2 3/4" chambers that is in great condition. I usually reload low pressure loads for the gun, but I just got a deal I couldn't pass up on factory Remington 1 oz. Game Loads. 10 cases of it.

My questions is, would you just use up these loads in the Fox, or buy a more modern gun to shoot them in?

The RGLs run 1200 fps with a pressure more than 10,000 psi. And recoil is sharper than the 1165 1 oz. Federal Game Shoks. Probably no problem for the Fox action, but hard on the now 67 year old wood.

I think max chamber pressure will have no actual bearing on the stock, only the "Recoil Factor". In order to fully determine this both wt of wads & powder charge would need to be known. Assuming they are similar between the two loads & the 1oz is a constant then we have 1200 fps vs 1165 fps. This amounts to a whopping 3% increase for the RGL over the Federal. If you shoot about 4 rounds of skeet or similar in a short afternoon the accumulated effect might be noticable by the end of the day. If you were shooting the slower loads & some joker slipped one of the heavy ones into your gun unknowingly, I highly suspect it would remain just that "UnKnown".
I advise no one on such matters, But, If it were me, I'd shoot'em.

Revdocdrew, I forgot to mention, the gun was restocked about a year ago. So the wood should have no problem with the loads. I was more worried about shooting the gun loose.

I shoot Rem Game Loads in a 1927 LC Smith 16 Ideal FWE, and in a 1906 Parker 16 VHE 1-frame with no problems. I like them a lot, especially when they are on sale.

You will not shoot your Fox loose with the Rem. game loads.
However if you shoot a 100 round sporting clays course with those loads, you may shoot your shoulder loose. :-)

I use them, quit reloading some time back because I was getting such a good deal on them. I have 23 cases as of last week. $3.98 a box was the latest price on sale at Dick's. I clean them out every time they order some. I shoot them in Parkers, Foxes, you name it. They aren't going to hurt the gun if it is tight to begin with. Murphy

I have a case of the following: 2&3/4" 12AP 31/4-11/4oz nickel 'American Pigeon' loads made in Italy by Fiocchi. Can I shoot these through my 1930 vintage Utica Sterlingworth? The gun is in excellent original condition. I hate to throw those shells away as they were dreadfully expensive to buy.
They are orange in color with pic of pigeon in flight on them. Is orange color a warning or are they made that way so empties can be located more easily?

Again, reloading is not to save money it is to create the highest quality loads one can muster. If you are reloading to save money in this day and age, youre doing the right thing in quitting. For those of us interested in a quality product for a specific gun, factory loads can't even come close in quality/price. example: the laods I've recently developed for my old guild gun that just loves them -cannot be bought from a factory and they are not too expensive to reload either.25grainsIMR 7625 powder/Fed210P's/WinAAL wads/#6 Nickel plate 1250FPS@6900psi for 1oz and 6000psi for 7/8oz. Kills fast and dead in that gun. You can't buy that combo anywhere. And, you can't put a price on going ten for ten on doves either.Nor the feeling of absloute elation when you stumble onto a combo like that. I have heard other doing similar things with PB at even lower pressures. Of course, you have to like nice, tightly controlled patterns, over deformed spray as well.

I vividly recall a day even though 30±1 yrs ago. I had a 12ga Lefever which had a set of retro fitted Bohler Steel bbls with proper Italian smokless proof on them. I wanted some fairly stiff Duck loads but didn't want to submit the gun to full blown SAAMI spec "Express" loads. I loaded 1¼oz loads of #5 shot to just over 1100fps using 7625 powder to a pressure of about 7,000 psi. Load was taken direct from, then DuPont, handloader guide. I had patterned them & patterns were great. Even though i normally squirrel hunted with a .22rf when the season opened with leaves still on i carried the 12ga to a hickory grove a couple times & killed a couple limits of bush-tails. They fell as if hit by lightning.
HowEver!! opening day of duck season found the temps in the low 20's, my Son & I had to break ice across about 100yds of flooded soybean field to get our boat into the swamp we were going to hunt. Just after daylight we saw a couple of greenheads, so I called to them & brought them in to our pothole. The son dropped one with a 20ga & an ounce of 6's. Mine sorta shuddered but kept flying, so gave him the other bbl. He then came down but hit the water swimming. He was swimming away so the boy finished him. I had noted the report of my shots were very mild, even for a subsonic load, recoil was non-existent. When we dressed that drake, plenty of #5's had hit him but were all just under the skin, no penertration at all. I no longer shoot loads of 7625 below 8K if I have even the slightest suspicion there may be "Frost Upon the Punkin". Just one mans lowly opinion, but I load because I want loads which are not readily available to me, not because they will "OutKill" factory loads, because they won't.