My Field Black Powder Shotgunning
Since moving to Idaho six years ago, more time to hunt (due to retirement), a good pointer, and excellent pheasant hunting opportunities have directed my upland game hunting to all black powder.
Years ago I bought myself a left hand T/C 12ga. New Englander (left eye dominance) with screw in chokes and used it a bit for Ruffed Grouse hunting in the Midwest. A good day was 10 flushes and two shots at birds. A good retriving dog was a necessity. 80 grs of 3f and 1 1/4 of sixes seemed to work best with an open bore.
Here in the Golden West a modified choke, 90grs of 3f, a standard fiber shot column and thin overshot card or paper shot cartridges with 1 3/8 of copper plated fours over an excellent pointer got me my limit whenever we found birds.
A friend gave me an Old Belgian open bore 10 double-proofed in the 1870's- which I restored and the fun began. I had to relearn the lessons I had garnered shooting open bore trade gun than less is sometime better for black powder paterns. After one bird season with just so so results I found
that 95 gr of 1F and 1 1/2 of hard fours brought the birds down best.
A trip to a pawn shop with my wife who wanted to look at jewlery resulted in the aquisition of a 1984 marked CVA 12 light open bored double that is a delight to carry and harvests pheasants well with 80grs of 2f and 1 1/4 of hard fours.
This Fall, I plan to use my 11ga Brown Bess with 90 to 100 grs of powder and 1 1/2 or 1 5/8 shot for at least some of my pheasnt hunting. I figure it will at least give my cartridge using hunting companions something to talk about.
This load was also good for fox squirrels.
Enjoy, and be prepared to try things until you get the performance you want.
Since moving to Idaho six years ago, more time to hunt (due to retirement), a good pointer, and excellent pheasant hunting opportunities have directed my upland game hunting to all black powder.
Years ago I bought myself a left hand T/C 12ga. New Englander (left eye dominance) with screw in chokes and used it a bit for Ruffed Grouse hunting in the Midwest. A good day was 10 flushes and two shots at birds. A good retriving dog was a necessity. 80 grs of 3f and 1 1/4 of sixes seemed to work best with an open bore.
Here in the Golden West a modified choke, 90grs of 3f, a standard fiber shot column and thin overshot card or paper shot cartridges with 1 3/8 of copper plated fours over an excellent pointer got me my limit whenever we found birds.
A friend gave me an Old Belgian open bore 10 double-proofed in the 1870's- which I restored and the fun began. I had to relearn the lessons I had garnered shooting open bore trade gun than less is sometime better for black powder paterns. After one bird season with just so so results I found
that 95 gr of 1F and 1 1/2 of hard fours brought the birds down best.
A trip to a pawn shop with my wife who wanted to look at jewlery resulted in the aquisition of a 1984 marked CVA 12 light open bored double that is a delight to carry and harvests pheasants well with 80grs of 2f and 1 1/4 of hard fours.
This Fall, I plan to use my 11ga Brown Bess with 90 to 100 grs of powder and 1 1/2 or 1 5/8 shot for at least some of my pheasnt hunting. I figure it will at least give my cartridge using hunting companions something to talk about.
This load was also good for fox squirrels.
Enjoy, and be prepared to try things until you get the performance you want.
