Buckshot load for 20 ga fowler for Coyotes?

I want to work up a load for my 20 ga fowler to shoot coyotes up close and personal!

Does anyone have a good starting place? Powder charge? Number of balls? I have .318 balls that I shoot out of my .32 that I plan to use.

I was thinking 6 balls over 70 gr of FFg

I also have #6 shot, would a good load of that be better for Coyotes?

Thanks for any advice! I've never shot buckshot? Or Coyotes with a shotgun before. Killed tons with rifle though.

Will you get close enough. I’ve been in shot range of coyote a time or two but most of the time they ain’t too close.

That's what I was thinking too. I had one in bow range once, but that was more of an outlier than the norm.

Never tried buckshot loads in my 20, but I had great performance with .310 balls in a 12 gauge and .350 balls in a 10 gauge. They fit "right" in the columns for very effective loads.

No whacks at coyotes with either of them, but I've shot a lot of coyotes with modern 12 gauge 3" loads of #4 buckshot. Effective killers. My instinct says that dropping smaller than .310 might be in order for best loads in your 20, but with some assurance that smaller buckshot down to at least #4 buckshot would be a stone killer on coyotes within your range. The plus side of the smaller buck would be increased pattern density, which might translate into a little more effective range for you than with .310. Ballistic Products sells and amazing array of smaller (and larger) buckshot in 8# jugs as I recall, and one jug will translate into a whole lot of coyote poking.

Will you get close enough.

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Wondering that also. :hmm:
#4 buck (about 1/4" diameter) would be a killer choice but pattern density would be near nil. I have concerns this experiment will work.

jrmflintlock said:

I also have #6 shot, would a good load of that be better for Coyotes?

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Way to small IMO...use BB to #4

In the slight alloy used by Ballistic products, #4 buckshot fall in at just over 20 per ounce and are .240. Especially if you push the weight up to 1 1/2 oz like a lot of guys use in 20 gauge turkey loads, you could be talking as much as 30 balls per shot. Dunno whether #4 (.240") or #3 (.250") would give you the perfect load of 3 balls per "tier" in a layered load.

In fact I don't know how to figure out what diameter would be best for a 20 gauge. But when you're getting up in the vicinity of 20 or 30 balls per cloud of white smoke, you're in the neighborhood of pretty good coyote whupass within the pattern limits of your particular gun and load.

I've called them into my lap on many many occasions. Only to wait till they got out to 30+ yards before I could shoot them. I used to hunt them quite a bit in my youth and had at least one or two get within smoothbore range each time I went out.

Goal back then was to smoke as many as I could so I never did it with a shotgun. Now it's more about the challenge! If I can call them in close enough to smoke with my fowler, it's just that much more satisfying.

My mold is a .310 not .318. I don't have #4 but I'll let you all know how it goes.

I'll look into getting some #4 buck! Thanks for the input!

BrownBear said:

In fact I don't know how to figure out what diameter would be best for a 20 gauge.

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I played around with buckshot in my 20 gauge smooth rifle with pretty good results. One of my best combinations was with tow as wadding. My buckshot/swan shot was .285" balls from a Rabine mold, with sprues. In this shot I loaded 12 of them, shot at 20 yards with 70 grains 2F Goex, target is 15" x 23", group is a bit less than 12 inches.



Spence

Ditto the #4 buck load ... so make up a BP version.

Thanks, Clyde, for the chart.

If you want to match up to the weight of a 20 gauge ball of 0.610" diameter you get the following match ups:
Weight 20 gauge Ball weight = 341.341526
20.78898787 No. 4 Buck 16.41934317
23.49739116 No. 3 Buck 14.526784
27.98576883 N/A 12.19696797
29.59994562 No. 2 Buck 11.5318295

If you are using 3 balls per layer, then load up with 12 No. 2 buck or 15 of Number 3 or 4 buck. That should be a pretty effective load and relatively comparable to your 20 gauge ball.

Now go get them coyotes!

Colorado Clyde said:

...use BB to #4

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Decrease the shot size and reduce the overall shot weight. This will still give you more pellets than a 00 buck load and higher velocity.

Buck shot is a short range round and velocity kills.

jrmflintlock said:

I've called them into my lap on many many occasions. Only to wait till they got out to 30+ yards before I could shoot them. I used to hunt them quite a bit in my youth and had at least one or two get within smoothbore range each time I went out.

Goal back then was to smoke as many as I could so I never did it with a shotgun. Now it's more about the challenge! If I can call them in close enough to smoke with my fowler, it's just that much more satisfying.

My mold is a .310 not .318. I don't have #4 but I'll let you all know how it goes.

I'll look into getting some #4 buck! Thanks for the input!

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Methinks (no personal experience) getting them that close the shot size becomes an academic issue. Anything from #4 shot to #4 buck should do the job. I've only killed 'yotes with a modern rifle.

A lot of commercial loads intended for Coyotes use bb to #4 I wouldn't go bigger than #4 buck in a cylinder gun velocity kills but so does patterns density

Colorado Clyde said:

BrownBear said:

In fact I don't know how to figure out what diameter would be best for a 20 gauge.

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Click to expand...

Just playing with your numbers, for a 20 guage (.615" bore) and using 1 ounce as a load goal to keep the velocity at a reasonable speed I came up with the following loads.

These loads would position the buckshot in layers of 3 or 4 balls per layer depending on the load.

There is no way to get #1 buck (.300 diameter) to distribute the balls in layers greater than 2 balls per layer in a 20 guage so I ignored it.

For #2 buckshot which is .270" diameter, it weighs 14.83 grains per pellet.
A load of 5 layers of 3 balls per layer would be 15 balls. It would weigh 442.5 grains so it would be a 1.01 ounce load.

For #3 buckshot which is .250" diameter, it weighs 18.7 grains per pellet.
A load of 4 layers of 4 balls per layer would be 16 balls. This would weigh 374 grains so it would be around a 7/8 ounce load.

Adding 2 extra #3 balls which would rest on the top layer of balls the load would be 18 balls.
This would weigh 421 grains so it would weigh about 1 ounce (.97 oz).

For #4 buckshot which is .240" diameter and weighs 20.7 grains per pellet 5 layers of 4 balls per layer would be 20 balls and it would weigh 414 grains or about 0.95 ounce.

I don't have much information about velocity for a 20 guage. The only thing I can find is the Dixie Gunworks data that says a 69 grain load of 2Fg powder under 7/8 ounce of shot gives a muzzle velocity of about 1014 fps.
Hodgdon's New Black Powder Manual No. 1©1971 also shows this load for the 20 guage but it doesn't give any velocity information.
It does call this load as "Heavy".

Zonie said:

Just playing with your numbers, for a 20 guage (.615" bore) and using 1 ounce as a load goal to keep the velocity at a reasonable speed I came up with the following loads.

These loads would position the buckshot in layers of 3 or 4 balls per layer depending on the load.

There is no way to get #1 buck (.300 diameter) to distribute the balls in layers greater than 2 balls per layer in a 20 guage so I ignored it.

For #2 buckshot which is .270" diameter, it weighs 14.83 grains per pellet.
A load of 5 layers of 3 balls per layer would be 15 balls. It would weigh 442.5 grains so it would be a 1.01 ounce load.

For #3 buckshot which is .250" diameter, it weighs 18.7 grains per pellet.
A load of 4 layers of 4 balls per layer would be 16 balls. This would weigh 374 grains so it would be around a 7/8 ounce load.

Adding 2 extra #3 balls which would rest on the top layer of balls the load would be 18 balls.
This would weigh 421 grains so it would weigh about 1 ounce (.97 oz).

For #4 buckshot which is .240" diameter and weighs 20.7 grains per pellet 5 layers of 4 balls per layer would be 20 balls and it would weigh 414 grains or about 0.95 ounce.

I don't have much information about velocity for a 20 guage. The only thing I can find is the Dixie Gunworks data that says a 69 grain load of 2Fg powder under 7/8 ounce of shot gives a muzzle velocity of about 1014 fps.
Hodgdon's New Black Powder Manual No. 1©1971 also shows this load for the 20 guage but it doesn't give any velocity information.
It does call this load as "Heavy".

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Your math is wonky....Smaller balls are heavier? :shocked2:

Also just do single-aught buck,(that's closets to what the OP said he was using), #4 buck and BB size...
BB size also has the advantage of not needing to be stacked.

With BB size shot I could half the weight to the load to 1/2 ounce, this would give me about 25 pellets traveling at a higher velocity...In theory.
I'm not sure what the convergence distance would be....but I bet it's beyond 25 yards.

Zonie said:

Colorado Clyde said:

BrownBear said:

In fact I don't know how to figure out what diameter would be best for a 20 gauge.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Just playing with your numbers, for a 20 guage (.615" bore) and using 1 ounce as a load goal to keep the velocity at a reasonable speed I came up with the following loads.

These loads would position the buckshot in layers of 3 or 4 balls per layer depending on the load.

There is no way to get #1 buck (.300 diameter) to distribute the balls in layers greater than 2 balls per layer in a 20 guage so I ignored it.

For #2 buckshot which is .270" diameter, it weighs 29.6 grains per pellet.
A load of 5 layers of 3 balls per layer would be 15 balls. It would weigh 442.5 grains so it would be a 1.01 ounce load.

For #3 buckshot which is .250" diameter, it weighs 23.5 grains per pellet.
A load of 4 layers of 4 balls per layer would be 16 balls. This would weigh 374 grains so it would be around a 7/8 ounce load.

Adding 2 extra #3 balls which would rest on the top layer of balls the load would be 18 balls.
This would weigh 421 grains so it would weigh about 1 ounce (.97 oz).

For #4 buckshot which is .240" diameter and weighs 20.7 grains per pellet 5 layers of 4 balls per layer would be 20 balls and it would weigh 414 grains or about 0.95 ounce.

I don't have much information about velocity for a 20 guage. The only thing I can find is the Dixie Gunworks data that says a 69 grain load of 2Fg powder under 7/8 ounce of shot gives a muzzle velocity of about 1014 fps.
Hodgdon's New Black Powder Manual No. 1©1971 also shows this load for the 20 guage but it doesn't give any velocity information.
It does call this load as "Heavy".

Click to expand...

I took the liberty to correct the weights of the No. 2 and No. 3 buck shot. The total load is correct.

BB sized shot, 8.74 grains /pellet.... 50 pellets/ounce.