SkyChief load works.

Been reading up on the SkyChief load method. Tried it today. 70grs 2f Goex, 1 nitro card, 1.125oz shot, 1 over shot card, 1 wet with canola oil cushion wad. Patterns at 25 yards were darn near perfect! Every pellet was inside a 30" circle. Very even with NO holes. My .62 Cal (19 guage) Pedersoli would give a good pattern at 25 yards with no real holes and the pattern was even. But 15% of the pellets were outside of a 30" circle. While it would work fine for me, the pattern was larger than I consider optimal for my needs. This was with the standard nitro card/shot/over shot card method. This was like night and day. Pattern is actually better than my Browning o/u. Denser and more even. Going to pattern at the standard 40 yards tomorrow and see how it compares to a cylinder bore modern shotgun. I think it will fare pretty well. I don't know why or how this works, but WOW!

Great NorthFork. Thanks for the report. Enjoy your new gun. :thumbsup:

Best regards, Skychief. :hatsoff:

:hatsoff:
Please don't ask how it works!!

B.

I patterned with #8 and #6 copper plated today using the same recipe as yesterday. Went out to 50 yards. While the density was marginal at that distance, I was shocked at how well it did. On fragile thin skinned small game such as rabbits, I could if I choose to, kill such game reliably at 50 yards. That to me is astounding for a 62 Cal smoothbore flinter. Inside of 40/45 yards this gun should be a real game getter if do my part. When I started, it was a 30 yard +/- gun. That was loading it the 'normal' way as most do.

Edit - Best comparison would be modern 3" 20 GA with a tight improved modified or maybe a full at 50 yards. Now nothing says I have to use SkyChiefs load all the time. Load 'traditionally' for anticipated close shots and use SkyChiefs load for anticipated moderate to far distances OR for closer turkey shots. This just made an already versatile gun much more adaptable to varying hunting needs.

Yup!! :grin:

NorthFork said:

Load 'traditionally' for anticipated close shots and use SkyChiefs load for anticipated moderate to far distances OR for closer turkey shots. This just made an already versatile gun much more adaptable to varying hunting needs.

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I frequently load traditionally in the right barrel of my double-barrel flinter, Skychief's in the left. Best of both worlds.

Spence

When a guy lets his mind get past all the whoopety poop about wads blowing up patterns (Thanks for that Skychief!), there's a question that remains in my mind about his load.

Specifically, is it's magic due to all that extra lube from the sopped top-wad? Seems to me it would have to cut down on erosion/deformation of shot rubbing down the bore, so as a result you just get more round shot in a load, and maybe better velocity from the shot along the edges due to less friction.

Okay, back to my neglected coffee cup now! :thumbsup:

Well I'm not touching the live wire known as "why does SkyChief's load work?", however I WILL tell you that a canola oil soaked wad WILL go completely through a 1"x4" at 25 yards. Board was new and unshot and was part of the target frame at the bottom. :shocked2:

I tried the Skychief loading method yesterday in my 16 ga. Officer's fusil and had the same result as NorthFork. Effectively every pellet into a 30 in. circle at 25 yds. My load was 80 gr of 2f goex, 1 thin os card, 1 1/8 in dry felt wad, (I didn't have any nitro cards) 1 1/4 oz no. 4 shot , 1 thin os card, and a olive oll soaked cushion wad.
Thanks Skychief,
Bill

"Generally" I haven't had much luck with a soppin wet cushion wad in a cylinder bored gun, they always tend to blow a huge hole in the middle of my pattern. I go with a lightly lubed 3/8" felt wad in place of the cushion wad and get great results. I have every once in a while had a cylinder bored gun that would shoot a wet fiber wad, but not often.

Wonderful to hear Biz. Glad you tried the load! Thanks for sharing your good results.

Comfortably Numb, where are you putting the cushion wad in the load chain? Are you familiar with the, ahem, "Skychief" load?

Best regards, Skychief.

One more vote for the "Skychief" load, my Beretta is a new gun using it. I was worried with trying it on turkey, now I'm worried about doing to much damage

Comfortably_Numb said:

"Generally" I haven't had much luck with a soppin wet cushion wad in a cylinder bored gun, they always tend to blow a huge hole in the middle of my pattern. I go with a lightly lubed 3/8" felt wad in place of the cushion wad and get great results. I have every once in a while had a cylinder bored gun that would shoot a wet fiber wad, but not often.

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Do some research and reading. We aren't talking of the "normal" loading order.

Comfortably_Numb said:

"Generally" I haven't had much luck with a soppin wet cushion wad in a cylinder bored gun, they always tend to blow a huge hole in the middle of my pattern. I go with a lightly lubed 3/8" felt wad in place of the cushion wad and get great results. I have every once in a while had a cylinder bored gun that would shoot a wet fiber wad, but not often.

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You puts the sopping wet wad in last, on top of the shot. When you shoot the sopping wad comes out first.

Skychief said:

Wonderful to hear Biz. Glad you tried the load! Thanks for sharing your good results.

Comfortably Numb, where are you putting the cushion wad in the load chain? Are you familiar with the, ahem, "Skychief" load?

Best regards, Skychief.

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I guess I Missed the "formula". When I used a fiber cushion wad I load like this: powder, nitro. cushion, shot, over shot. Now that I re-read the above I see the key seems to be putting the lubed fiber wad LAST. I would have never guessed that would work, but I'll give it a try. I'll have to build a gun to shoot it out of first, fresh out of smooth bored guns. Wait, I have a smooth .50, anybody try it with that small of a bore?

Comfortably_Numb said:

I guess I Missed the "formula". When I used a fiber cushion wad I load like this: powder, nitro. cushion, shot, over shot. Now that I re-read the above I see the key seems to be putting the lubed fiber wad LAST. I would have never guessed that would work, but I'll give it a try. I'll have to build a gun to shoot it out of first, fresh out of smooth bored guns. Wait, I have a smooth .50, anybody try it with that small of a bore?

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Not tried it in my .45 as I don't have any suitable .45 wads.
I have wondered about a few wetted leather wads on top of the shot to try but have not got round to trying it just yet .

I would tend to think that with a 65- 70 grn charge of fffg and adjusting the shot load from the same as the powder charge by volume , upwards say 5 grns at a time would produce a good pattern from a small bore smoothbore.

The shot column would be more stacked, which I feel would cause a “stringing” effect , I noticed this when I experimented with the Skychief load last year.

Only difference was , My gun is a16 gauge.

But with 2ozs of shot, it’s a pretty good stack in the barrel.
Especially using BB’s , you can almost hear them splattering the target at 25-30 yards.


Finding or making the wads as Brits mentioned would be the only draw back I would think.

I had a 28 bore (.55) for many years with a 48" barrel. It shot an incredibly tight pattern with 70gr 3f, nitro, lubed fiber cushion, 1oz shot, over shot. It was like a full choke.
I believe I can get 32 ga. cards and wads from Mike's shot gun wads for this smooth .50.

That should do the trick, keep us posted.

You folks who aren't real familiar with SkyChief's load might want to follow this link to one of the many discussions about it.

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/testing-skychiefs-special-load.107367/

I still think he should patent the load before some big company that makes shotgun shells starts loading it and selling it as a "Wonder Load".