20 ga shotgun loads

[mushka]

What would be a light bp 20 ga shotgun load for an older, probably early 20th century shotgun? Just something to shoot at a bird or rabbit at about 20 yards or so. This goes with the earlier post on the newly acquired side by side.

 

[Carbon 6]

5/8 - 3/4 ounce of shot 30-50 grains of powder, roughly makes a nice light load for bunnies.
The way I would approach it, would be to use an adjustable measure, start at 25 or 30 grains of powder by volume and use that same volume of shot. Work your way up to 50 grains or until desired results are reached.
If more killing power is need use a larger shot size rather than increasing the load. One pellet size BB is often deadlier than 3 or 4 size 8
It doesn't take much to kill rabbits.
Haven't read your post about the gun, use your best judgement.

 

[ppg1949]

Not knowing the condition of your shotgun, I'll throw this out for a general info starting point taken off the internet from the GOEX powder website.
20ga-
3/4 oz 55grs 2F 990fps
7/8 oz 61grs 2F 990fps
7/8 oz 69grs 2F 1010fps
Good luck

 

[Loyalist Dave]

55 grains of 2Fg with 3/4 ounce of #6 shot is a light small game load. That's a two dram load.

LD

 

[Zonie]

55 grains of 2Fg with 3/4 ounce of #6 shot is a light small game load. That's a two dram load.

LD

That's exactly the same as the load Dixie Gun Works lists in their 1980 catalog for a "light" load in a 20 guage.

Some things never change.

For what it's worth, Dixie also says a medium load in the 20 would be 65 grains of 2Fg powder under 1 ounce and 75 grains of 2Fg powder under 1 ounce would be a Heavy load.

 

[mushka]

The gun is old but not ancient. We shot it with about 30 grns and maybe too light load of shot just to see if it worked. I think it would handle 50 -55 grns of 2F

 

[Carbon 6]

The gun is old but not ancient. We shot it with about 30 grns and maybe too light load of shot just to see if it worked. I think it would handle 50 -55 grns of 2F

30 grains works great for shooting rabbits out of the flower bed from the house window.

 

[mushka]

Carbon6, how far would that be and how much shot by weight?

 

[Grenadier1758]

Here on the second page of our Member Resources section of the forum is a chart with approximate shot weights as measured by a volume measure. This is on the second page.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/powder-measure-shot-loads-chart.21119/
They have a measure of 60 grains volume would be 7/8 ounces of birdshot. 30 grains would be approximately 7/16 or 1/2 ounces of shot.

 

[Carbon 6]

30 grains would be approximately 7/16 or 1/2 ounces of shot.

Ya, that sounds light, most of the time when I use loads that light i'm 10 yards or less. I can't stress the understanding of knowing how to load vs. looking for load data enough. Every gun and load is unique. There are a lot of "tricks" to getting performance out of light loads, most people just increase powder and lead to increase performance.. I don't.
If you look at it like a single projectile, it's similar to a 50 cal pistol.
If you need more range or power, then you might need more powder and lead.
It's all about experimentation.

30 grains is the lightest I would go.

 

[FiremanBrad]

In my 20ga Flintlock Fowler, I load 60gr of 2f by volume under 70gr by vol of #5 lead shot for turkeys. It’ll kill a rabbit just as dead I’ll bet!!!