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Is everyone else ready for hunting season?

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megasupermagnum

45 Cal.
Joined
Aug 13, 2020
Messages
546
Reaction score
453
Location
Aberdeen, South Dakota
I am finally. This year I will be hunting ducks and geese primarily with my new to me, original SXS 10 gauge, built in the 1850's. I'm sure I've posted pictures of the shotgun, but I'll do so again. Over the years I've tried a number of different setups for carrying supplies. I think I've really got it down to a good system. The bag is one from October Country, I want to say it was called the freelancer. It's not perfect, but it is big enough for what I want, and does the job. I'll be building my own in the future. Connected to the strap, I have a short string to my Cash capper, tucked in a medium pocket inside, along with a ball/wad puller, a spare nipple, and anything else extra. My powder measure currently is a Lee adjustable shot measure, which I'll get to later, tucked into a small pocket. Laying loosely in the bottom of the main bag is my wads, I only carry one kind of wad. Last but not least, we have a shot bag I constructed last night that fits in this bag perfectly. The plug is the shot measure. The powder horn is one from TOTW, and is the large inexpensive one. I used to tie things off on the strap, including the plug. The system I've come to like is to simply put the plug in my teeth as I pour powder. That's the only way I've found I can't forget to put the plug back in, and not loose it.

Let's talk about the shot bag. In the past I've used a bunch of things to carry shot. Cheap plastic water bottles, toothpaste tubes, socks, even ziplock bags (which is no fun at all). Of those, the only one I will use again is the cheap plastic water bottle, from bottled water. They can be crushed so they don't take up a ton of room if you don't full them fully, they come with a great cap, and the mouth is perfect size. The only problems is they look like trash, and they make noise. So finally out of the blue, last night I decided I'd build my leather shot pouch. It only took me an hour. I used nothing but a sharpened nail as an awl, a couple leather needles, and waxed thread, along with the leather of course. I knew the general shape I wanted, and I made it to fit the bag I had. It works perfectly. I currently have it stuffed with all the B size bismuth shot it will hold, which is just over 2 pounds. That should be a perfect amount for my uses, and it is not noticeable when carrying. I didn't have anything wood the right size, so I searched around looking for a suitable plug. I found a 16 gauge shotgun shell is the exact perfect fit. I wet the leather slightly, and let it form.

Lets jump back to last weekend. I went out goose hunting for the first time this year. I had patterned this gun in the past, and was strangely disappointed. It has been phenomenal with lead shot, and #4 bismuth. For whatever reason the B bismuth pattern was very thin. I decided to use my best load anyway, which was equal measure of shot and powder 100gr. After missing a couple of geese that should have been killed, I upped the shot to 120. The next goose through I killed at around 25 yards. My brother got one about the same distance with his 20 gauge modern shotgun with 7/8oz shot. If you haven't already figured it out, let me explain. For whatever reason my little pea brain is stuck on lead shot. It never occurred to me that the bismuth shot is lighter, and I needed more volume. I put my 100 gr measure of B shot on a scale, and sure enough, it was just over 1 oz of shot. This was both because bismuth is lighter than lead, but mainly because I was using a large size shot in my skinny powder measure. I then trimmed an empty 16 gauge shell to hold 1 5/8 oz of B bismuth, and that is now my plug for my shot bag. My normal powder measure works fantastic for powder, but it's long and skinny, and I could never find a great way to keep it in the shooting bag. That's why I went to the Lee adjustable shot measure. I found with that set on 1 1/2 oz, drops right at 105 gr of powder. That measure fits perfectly in my bag.

One last little tidbit. I had been shooting card wads cut from a .050" thick pallet slip sheet, and they work great. The other day at work I noticed a thicker divider. It measures .100" thick. It is exactly the same material, only twice as thick. This has to be the stuff V.M. Starr was using decades ago. I love the stuff. What I've been doing is loading two of those over the powder, then for over the shot, I'm splitting them in half with my fingernail, which is easy. Since it is a SXS, one card goes for both barrels. This way I don't have to punch out so many. 10 minutes of work goes a lot farther. So now that I have a load that might actually be lethal to a goose out to 40 yards, I am finally ready for hunting season.

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I hope it's nothing too serious, and I hope you recover soon. If you were closer, I'd carry your O2 tank for you. If you can get someone to sneak some leather craft in there, you could pass time making shot bags or snakes.
 
For giggles I used my new shot measure, which drops quite consistently 710 gr (1 5/8oz) of B bismuth, and tried it with #4 bismuth. Both are the exact same alloy, measured by the exact same measure. The #4 drops at 785gr, just over 1 3/4 oz.
 
I hope it's nothing too serious, and I hope you recover soon. If you were closer, I'd carry your O2 tank for you. If you can get someone to sneak some leather craft in there, you could pass time making shot bags or snakes.
have been battling the covid viral Pneumonia .
just about got me before mama drug my butt to the Hospital.
i wonder if they would let me set up my flint knapping in this cell?:ghostly::ghostly::dunno:
 
I did not know there was a hunting section.

Tungsten Matrix. That's a name I have not heard in a long time. I recall that being the big thing in the mid to late 2000's with Federal ammo. For whatever reason it died off in popularity, and was eventually replaced with a plethora of the shots out there. Heavyweight, Hevi Shot, HW 13, HW 15, Remington HD, etc.

As I recall TM was basically Hevi Shot, it was very hard. Is the stuff you are buying soft?
 
Not quite ready. Oh, mentally I'm in the game, but still dialing in some round ball. 20g smoothbore flintlock is ready for wing shooting, .32 Caprock is ready for squirrels, .54 flintlock is ready for deer, but I want to get that smoothbore dialed in for late season deer!
If you listen closely you can hear my longbow calling in the wind. It says "Only weeks old friend." Sort of makes me smile.
 
Really looking forward to quail season. Getting a dog that won’t be ready this season, but over the off season, I have been looking at my prospects and can’t wait to get out there.
 
Megasupermagnum, are you also over on the Refuge Forum?
I hear what you are saying, I am ready for waterfowl season this year and have been making up some more bismuth 4's and T shot to shoot at ducks and geese! I am going to try to do some dove hunting this weekend, barring rain, with my 20 ga Pedersoli Flintlock SXS. The wads I like and give me really good patterns out to 40 yards are 1/8 leather OP wads, 1/4 inch or 3/8 inch wool felt wads with a mix of beeswax and olive oil, 1/3 beeswax and 2/3 olive oil, 1 oz to 1 1/8 shot and then another wool felt wad with the beeswax and olive oil mixture. All that sits on top of 75 grains of 3Fg either OE or Swiss powder. I get outstanding patterns in all 3 of my Pedersoli 20's with this combination. When I cannot get the wool felt I use the 1/2 fiber wads but I have found they pattern almost too tight for close shots at about 15 to 20 yards. Go figure? I wish you the best shooting sir.
Rob.
 
Correction, I WAS on Refuge forum for about 2 months. I don't plan on ever posting there again. What an incredible cesspool of elitist and insane people. It breaks my heart to think that that is what has become of waterfowl hunting. Every forum has that one weirdo. Refuge forum is 50% degenerates that should reconsider their life.

Sorry about that, I'm just weary after all the names, threats, and slander thrown my way for no reason there. Back to this forum, I am quite impressed with leather wads. A couple months back I did a test with them, along with many other kinds of wads. For it's thickness, leather turned out the fastest velocity of any wad type I tested. By that I mean 1/8" of leather was faster than 1/8" of card, or 1/8" of felt. The only two reasons I don't give them more consideration is #1 because leather cost a good chunk of money without a free supply. #2 I would not trust them to perform as an overshot card in a SXS. I have a free, and nearly unlimited supply of cards type material in various thicknesses that also works fantastic as an overshot wad. I do have a good supply of wool felt, and have tried them somewhat, both alone, and in conjunction with other wads. They seem to offer better support under buckshot than card wads alone.

I currently do not use any lube at all, and it is no detriment to loading. I could load and shoot all day with no worries. I have considered using a lubed felt wad for one reason. My current SXS is choked, and it seems to me that the fouling over time degrades the benefit of the choke, presumably because it closes the bore diameter slightly. We are only talking about .010" of choke, so it doesn't take much fouling to close that up. I'm planning to try a few test shots tomorrow with my new 1 5/8 oz shot measure, as well as trying out lubed felt wads. Last but not least, I'm looking to try cream of wheat as a shot buffer.

You may want to reconsider that T shot. 1 oz of B shot was totally inadequate on geese at 30 yards. Even if I had backed off to 70 gr of powder, I doubt it would have tightened my pattern enough to have worked. There's probably only 60-65 pellets in such a load. You would need a 100% pattern density at 30 yards for it to work. If anything, I'd try #2 bismuth if I were to use that light of a load.
 
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I did not know there was a hunting section.

Tungsten Matrix. That's a name I have not heard in a long time. I recall that being the big thing in the mid to late 2000's with Federal ammo. For whatever reason it died off in popularity, and was eventually replaced with a plethora of the shots out there. Heavyweight, Hevi Shot, HW 13, HW 15, Remington HD, etc.

As I recall TM was basically Hevi Shot, it was very hard. Is the stuff you are buying soft?
I cut it easy with a sharp knife. It seemed softer than lead!


My last bird came down dead in the air at 50yds plus!. It was close to 100yds away on the ground!
There was four pellets in the chest and they had made it to the heart area.
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You know, now that I think about it, I think I had my terms mixed up. The stuff I was thinking of was Federal's Tungsten-Iron. Fantastic stuff, but hard as woodpecker lips. I may have even been off on the years. I swear I remember buying that stuff in the old classic grey and blue striped boxes that Federal used through the 80's and 90's.
 
You know, now that I think about it, I think I had my terms mixed up. The stuff I was thinking of was Federal's Tungsten-Iron. Fantastic stuff, but hard as woodpecker lips. I may have even been off on the years. I swear I remember buying that stuff in the old classic grey and blue striped boxes that Federal used through the 80's and 90's.
Woodpecker lips 😁.
I got the shot from some cartridges, probably made around the naughties.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/tungsten-matrix.135622/
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another week until they get my o2 stable. will get ot there even if i have to sled o2.
Gotta love that spirit.

Really looking forward to quail season. Getting a dog that won’t be ready this season, but over the off season, I have been looking at my prospects and can’t wait to get out there.
What breed of dog? I have 2 young pups that will tag along just to get some experience, but 2 older dogs that are ready to go. I really should take my percussion SxS for walk just to see if I can find any doves to shoot at.
 
At 74 I'm learning about how to keep all the balls in the air to make time for m/l shooting and hunting. It's tough when a sick wife is part of the deal. But I'll not give up. Have an empty freezer , and I have to come up w/two meat deer this fall. Still have to cast some .490's , and some .562's. Think I might have some .390's . Early flint deer and bear season coming in about 4 weeks. Gotta pull this off , somehow....
 

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