RE: cartridges for duck/geese

[danebrewer10 6]

Hi all,

just throught, that as there has been somne interest in non toxic cartridges for the forthcoming season, I might post some patterning results I did a while ago and some I did the other day,

 

I paterned:

 

Lyalvale 3" 36gm no3 (3.2mm) Max Game steel- 243 pellets

 

Rottweil 23/4" 32gm no2 (3.75mm) Steel Game- 145 pellets

 

both were shot with a Beretta Silver Pigeon S with 28" barrels and 1/4 and 1/2 Briley flush fit chokes from 35m which when you actually look at it, is a bloody long way! so probably at the "long" end of what most people shoot at..... or "part time" or opportunistic wildfowlers.....

the paper used was a shade under 30" square apart from one which was about 30" by 27 " or something as it was at the end of a roll.

only 1/4 and 1/2 chokes were used as this is probably the most common set of field constrictions people use, along with the fact that you shouldn't go tighter than 1/2 with steel shot anyway....

 

NOTE: for some reason Flickr has buggered around with a system that worked fine beforehand, and has not made it more fiddly. so if you can't see the shot holes in the paper, you can view the images in a larger size on my Flickr page. the links for both the image and my page are below the image

 

TO VIEW A LARGER IMAGE IN FLICKR- go top left of the image, click ACTIONS, then VIEW ALL SIZES

 

First off with the Lyalvale.

DSC_7372 by danebrewer12, on Flickr

 

this cartridge comes in a red case with the usual 6 point crimp closure and a 15mm brass head.

this cartridge contains 243 pellets in a thick walled tall plastic wad. I couldn't find any velocity info on this cartridge, but I'd think it's fairly fast owing to it's magnum steel proofing requirement of 1370 BAR.

 

1/4 choke

as you can see, not a bad pattern, with 167 of the 243 pellets in a 30" square

 

 

1/2 choke

DSC_7365 by danebrewer12, on Flickr

tighter and with more pellets in the pattern, with 216 on the paper this time

 

 

this cartridge has a good pattern density and is well up to the task of taking long range ducks, though you may want to scale down to a size 4 shot charge, and a lower pellet count as you'd end up doubling the ducks weight in steel if you shot it much closer than 35m. otherwise this cartridge might be good as a light goose load.

 

now the Rottweil

German made, I was surprised too find that the steel shot in the cartridge was actually quite black and dirty, and though round, some pieces of shot had small pits in them, much more different to the Lyalvale's smooth shiny shot. though this didn't appear to affect the patterning of the cartridge.

this cartridge also is a little slower than the high performance steel loads on the market, shifting at 1230ft/s or 375m/s (proofed for 1050BAR) so you might have to give a little more lead..... we'll see

DSC_7369 by danebrewer12, on Flickr

this cartridge has a shorter wad also fairly thick, with a small pedestal, to made the effective length of the wad greater to fill up the case as it only held 32gm of no2 shot by comparison, the no2 shot is huge next to the no3 shot, so I was expecting better penetration, even for it's slower speed

 

1/4 choke

DSC_7366 by danebrewer12, on Flickr

actually I was very surprised of these results! I hummed and hahed in the shop as to whether they'd be suitable and it turns out they are! it seems to reinforce what we already know with lead shot, that a smaller shot charge, or a square load (that is to say that the shot charge is as tall as it is wide) actually gives very good patterns, sometimes better than a heavier load as the pellets are damaged less as they go through the choke.

this displayed 94 of the 145 pellets in a 30" square

 

1/2 choke

DSC_7367 by danebrewer12, on Flickr

a much tighter pattern, and with the bigger shot, which penetrated well into the plywood board, instead of going in 3/4 of their diameter as the no3 shot did, it would appear that even with the reduced shot charge, this cartridge actually patterns extremely well and looks to be a formidable low recoil goose load! it distributed 101 of the 145 pellets on the 30" square.

 

 

So for the roundup.....

what I conclude from this test, -

bigger pellets are a bonus

more pellets isn't always best, but more pellets can't be bad

pattern cartridges you'll be using to gain confidence in them and know how they work!

 

I hope that has been informative and useful!

 

DB

Edited August 21, 2010 by danebrewer10

[danebrewer10 6]

just an update on the speed/lead thing of the slower Rottweil cartridges, I just had a flick through the free "Clay Shooter" magazine, and found an article comparing cartridge speeds and lead needed at different ranges. Admittedly, the values given are for 7.5 shot at various velocities, and if I compare the slower Rottweil sz 2 to my Eley Grand Prix, the Rottweil is doing 1230ft/s, and the eley is trucking along at around 1425 ft/s.

I know the sz 2 pellets will slow down at a lower rate than the size 6 shot in the game carts, so the difference in lead needed may actually be reduced by the sz6 shot slowing down and the sz2 shot maintaining it's speed for a longer period.

 

ANYWAY!

 

the chart included with the article says that at 40yd, with a 7.5 shot loading, at 1200 ft/s you'll need lead of 10.05 feet, and with a cartridge doing 1400 ft/s you'll need lead of 9.048 feet, a foot may seem a lot, and I suppose it is in clay shooting, but for game, I don't think it has a huuuugggee bearing (unless your patterns are very tight), I just suppose you'll need to bear that speed difference in mind when using these slower carts and aim a little further in front when shooting!