I have been after a muzzleloading shotgun for a long time. I wanted to find a way to use up a #25 bag of shot that's been on my shelf for 15 years and with as much swiss 2f as I have been burning trying to get to the next level with my rifle....a SxS just made sense.
I tried to buy this gun, a pietta 12ga
in September but logistics and some hurricanes postponed the transaction for a few months.
This thing showed up this weekend and I was stoked when I opened the box. It's like it was made yesterday.
I have zero experience with muzzleloading shotguns and everything I have read said to start with a "square load" as in 80grs of powder and shot. As luck would have it, I had a hundred extra charges of 80grs 2f swiss so I just vialed up some shot charges.
Internet searching uncovered "skychief" loads and more traditional loads. I decided for my version 1.0 I would use the skychief theory and combine it with my plan to buffer with lambs wool.....so I loaded powder, nitro wad, lambs wool, shot, overshot wad and finally a lubed cushion wad on top of it all.
I ran out to a piece of BLM land near our place known to have some wild birds and my Drahthaar was on point almost instantly.....single quail gets up. The gun points naturally......and nothing. I have never hunted birds with a hammer gun so by the time I realized that I needed to cock the hammers.....it was over. Oh well.
At this point I have zero shots fired and I found a perfect mud puddle to check my pattern at 45 yards.....looked really good in the loose barrel and the tight barrel was even better.
We hunted and busted a couple of quail with no good shooting by me but I finally learned to time my hammers to my dog's point....and we're out of time.
I needed to dump the barrels so I set up a pop can at 40 yards and centered the pattern on the can. I was plenty happy with the number of pellets through the can.
At the end of the day I realized that this was some of the best fun I've had this year. Banging fancy rifles and pistols doesn't hold a candle to this. I had so much fun I forgot to shoot any field pics.
I tried to buy this gun, a pietta 12ga
in September but logistics and some hurricanes postponed the transaction for a few months.This thing showed up this weekend and I was stoked when I opened the box. It's like it was made yesterday.
I have zero experience with muzzleloading shotguns and everything I have read said to start with a "square load" as in 80grs of powder and shot. As luck would have it, I had a hundred extra charges of 80grs 2f swiss so I just vialed up some shot charges.
Internet searching uncovered "skychief" loads and more traditional loads. I decided for my version 1.0 I would use the skychief theory and combine it with my plan to buffer with lambs wool.....so I loaded powder, nitro wad, lambs wool, shot, overshot wad and finally a lubed cushion wad on top of it all.
I ran out to a piece of BLM land near our place known to have some wild birds and my Drahthaar was on point almost instantly.....single quail gets up. The gun points naturally......and nothing. I have never hunted birds with a hammer gun so by the time I realized that I needed to cock the hammers.....it was over. Oh well.
At this point I have zero shots fired and I found a perfect mud puddle to check my pattern at 45 yards.....looked really good in the loose barrel and the tight barrel was even better.
We hunted and busted a couple of quail with no good shooting by me but I finally learned to time my hammers to my dog's point....and we're out of time.
I needed to dump the barrels so I set up a pop can at 40 yards and centered the pattern on the can. I was plenty happy with the number of pellets through the can.
At the end of the day I realized that this was some of the best fun I've had this year. Banging fancy rifles and pistols doesn't hold a candle to this. I had so much fun I forgot to shoot any field pics.
