TC New Englander 12 Guage

[MikeC]

I was able to buy a New Englander here on GBO.  I have wanted to try out a muzzleloader shotgun for a while, but budget issues (that is wanting/needing other things more) has held me off. I have muzzleloader rifles, but have no experience with a shotgun. I am chomping at the bit for the weather to change so I can get out with it.

Does anyone have any experience with a new englander shotgun? I am expecting I will not get much range out of it because it is a cylinder bore, but hope I will be able to hunt squrrels or rabbit with it. I am interested in anyone's' experience with this choke and what range I will have with it. Once the weather changes a bit I will do some test patterns. From what I have read, you can extend the range a bit by using a little more shot than powder, and trying different wads. It should be fun just playing with different loads. I was just looking for any experience others have had. Thanks in advance for any information anyone has.

-Mike

[Nobade]

My shotgun is not a TC, but is a cylinder bore 12 ga. I ordered wads from Track 'o' the Wolf, and use Circle Fly 12ga. nitro card wad over the powder, split one of their cushion wads in half, then shot and one of their 11ga. overshot wads. (11 ga. is tighter and doesn't back off from recoil of the first barrel. You don't have that problem). I find a 16ga. load works well, 70gr. FFg and equal amount of shot. Mine patterns well to about 30 yards, then starts to open up and have holes in the pattern. Before I cut the cushion wads in half I got doughnut patterns. If you melt bullet lube (I use Pearl Lube i.e. equal parts crisco, toilet bowl rings and soy wax) and soak your cushion wads in it they keep the fouling soft and you can shoot all day without wiping.

If you want a good read go over to Cast Boolits and read the article by V.M. Starr in the muzzleloading room. Or google him up and his article is in other places as well. That man knew a thing or two about muzzle loading shotguns.  One of these days I want to make a wad cutter and try his suggestion of the cardboard wads. If you only had to carry one kind of wad it makes hunting with your shotgun a lot more practical.

[Forestclimber]

I like to put an overshot card on top of a full cushion wad.  For wad lube I mix 50% vegetable oil and 50% mineral spirits.

[coyotejoe]

Cylinder bores with one ounce to one and one quarter ounces of shot are deadly to 25 yards and the large pattern they throw is much easier to hit with compared to any tighter choke. Just think of it as a skeet gun and apply it accordingly. Since pattern density is the limiting factor I wouldn't use anything larger than #6 shot and you may find #7 1/2 even better.

[ratdog]

i don't have a new englander in 12 guage only in 50 cal. do have  a cva double i have shot quite a lot of chuckers and pheasants. on my 12 i use plastic winchester wads one  red in one barrel and white in the other with #5 shot.after putting charges in i stick wads in flush with muzzel then top off wads with shot. then i put a wad in i punched out of cardboard. made punch out of pipe. you could also slice some fiber wads off and use those. it shoots birds as good as my buddies auto loader just a lot slower to load. one of these days i might find shot gun barrel for my new englander. good luck shooting.

[silly goose]

I am by no means an expert with my first season under my belt w/my New Englander.  I was surprised by how effective this gun was with a cylinder bore.  I use 70 gr ffg, op wad, half a fiber wad with a lil vegetable oil, 70 gr #6's, and an os card and this thing stomps rabbits at 25 yards.  I spent a day at the range trying different loads n such.  I'm sure I could be getting a better pattern with more work, but like I said, this thing is like Thor's hammer on bunnies.  Good Luck.

[MikeC]

Thanks for all the replies.

I took my range finder out the other day and realized that most shots I would take are within 25 yards. We are supposed to get a bunch of snow tomorrow, so I most likely won't get out to the range to do some testing. This small game season I expect I will after squirrels. I haven't seen any rabbits the past few years.

I have op nitro cards, half inch pre-lubed fiber was and os cards. I used to reload shotgun shells, so I have 7-1/2 and 6 shot. I am ready to go, just waiting on the weather.

I have plastic shot cups from reloading shotgun shells. I use mostly winchester double-A and Remington RXP shot cups. I have read about folks using plastic cups, but I am not sure if this is the same thing or not. I wasn't really going to bother with plastic cups, but it would be good to know to see how they work.

[coyotejoe]

I've tried the plastic shotcups in more than a dozen different 12 gauge barrels and never found any improvement in patterns but some people claim they do so it certainly is worth a try. If you do use the standard 12 gauge plastic shotcups do first load an overpowder card atop the powder, the plastic cups don't seem to provide a good gas seal with blackpowder. Gas leakage around the shotcup reduces velocity and leaves strings of plastic fouling in the bore.
 You can download V.M. Starr's book "The Muzzleloading Shotgun, its Care & Use", there is no better information available, just do a Google search.

[bubba.50]

you can go to www.castboolits.gunloads.com scroll down to muzzleloading and it's in the stickies there. for what it's worth, bubba.


the above is in reference to the v.m.starr article.

[quickdtoo]

I too worked with plastic shot cups without any sucess, ultimately I made my own shot "cartridge" with over powder wad glued to a couple wraps of paper with an over shot wad glued on top, took a lot of experimenting to get the type and number of wraps of paper right to perform consistently, lots of single projectiles thru targets. 

Tim