Author Topic: 20 ga. smooth bore  (Read 464 times)

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Offline Turk

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20 ga. smooth bore
« on: December 12, 2004, 07:56:34 AM »
I thinking about building a French Type D Trade rifle in 20 gauge and want to use it for turkey.  I’ve never shot and or hunted with a flint smooth bore can a 20 ga. ML  be loaded to 3 inch 20 ga. Load equivalent?

Thanks,

Turk

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Offline quickdtoo

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20 ga. smooth bore
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2004, 08:25:30 AM »
Turk, I hunted with a 20ga/.62cal trade gun for several years, in mine I found that a 1oz load of 6s with 70gr 2ff goex provided the best shot density I could get at 15-20yds max and that was using paper shot "cups". I just used copy paper rolled around an appropriate sized dowel, folded the ends over and glued an over shot wad on the end, filled it with shot, then folded the other end over and glued an over shot wad on that end too. Loaded it just like a projectile but on top of an overpowder wad. It took some experimenting to get loads that opened up mid flight, some stayed intact all the way to the target, other opened in the bore. After finding the load that worked well, I hunted with it for several seasons, but never got a turkey close enough for a clean kill at 20yds, 15yds was even better. 7½s might have worked better, but I never tried em.  hope this helps,    Tim
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Offline filmokentucky

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20 ga. smooth bore
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2004, 10:52:34 AM »
Turk- I use a 1 and 1/4 ounce load of #5 shot over 3 drams of ffg. The
actual load column is: 82 grains ffg, a .125 card wad, a .5 inch fiber wad,
the shot, and a .125 overshot card wad. This load patterns well out to 25 yards and is used in my 20 bore English fowler with a 42 inch barrel. No reason why you couldn't go to #6 shot if you wanted to, I guess. These long barrelled guns actually pattern very well despite having no chokes. And, even with their long barrels, they are light and well balanced and a pleasure to carry.
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