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Premium cartridges - are they worth it?


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On 25/01/2022 at 14:27, enfieldspares said:

 

Wad:

Better wads give better patterns. Plaswads give the best pattern of all. Fibre wads if quality will leave the bore of the gun clean. If poor the bore will look awful. Wads from Eley used to be like cheap builder's plastering board. The best wads back in the day were lubricated white felt....the ones often called "pinks" as the lubricant stained the sides pink.

 

Out of interest, how does a good wad leave the barrel clean? Surely the powered is behind the wad, therefore bad/wet powered would still leave dirty barrels regardless if the wad performed perfectly?

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On 21/02/2022 at 22:56, zipdog said:

Out of interest, how does a good wad leave the barrel clean? Surely the powered is behind the wad, therefore bad/wet powered would still leave dirty barrels regardless if the wad performed perfectly?

If you only fire the one shot, then pack up and go home yes, point taken! very valid. But if you fire successive shots they will make a difference.

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1 hour ago, Scully said:

I may be wrong, but isn’t the purpose of the wad to prevent gases coming into contact with the soft lead shot prior to it leaving the muzzle, much akin to the reason we used to put gas checks on the base of soft lead bullets during my days of handloading for pistols and revolvers? 

Yep, thus avoiding crypto balling and spoiled patterns.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 23/01/2022 at 19:54, TIGHTCHOKE said:

RED cartridges don't normally stay around long enough to get anywhere near deteriorating!   

Based on your advice I went out and bought 1000s of red ones. Lo and behold, hard as I try I can’t force them into my 20g. Gutted. I hate yellow ones. 

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On 24/10/2021 at 14:42, enfieldspares said:

I actually did find that Eley's green paper cased English copper plated shot #6 was disappointing in my very open bored 12 Bore. I think that premium cartridges, perversely, have a role in clay shooting where premium shot will give a better pattern, an even pattern and give more visible kills. That one pellet chipped on the edge clay becomes a two pellet broken into three clay.

In game shooting I find that shot size makes more difference than shot quality. That's to say not too good English #6 in lead will always kill better than the most perfect shaped and graded English #5 or English #4 in the same payload weight of 1 1/16 ounce or 1 ounce. And on woodcock English #7 in 1 ounce trumps all! If I had my time again I'd shoot 1 ounce of English #6 1/2.

Interesting. I like 7.5s for woodcock, 28g load of Supreme Game. I sold my side x side the other week, but that load gave me two R&Ls, witnessed, on the same day up with Mark Piper at The Gearach. I had a high snipe with the same load too, a proper reaching up to a speck in the sky snipe. Pattern is everything, the pellets have sufficient energy for soft feathers. I wouldn't want to stand down range, even at 60 odd yards! My barrels were imp and 1/4, but that didn't limit the sensible killing range any, it just gave me a bit of leeway!

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7 minutes ago, Accuspell said:

My barrels were imp and 1/4, but that didn't limit the sensible killing range any, it just gave me a bit of leeway!

I couldn’t agree more! 
I find that many beginners to field shooting ( by that I include anyone with less than about seven years experience ) are frightened to try open chokes for fear of losing their ‘perceived’ range. They seem to think that birds literally need to be on the end of their barrels, which is simply not true. Improved cylinder and quarter are always my preferred choice and seem to work even on Welsh pheasants. Of course, other people have different views and prefer tight chokes, but they must be better shots than me.

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UK 7 shot (2.4mm) is devastating on pigeons over decoys too - with open chokes. I mean literally over the decoys, say about 20 to 30 yards, not so much the long stuff. I’ve had some great pigeoning using cylinder/7 over the decoys in the bottom barrel and a half choke/6 for the long passing shots in the top barrel. Nice formula if you can be bothered with 2 cartridge types. Not so doable with an auto of course. 

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1 hour ago, Fellside said:

UK 7 shot (2.4mm) is devastating on pigeons over decoys too - with open chokes. I mean literally over the decoys, say about 20 to 30 yards, not so much the long stuff. I’ve had some great pigeoning using cylinder/7 over the decoys in the bottom barrel and a half choke/6 for the long passing shots in the top barrel. Nice formula if you can be bothered with 2 cartridge types. Not so doable with an auto of course. 

If one can't be bothered, we've already had - twice (it's been quoted) - a good compromise. Enfieldspares/Accuspell.

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4 hours ago, Accuspell said:

Interesting. I like 7.5s for woodcock, 28g load of Supreme Game. I sold my side x side the other week, but that load gave me two R&Ls, witnessed, on the same day up with Mark Piper at The Gearach. I had a high snipe with the same load too, a proper reaching up to a speck in the sky snipe. Pattern is everything, the pellets have sufficient energy for soft feathers. I wouldn't want to stand down range, even at 60 odd yards! My barrels were imp and 1/4, but that didn't limit the sensible killing range any, it just gave me a bit of leeway!

Didn't know that they did those in that shot size. I do have 7&1/4s in 20 bore but only because some of the 7s are undersize. Very handy now. If my hands are playing up, it's more open choke in a single trigger pistol grip gun and 25g of the '7&1/4s', but if all is well 28g of the on size 7s in the double trigger straight hand with some more restriction. Quite handy as both loads carry c330 pellets.

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2 hours ago, wymberley said:

If one can't be bothered, we've already had - twice (it's been quoted) - a good compromise. Enfieldspares/Accuspell.

OK thanks - didn’t get a chance to read those. It’s just what I’ve discovered all on my own - without the help of any grown ups….. 🙂

Good to know others are using this approach. I find the ounce of sevens through cylinder to be the dogs danglers. Wide pattern and plenty of pellets - very user friendly. 

 

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