Shotgun Side Match

[Patrick Sweeney]

DogmaDog,

No, turkey loads are not what you want.  They are suitable for dropping crippled B-17's limping back from Berlin.

Back when everything was black powder, shotguns were loaded by the dram of powder.  It was simple, really, 1-1/8 ounce of shot over three drams of powder got you a nice soft load.

When switching to smokeless, they had to have some way of comparing things, so they came up with the "temporary" use of "dram equivalent."  A century later, we still have it.

2-3/4 DE powderpuff skeet load

3 DE     light skeet load

3-1/4 DE skeet and trap load

3-3/4 DE light turkey load, duck load

4 DE     buckshot, slugs

The low recoil buckshot and slugs are generally 3-1/4 DE instead of the 4+DE that the regular loads are.

Dram equivalent does not track exactly with payload weight.  Thus you could have a 1 oz. 3-3/4 DE load, and a 1-1/8 oz 3-1/4 DE load.  Generally, however, weight goes up as DE goes up.

[DogmaDog]

Patrick,

Thanks for the info.  I went to the store last night and picked up two boxes of ammo to try:

PMC "Heavy Field Load"  1 1/4 oz of #4 over 3 3/4 dram, for $5 per box.

and,

PMC "Quail and Dove" (or was it "heavy dove"), with some #6 shot and 3 1/4 dram charge.  I figure that would edge out the typical #7 1/2, 3 dram load. ($4 per box).  

I'll try to blast some steel this weekend and confirm the results we'd expect.

Semper Fi,

DogmaDog