Fox Collectors

Any opinions on shooting 12 gauge, 2 3/4", 00 buck with my sterlingworth?

Ed

I'm sure a lot of lead 00 Buck loads have been fired through 12-gauge Sterlingworths over the years without damage to them. I do have to wonder why? The only use I ever knew of for buckshot loads was skybusting Geese!

At last, I can contribute some information to this forum.

I have had feral hogs get after my birddogs while we were out quail hunting. And besides that the hogs need to be killed on principle as they are a pestilence. I carry a few double-ought or triple-ought buck cartridges in my right hip pocket for just such an occasion and have dispatched several hogs with them.

If I am shooting low pressure loads I buy the five pack of factory buckshot shells and remove the buckshot and load it into my low pressure 2-1/2" loads.

I have an FN side by side made in the twenties with 2-3/4" proofs and have shot facory 1200 fps 1-1/8oz loads of triple-ought through it. I have shot hand loaded 2-1/2" 1200fps buckshot loads throught my sixteen gauge Parkers, English Boxlock, and Syracuse Lefevers.

Best,

Mike

Surely I'm not the only one to have killed deer with buckshot? Took my first with 000 and a Rem 870. My granddad would not allow rifles as he had cattle and was worried someone would shoot one. For thick brush hunting or stand hunting during drives a 12 ga with buckshot is a potent machine. Also great when hunting from a horse during drives. Those were some great times.

Mike

Just curious. Do you shoot while in the saddle? I suspect that could be a memorable event on the wrong mount.

We shot only buckshot in NJ when deer hunting; that was all that was allowed until slug became legal sometime in the early 70s, but I stayed with buckshot.

My Uncle George took a couple of deer with 2 3/4", 00, or 000 buck with his Philadelphia Sterlingworth 12 ga. The 000 were hand loads of 00 and 4 shot mixed together, the theory was that the 00 buck would hold a tighter pattern, with the 4 shot mixed in. No idea what pressure was, or velocity, we really didnt worry about it. He also took a few rabbits and ringnecks using #6 shot, 2 3/4" with that Sterlingworth, he loved that gun.

I have a 1935 Sterlingworth that I bought from Wally Wread around 1980. The gun had been used a lot, but worked fine and still works fine. Wally owned the Valley Game farm in Ironia and was pretty well known with the clubs that stocked pheasants. Wally kept the gun on top of his incubator to be handy for the occaisional raiding raccoon. I have only shot bird shot with it, but Wally said it threw a great pattern of 00 buck.
Dan

fullchoke16,

I have, on one occasion, shot a shotgun while in the saddle. I had a friend who once managed a large plantation in S. Carolina. They had 100 doe tags to fill every season, and asked me over one year on the last day of the season to try something new. They had three horses trained to allow shooting from the saddle. We walked the horses through brushy areas and the deer would just lay there until the horses nearly stepped on them, then jump up and run. Hitting them with buckshot from a moving horse in a sitting position was the hardest shooting I have ever attempted. We hunted half a day, shot up probably thirty loads of buckshot, and never hit one. The horses were much more frightened by the deer exploding under their feet than the shooting.

I swore off using buckshot on deer a few years later, and plan to never use the stuff again. Seems cruel to shoot with the muzzle of a shotgun barrel that near a horses ears, too. Never again, but an interesting day nonetheless.

Elmer Keith claimed in one of his books I read to have a horse trained to let him shoot at grouse from the saddle with his old 16-gauge Flues Model Ithaca!!