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Hello,
I am new to the forum, as well as new to owning a vintage Winchester Model 1887 shotgun. Although very familiar with reloading modern pistol and rifle cartridges, I am not in the least bit familiar with any aspect of reloading a shotgun, much less, a vintage one that was designed for black powder use. The shotgun that I have, has a serial number in the high 61,000’s, so it was one of the last 1887’s made. I understand that some of the later ones may have been improved slightly, to accomodate smokeless powder, but even at that, I doubt that the cup rating (or is it psi in the shotgun world?) is sufficient for more modern loads.
A friend gave me some American Pioneer Powder, type FFFG, and suggested that I try 75 grains of powder, and 7/8 ounce of #7 shot, with a plastic wad, in a 3-1/2" shell. Does this sound reasonable?
My objective is to do nothing more than run a few rounds through this shotgun, when shooting clay pigeons with my friends. It will be gently used, and probably not be fired more than 25 times in a year.
If anybody has any loading information, using Americna Pioneer Powder, Pyrodex, or anything else, I would be interested in anything that you may have.
Thank you,
Greg
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Welcome Greg!
No help on the 1887 loads, but I’m sure you’ll get some suggestions.
Brad
Hello Greg, and welcome to the WACA forums.
In answer to your question;
A friend gave me some American Pioneer Powder, type FFFG, and suggested that I try 75 grains of powder, and 7/8 ounce of #7 shot, with a plastic wad, in a 3-1/2" shell. Does this sound reasonable?
The answer is No, that is not a reasonable load choice. Specifically, the chamber length is only 2.625 (2-5/8) inches long if your gun is a 12-gauge. If it is a 10-gauge, the chamber is 2.875 (2-7/8) inches long.
The maximum safe pressure level is 7,500 psi, and that assumes that the barrel/bore is in excellent condition. I personally would choose a load in the 5K – 6K range.
You might try contacting your local SASS chapter and see if they can help you with proper loads for your gun.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
Stay away from the substitutes, and stick with real black powder.
The black powder substitutes have different pressure curves which may damage older guns at best.
I use the Magtech brass hulls mostly, which are 2 1/2. They will have to be rolled over a bit for use in repeating arms such as the 1893, 97 and 1887. It’s best to use paper hulls trimmed in repeating arms- paper won’t melt and smell awful like plastic hulls when used with black powder. Plastic hulls can melt and make a gooey mess after two loadings.
I’ve used about all the brands so far, but the cleanest burning for the best price has been KIK powder lately. I had not tried it until FFG Goex wasn’t available, but I do like it now. Goex reinactor works just fine for shotshells too.
I wrote up a tutorial on how to load BP some time ago
Here’s a link:
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=469052&highlight=brass+shotshell
Maybe it will help give you ideas.
Locate a “DIXIE GUNWORKS Catalog”, in the back pages they have blackpowder loads for shotguns.
Also check for Sam. Fadala’s blackpowder manual, he has load recommendations.
Recommend powder if “FFg” not “FFFg”, it appears that the finer grains of the “FFFg” will increase pressure.
I’m getting my GrandDad’s REm 1894 SxS reproofed using Griffin & Howe, the develop some shells for use, espcially if I can get some Bismuth for waterfowl.
Good Luck.
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