PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - 12 Gauge Face-Slapped

retmil46 · #1 09-17-2012, 12:23 PM

Over the weekend, I rigged up a 30" by 30" foam board and cut out a bunch of same-sized sheets of wrapping paper, to do some patterning work on the Stoeger 20 gauge SXS, and perhaps try a couple of the older guns in the collection to see how they performed.

The one older gun I decided to try was the Hunter Arms Fulton 12 gauge SXS. With a Morgan recoil pad installed, it seemed to fit me as well or better as the Stoeger. I was also curious, as there are no discernable choke markings on the barrels (28"), and wanted to get an idea of how this thing was actually choked.

I had two boxes each of Remington Peters Special Dove Loads, 1 1/8 oz of 8 shot 3 dram equivalent, and Remington Heavy Dove Loads, 1 1/8 oz of 6 shot 3 1/4 dram equivalent. These boxes hadn't been touched in years, and the prices stickers were $4.49/box from Rose's Dept Store - these had apparently been buried in the bottom of the gun case for at least a couple decades. I grabbed two shells of each to run thru the Fulton.

I did the patterning at 30 yards, as I wanted to get something of an average for the ranges I'd be shooting at doves here around the house, around 20 to 40 yards.

I tried the supposedly lower-powered Peters shells first. That Fulton is not a light gun - it's heavier than the Stoeger, well over 7 lbs, and had a Morgan recoil pad installed - but it had noticeably more drop on the stock and downward pitch on the barrels than the Stoeger.

That gun face-slapped me so hard it made my neck hurt. And those Peters shells had enough oomph behind them that on both shots, the plastic wads punched two holes thru the paper and 1/8" foam board at 30 yards. By contrast, the Remington shells that supposedly had a higher powder loading kicked noticeably less and didn't replicate the feat of hitting the foam board with the wad, but I still got slapped pretty good.

I will say this - that Fulton is well regulated, and it will shoot dead-on where you point it. And with both 6 and 8 shot, it threw a nice-looking pattern from both barrels that covered the nearly all of the board - choked IC and LM if I had to venture a guess. That thing would be murder on doves inside of 40 yards - as long as I was wearing an effin neck brace!!

By contrast, I've shot 3 inch Federal Hi-Power shells, 1 1/4 oz of shot and nearly 3 1/2 dram equivalent, thru the Stoeger 20 gauge - and high brass 16 gauge loads thru that Winchester Model 24, which is considerably lighter than the above two guns - with no more effect than noticing a more pronounced shove against my shoulder.