Yesterday's Weapons Forums

This time, I took my 12 gauge. It's a Remington 870 with the 20 inch deer barrel with rifle sights. Years ago, I bought a 28 inch full choke barrel for it so I could also use it on the trap range. I first bought this 870 in 1970 when I was at Fort Leonard Wood and have had it ever since.

That's one of the things that the anti-gunners quiver and quake about. What I'm speaking of is the fact that, given reasonable care, a good gun will last almost indefinitely.

Last time I was on the trap range, I was firing my H&R .410 but now see how much work that is compared to the 12 gauge. With the bigger bore, if I get right on the clay bird right out of the chute, the bird just disappears in a sort of black airburst. If I dally a bit getting onto the bird, the 12 gauge will still knock it right down with all those extra pellets.

Back in the year or so before I got married (1974), I used to go trap shooting with a friend of mine. I used to reload my own shells. I still had a couple of boxes of them from those times when I reloaded them 34 years ago. I fired off the rest of those shells today without one misfire. When I loaded those shells, I was a neophyte loader and not very good at it. Lots of those shells had crushed wads and not very pretty crimps. I had an early Lee Load-All that I bought at a swap meet and just used what was there. I didn't even know there were different shot and powder bushings. I had a can of Red Dot and a couple of bags of recycled shot from the Winchester shotgun range. I don't think I was very particular about what primers I used, either. The hulls I used were mostly scorched Remington RXP's. I had mixed a few Remington high brass field load shells in with the RXP's and probably wondered why the crimp was so caved in. Anyway, today, the rest of them all fired and atomized clay birds they way they were supposed to.

Why did I wait so long to fire off those shells that I reloaded in 1974?? You married guys can probably guess. After I got married, my lifestyle kinda changed and I no longer went trap shooting with my buddy. It's only been lately that I've taken it up again a bit.

I also had a box of older Winchester AA's (7 1/2's) which are a trap load, and an old box of Remington paper hull field loads in #5 shot. These were quite old and I just used them up to get rid of them. The #5 shot doesn't break the birds as finely as the smaller shot, but gets the job done.

i think its great those old shells are giving you some entertainment , i have one handfull of the ammo i used pheasant hunting back in the early-to-mid 60s , they are fgull brass paper hulls in #5 , think ill take them hunting next time i go

The paper hulls are reloadable, but they take different load data and different wad materials that are not common now. Roll crimping, if used, takes a different technique too. Another problem that can be encountered with them is weak brass heads. The brass on shotgun shells is very thin, and over time it can become embrittled.

Readin' this again makes me certainly miss warmer weather when skeet shootin is a little more fun. -0F makes for pretty numb skeet! Gettin' the itch for summer shootin again!

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me too , ive also been wanting to try the 410 on the trap , but im most likely kidding myself about hitting anything at all ,