Understanding Load Data on a Shotshell Box

hi my name is Evan English from Old English Outfitters today we're going to talk about how to read and understand all the numbers on the end of a shotshell box [Music] from the time I was about ten years old I was spending time in the field with my father I was also spending time in the store here learning about safety about the about the technical aspects of firearms so I kind of grew up in the field grew up in the store at the same time one of the things we love to do together was shoot shotguns whether it was out in the field hunting birds hunting game over our dogs or whether it was clay bird sports where we were shooting skeet or trap or sporting clays so as we did that I had to learn what the right things were and try to choose the right ammo for the tasks that we were about to do those numbers are important that we're about to decipher one to choose the safe load for your shotgun to make sure that you're doing the right thing based on the tolerances of your shotgun and the second is task-oriented we want to make sure that we're choosing the right shell to match the tasks that we're about to do whether it's a light target load for target sports or whether it's a heavier load for hunting game we're gonna make sure we're choosing the right amo for the task the first number we're gonna look at on any box of shot shells is going to be the gauge if you look at the gauge here this is a 12-gauge the most common gauges are ten gauge which would be bigger and then twenty 28 and 410 which should all be smaller easier to remember this that the larger the number the smaller the gauge the smaller the number the larger the gauge for the purposes of today we're going to talk about 12-gauge it is the most common gauge that we use here in the United States and chances are that most of you are using a 12-gauge at some point in time or another 12-gauge eni's this gauge needs to be matched up with your gun barrel somewhere on your gun barrel it should state what gauge your shotgun is if it's 12-gauge if it's a 16 gauge if it's a 20 gauge if any of these gauges you need to make sure it matches up with this gauge the second number that you'll see on the box is the length of the shell this is the length of the shell after it has been fired so as you're looking here at two and three-quarter inches if I were to pull one of these shells out that's part of this box of ammo two and three-quarter inches would be the measurement after this shell has been fired if you were to measure it empty comparatively the longest 12-gauge shot shell would be three and a half inches after its fired these are both the same gauge but very different chamber lengths you want to make sure that this matches up to your shotgun if your shotgun has a maximum chamber length of three inches then you can shoot up to a three inch shell in your shotgun you don't want to shoot bigger than that if your chamber length is two and three-quarter inches then this is the maximum length shell that you can shoot in your shotgun safely some people have argued that I can put a three-inch in my two and three-quarter inch chamber and that is true it will fit in there but when you fire it it will open into the forcing cone and cause extra pressure so make sure you match that number up the third number that you see here is the velocity the velocity that's on this particular box of shells is 1220 feet per second so that's gonna give you some idea of how fast that it is moving how fast it's moving its payload which would be the shot charge this is the next number but the velocity also gives you an indicator of of its overall power of the shell on some boxes you'll find a dram equivalent on this particular box of target loads you'll see a velocity here but then on this you'll see the DRAM equivalent DRAM equivalent is a kind of a throwback to the age of black powder a dram was one sixteenth of an ounce of black powder and it gave you an indicator when you looked at a dram equivalent to the amount of power or energy that that show was storing up we see it more directly related to the velocity these days than we do the overall power but it is a function of both of these numbers so that dream equivalent will help you a little bit but it does not tell you the whole story the velocity may tell you the next number that you find on this box is the payload or the shot charge the amount of shot that is in the shot shell these particular ones are one and a quarter ounces this target load that you see here is announced in an eight and if you were to take a magnum load in a three and a half inch turkey load you'll see that that is two ounces so comparing these three numbers ounce and a quarter ounce in an eighth this is about 10 percent 10 to 15 percent less however this is a much longer shell and it's a whole lot more almost double the target load another 30 percent 33 percent more than a standard field love these are important numbers the higher the higher the shot charge the more recoil on the backside where you're standing and also the higher the shot charge depending on what shot size you're using but also means more pellets going out the end of the barrel there's a good balance that has to be found here on shot charge because you want to make sure that you've got enough shot charge to do the job not too little not too much you don't want to endure a bunch of recoil this particular load would not be that fun if you were shooting 75 to 100 rounds in the Dubb field one day or shooting at clay Birds whereas a lighter shot charge might be much better for for us the way you don't need a lot of energy or a lot of shot and you want to be able to shoot a lot of shots without enduring a bruised shoulder the last number that you'll see here on the box is the shot size shot size is important because it tells you the size and somewhat the weight of the shot that you're shooting as we look at the shot size this one is they've given us icons that this is for hunting it's showing the pheasant a squirrel a rabbit so we know that this is a they've given us every indicator that this is a hunting load but many people don't know what those are as I'm looking at the this particular display I can see that it's showing me some some shot sizes going from trip alot buckshot all the way around to be be at the six o'clock position here and then wrapping back around up to the number nine shot back up here at almost 12 o'clock showing me the smallest shot most of your target loads are gonna be in this seven and a half eight nine shot most of your hunting loads for lead shot are gonna be in this 6 5 4 5 being a great balance between sixes which just got a little more shot and fours which gives you better penetration so that's kind of a ideal balance you'll see most hunting loads in this range twos fours bb's those you don't see a lot of those anymore because of changes in waterfowl hunting but these used to be very big for waterfowl hunting probably 20 years ago so if you look at these here you'll see that those are bigger these buckshot loads you'll find those used in defense loads or for something to reach out very far you won't find a lot of these in a shell so for instance a double-aught buck you might find nine pellets in a 12-gauge shell and those are what you would find in a say a defense loved this trip a lot double out there and the the 30 32 caliber range and and then these are much smaller diameter loads so coming back to reading the box where we started we've got the shot size and it's going to be based on what you're trying to accomplish with that shot shell will determine the shot size that you choose so in review coming back we've got the gage make sure that this matches up with your shotgun the chamber length also make sure that this matches up with your shotgun these are really important for safety you don't want to put a 20 gauge in a 12-gauge 12-gauge chamber it might go off it could cause a very unsafe situation the chamber lengths again make sure that the two and three-quarter inch will work in a three inch but not vice versa make sure that you're shooting the right length shell that is your gun is suited for it choosing the right power is important you want to make sure that you choose the right velocity the right power shell to go with your go with your task that you're trying to accomplish so this is a very task-oriented number also the shot charge making sure that you've got enough pellets going out the end some people like to get more velocity and less shot charge so these kind of bounce one another here and then the last number the shot size this won't make a difference for any of these others this only has to do with your intended use and that's how you choose the shot size one of the last things I want to dispel before we before we stop is the whole idea of high brass low brass the reason for high brass on a shot shell has to do with back in the days where shot shells were made out of paper and they had to have a higher brass on them in a higher power shell to make sure that the black powder didn't burn through the paper causing the shell to separate inside the gun today we do it still put the higher brass or the higher collar on the on higher power shells as a visual indicator and as a helpful note for those choosing the loads lower power would be lower brass or lower collar again not necessarily limit burn throughs but still important as a visual indicator and helpful to let you know which one to choose for what tasks well that's about it for today I want to thank you for joining us and for watching this video if you like what you saw leave us a like leave us a comment and subscribe to our Channel and come back and see us this time next week [Music]

Channel: Olde English Outfitters

Views: 205,694

Rating: 4.9330716 out of 5

Keywords: Understanding Shotgun shells, Shotguns, How to read shotshell boxes, Shotgun loads

Id: rEXifo3mqYE

Length: 11min 54sec (714 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 15 2017