I made it back to the Farm for the first time since the end of Deer Season. Now that I’m retired, I can go went the weather is best and not try to shoe-horn things into the weekends.

Tuesday afternoon, I got to fire some of my recent reloading projects. The first of these was 4 different loads (2 bullets with 2 powders) pursuant to taking on the coyotes. Of the 4 loads, I found that a 52-grain Speer Hollow Point over BL(C)2 gave me the best grouping. The other choices involved CFE223 and a 55 grain Hornady SP. I have an old Savage bolt gun that I’ve had in the back of the cabinet for 20 years. This will put it to good use.

The other project was some light 357 Magnum loads using wadcutter bullets. I loaded up some of the bullets from:

Pan Lube: A Detective Story

. . . as well as some Berry’s plated DEWC– double-ended wadcutters. Both worked well in my Marlin 1894 carbine as well as my Ruger Blackhawk. I’ll use the 1894 for plinking unwanted vermin from the front porch.

Now you have to understand that I had no great expectations on Wednesday morning that I would be hearing any gobblers. I kind of slept in and made it out to the Thoughtful Spot with a cup of coffee about 20 minutes before sunrise. At first, things went to plan. I did hear one of the Sons of Moto way off in the distance, and figured that was that. However, I had not had but a few sips of coffee before Hootin’ Holler erupted. I must have heard at least 20 gobblers. There was a concentration down at the mouth of the creek, but also up and along the hillsides and spilling out into Dead Skunk Hollow. There were hens joining in as well as a group of jakes. The latter were participating in what I term a roar. They all gobble together in such a way that the individual voices merge. This all lasted until sunrise, and then it was over.

I met up with SuperCore for breakfast at Donna’s in Brooksville before coming back to work on the Pedersoli Brown Bess. It is my intention to get put together a workable turkey load and possibly use the ‘Bess this season. You have to understand: working with a Brown Bess is pretty much a mad scientist endevor. The weapon itself was never intended for any sort of hunting. There are myriad of options to explore, and everyone has their own way of doing it. Even what you call a Brown Bess is in itself a bit of a mess. There are all sorts of variations out there. Mine is a Pedersoli Brown Long Land Brown Bess. It sports an 11 Gauge (.75 caliber) barrel. It has a 42-inch barrel that can be used to throw a decently tight pattern at a gobbler, say out to 30 yards or so.

I had originally found 4 general methods to try.

• What”s know as the SkyChief Method. It uses an oil-soaked wad ahead of the shot column to compress the shot
• The Candle Load — pouring wax over the shot in a mold to hold the load together
• The Corn Muffin Load
• The Shot Cup Method

I could not find any useful information on the Candle Load. I had read about it years ago, but no one seems to be using it now. The Shot Cup Method seemed a bit unnecessary; I’m using plastic vials at the moment for shot and powder. Yes, it is not period correct, but I’m still getting over the effects of Chemo. It is much easier to work with shot at home at the bench, measuring it into the vials than trying to pour it in the field. The Corn Muffin Load works, but to get shot and muffin mix down the bore in the right way and get it all packed tightly proved harder than I expected. That left the Sky Chief Method. That was the method I concentrated on the most, with some variations.

I loaded up 80 grains of 3F, a Nitro Card, 2 Ounces of #6 shot, an overshot card and the oil-soaked wad. I primed and then aimed at the target, a section of newspaper pinned to an old real-estate sign at 30 yards. YOWZA! Look, I’m no punce when it comes to recoil. My normal 3-inch 2-ounce turkey load has about the same recoil as a .416 Rigby. This was well north of that. A 20 lb bird is not worth that kind of punishment. After a couple of those, I went down to 70 grains of 3F, then 60 grains. I eventually retreated to a 1 1/2 oz load of lead. This, surprisingly gave me a nice even spread of shot across the target with enough shot in the center that I could see myself taking a turkey.

• Along the way, I moved the target into 25 yards. This was a more realistic working range.
• I tried an even mix of #4 and #6 shot together. This and straight #4 shot was a non-starter.
• I tried a dry wad instead of an oil-soaked one. That did not work all that well
• I also tried no wad at all. I hardly had any shot on the paper.
• Along the way, I moved the target into 25 yards. This was a more realistic working range.

I did not try tow in my shot loads. My reason was that folks have reported that tow wads reduce the velocity of the shot. I mean to put the gobbler down. There was enough force in the load to send the wad THROUGH the cardboard backer twice when the target was at 30 yards.

After a couple dozen shots, I was ready to end my date with ‘Bess. I think part of the problem with the recoil is that the ‘Bess was meant to be fired from the standing position. I was firing from the bench on bags. The top of the stock was particularly punishing. The next time I take ‘Bess out, I will be firing from a normal turkey hunting position, sitting against a tree or something. That will improve things immensely.

Two other things finally clicked with me on this trip:

• I was having trouble getting a patch down the barrel with a normal jag. I had brought tow down and decided to see how it would work, I had scene this method on a Duelist1954 Youtube. Wow! Tow with a bit of homemade bore butter (beeswax and lard) works great on the end of the tow worm. I could swab the bore between shots and did not have any problem with crud building up.
• I had struggled with cleaning ‘Bess after a range session. This time, I had a bottle of soap (Murphy’s Oil Soap and Simple Green) that I squirted down the barrel. Within a few patches, it was clean. Again, I used tow for scrubbing and finished with dry patches.

The temperature hit 78F on Wednesday. I did all my firing in shirtsleeves. This is very odd for March 1. The wind picked up as I was finishing my session. I had a short nap before driving to Falmouth to meet Blacksmith for dinner. A front came through. North and South of us got pummeled. I made it home just before the pelting rain started. Overnight, the temperature dropped about 30 degrees. When I got up Thurday AM, the turkeys were much more subdued. There was fog coming up through Hootin’ Holler. It put a damper on the whole show. I heard a few hens and a couple stray gobblers and that was it. One thing that was lacking throughout the whole trip were the coyotes. When I left in December they were amassed in several groups around the neighborhood and their howling would wake you up at night. I seem to remember this happening before: getting ready for coyote hunting and having the coyotes not at home. I will just keep the Savage handy until they show up.

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