Donw, I fill the cup all the way up to the top then put on the card. You can shoot up to 2 oz of shot in this gun which is the capacity of the wads I was using with the shot. It packs one hell of a punch and the smoke cloud is enormous, but it's only one shot. When I first shot this gun I too got the familiar purple patch that lasted at least a week only because I didn't firmly plant the stock in my shoulder. No turkey has a chance with this gun.