With the big bird I killed last weekend with my gdads nearly 100yr old Stevens 520 pump, I've been wondering would it be potentially harmful to the gun to shoot any hard lead/copper plated loads in it? My gdad always bragged about how tight this gun shot, how many turkeys he killed with it in his younger days and how many turkey shoots he "mopped the floor" with it at.
I just mic'd the old 30" barrel and got .684" so that's in the "extra full" range of most modern guns/industry standards. Saturday it HAMMERED that old bird at 37 steps with simple SuperX 1.25oz 6s High Brass Game Loads but I'm just curious what it'd do with 1.38oz or even 1.5oz copper plated 2.75" loads? (I'd certainly NEVER try anything like Hevi-shot, Tungsten etc... in it) The gun itself is a John Browning design and were known for being tough as nails so I'm not worried about the action failing but I certainly don't want a bulged (or worse) barrel but this is the only old shotgun I've ever messed with.
Anybody know?