rafsob

I finally took some photos of my latest acquisition, a 12 ga. New Englander. She is in new, unfired condition. I hope to sset here upfor turkey hunting.

I'm thinking I will have a bunch of fun setting up a good load.







Now I don't have any experience in lidelock shotguns so any help from the experts will be most appreciated. I am in the process of researching howto set these loads up and expect to have a load of fun doing it.

As far as the choke tubes go I am being told that a Moseberg, Winchester and I think the last one was a Browning tubes will work in this TC.

Any suggestions guys???

cayugad

I was told also that the Winchester Wind Chokes will work on that gun. My wind chokes are unfortunately in 20 gauge as that was what I preferred when hunting pheasants and quail.

There are two ways to load that bad boy (and by the way it is beautiful. You should send me that wood stock you will not like it.).

80 grains of APP 2f, over the powder card, fiber wads, 6 & 7-1/2 shot. If you dump 80 grains of powder, dump 80 grains of shot, then an over the shot card. This will reach out to 25 yards.

Turkey load... 90 grains of APP 2f, a 3-1/14 stiff shot cup, and equal measure of 6& 7-1/2 shot from a second shot cup, then a over the shot card. This load kicks like a mule but is good out to 30 yards.

Grouse load... 80 grains of APP, a standard plastic shot cup, equal measure of 7-1/2 shot from a second cup, then an over the shot card. Good to about 25 yards although I did feather one at over 30 yards with this load. Dog could not find it though..

rafsob

Thanks Dave, and no you can't have the stock. I am amazed at the wood used by TC in their sidelocks. They are beautiful pieces.

I was fortunate to stumble over this gun and the Big Boar .58 cal. They were both bought years ago and never fired.

I think I was wearing a mask and holding a gun when I go them.

As to the shot cup, are they special for ML'er shotguns or are they standard fair for any shotgun load?

wabi

That is a fine looking gun!

I have both of my NewEnglanders in synthetic (1 black & 1 camo) stocks because the synthetic will take some abuse, but I have a walnut stock buried somewhere in my storage pile.

I would start off with a load of 70 grains volume powder (I use ffg Goex), 2 card wads, 70 grains volume shot, 1 card wad.

My gun likes a little more shot (by volume) than powder and I load 10 grains more (by volume) of shot than powder. (eg. - 70 gr vol powder, 2 card wads, 80 gr vol shot, 1 card wad.) Every gun has it's own personality, and you'll have to do all that boring old experimenting to find out what yours likes.

The heaviest load T/C recommends is 100 gr vol powder & shot!
70 gr shot = 1 oz
80 gr shot = 1 1/8 oz
90 gr shot = 1 1/4 oz
100 gr shot = 1 3/8 oz

I use choke tubes marketed to fit Winchester-Weatherby-Mossberg in my gun, and have had no problems.

As I said before, I have experimented with many combinations of wads for good patterns. Everything from 1 pc plastic wads to T/Cs felt wads, and the best patterns I can get are with the card wads I cut from cardboard (the thickness of the old cardboard milk cartons). I've used (and sometimes still use) a wad of "tow" (flax fiber) that has been lightly coated with a bore butter equivalent I make with beeswax & neetsfoot oil. I tamp it down between the over powder card wads & the shot. It doesn't help patterns much, if any, but it does help with keeping fouling down a little - not that fouling with a smoothbore is a big problem anyway.

The only wad I ever had a problem with was some CVA wads I found at the local gun shop. With the CVA wads some patterns were a bit too tight - like 3/4" @ 30 yards! The wad never opened up or came off the shot column!

My barrel likes real black powder with the #11 nipple for ignition. With any of the subs I get hang fires sometimes. I have a 209 conversion nipple to cure that problem, but the black powder is my favorite anyway, so I stick with it.

Have fun, and if you run into problems or have questions I'll answer if I can.

Teach Deer

My father, who is a machinist, built his own shotgun barrel to convert his ML rifle (a TC Greyhawk) into a 12 gauge.

I have a couple (12 and 20 gauge) on order with him...stocks will be made from American Cherry.

His favorite turkey load (check your own manufacturers recommendations) is 120 grain Pyrodex, an overpowder card, 2 fiber wads, 2 oz of #4 and #6 mixed (about 50-50) in a "nylon" pouch, with an overshot card, ignited by a Federal M209 primer.

With his full choke, he gets kill patterns out to 40 yards (that load comes close to killing on the backend as well).

The "nylon" pouch is made from pantyhose sewed together with black nylon thread. Use a meat scale ($20 at Walmart) to measure the shot.

cayugad

I purchased my loading stuff from TOTW. No special shot cup unless you're shooting turkey. I had some white shot cups for loading bird loads around, and started using them. For turkey, I like a nice stiff cup that is not split to far down. It helps to hold things together a little more it seems to me. And I do not hunt turkey with the New Englander. I hunt them with the Knight TK2000 I have. The one turkey load I shot out of my New Englander was a real surprise. Although my TK2000 will knock your socks off with a turkey load in it.

I own two New Englanders. My synthetic stock is used for hunting. My wood stock is for show. I have a .50, .54, and 12 gauge barrel for the two rifles.

Also my Black Mountain Magnum rifle is nothing more then a New Englander with a fancy fast twist barrel. I am pretty sure that is a .50 caliber with the 1-28 twist barrel. I have not shot it in a while. Looks like it is up next for the range...

Sharp Shooter

I have read that for best patterns, you want to use an equal amount of shot volume to powder volume. Check out http://circlefly.com/html/welcome.html for wads and stuff. In my 62cal GM I dont use shot cups for turkey. Only dove. For the 12ga im sure its different though since there are bigger shot cups. Have fun with that smoothie! They are fun.


Kirk

gearheart

Would that New England barrel fit on a TC WMC stock? 15/16 octagon barrel? I might have to start looking for a New England 12 ga barrel.

rafsob

With all this great info, I only wish this forum could give you a printer friendly version of this thread like others do.

Oh well, I can wish can't I?

MountainDevil54

beautyful wood on that tc!! i think thats about the only NE that ive seen with such beautiful wood pattern on it. Good find.