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Stevens 255 Mule Ear Twice Barrel Pop Gun?


Come On Christmas

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i will be acquiring a Stevens 255 Mule Ear Shotgun I bought from Dusty Morninglory here in a few days. The barrels are thirty inches long and it sports twin hammers. The chokes beez Full and Modified if memory serves.

 

We thinking ya can't use plastic wads for some reason on the old girl. I checked with a reputable firm that sells specialty shotgun reloading supplies. I won't mention the firms name so the moderators won't go ballistic. They said that I might want to put a nitro card under the wad I be using to avoid (they did not call it this) plastic snot using black powder. Is there any other reason? I don't mind plastic snot. Someone have one of these street howitzers? (please don't just guess).

 

Been loading a mess of old school fiber wad shot shells just to be safe at a Cowboy knock down/ sorta sporting clays Shotgun Shoot at the Oklahoma Shortgrass Ranger Range here in a few weeksI Forty five grains opposed to my normal higher number. The gun IS 100 years old, although from what I read its built like a Panzer, opposed to the Sherman "Tommy Cooker".

 

I am thinking I will use it to pop a cap in Pheasant's backside when I go visit my wife's family in Iowa at Christmas break. If anyone knows where I can go with a guide/lease around Washington, Iowa please let me know. Quail would also be a good substitute . . . Ain't nothin' better than Quail, Quail Gravy, and biscuits.

 

I will never sawr off this "Pearl of Great Price" (well not too great a price, but it will be precious to me.) Ah Ha! With a nod to Tolkien's Ring Trilogy, especially Golum. I will call this Shotgun . . .

 

PRECIOUS

 

It will have a place of honor in my gun cabinet near CYCLOPS, my H&R 10 gauge Turkey Gun. I haven't come up with a name for my 1887 (I do talk like Arnold Swartznager whenever I shoot it.)

 

Crayfish

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Can you use plastic wads in this shotgun with BP - SURE! The barrels on this particular gun are not any different than other guns from the teens and 20s.

 

There will be NO difference in fouling if you put a fiber wad under the plastic wad - you will still melt plastic off the SIDES of the plastic wads where it rubs against the BP fouling. Plastic does NOT melt off the base of the wad - as that tech must have mistakenly thought when he was trying to tell you the fiber wad would protect the base and keep snot away. Plastic wads usually need all the space that you can give them - BP takes up twice as much volume as smokeless powder, so you have to use a "short" wad anyway with BP - and if you add a fiber wad to that, you have even LESS room for powder and shot!

 

As you say, the wad-snot snake does not hurt a thing and it's easy to clean out.

 

The forcing cones (where the chamber tapers down to the bore of the shotgun barrel) were set up with very sharp angles in older guns. As folded crimps and plastic wads began to be used in ammo, the factories started tapering (lengthening) the forcing cones more. That made for less recoil and better patterns by far with the plastic wads.

 

So, you can continue to load with fiber wads as you have been doing. It will be kinda slow and more expensive to load. And patterns often will have some holes in them.

 

Or you can use BP with a plastic wad - the Winchester design red wad leaves lots of room for more powder and more shot. The Claybuster pink wad will let you do a one ounce shot load and still have room for enough BP to knock down stubborn targets. Just use enough FFg BP to fill the shell so that the shot level comes up to just under the spot on the hull where the crimp folds start. Even with the tight angled forcing cone, I will bet you will get better and more uniform patterns with the plastic wads.

 

If you want a copy of my well tested BP loads using either of those two wads, drop me a PM.

 

Good luck, GJ

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That's Morningwood! Which of course, could lead to morning glory. :lol:

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That's Morningwood! Which of course, could lead to morning glory. :lol:

I was messin' wit yo mind my brother. ⚡️

 

Yeah loading card wads is teadious and I have had fun with the halo pattern using it to duke two knock downs some distance apart. 🙈🙉🙊

 

Crayfish

AKA Shameless Womanizer ♥️

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