Читать книгу Reloading for Shotgunners онлайн

8 страница из 62

The difficulty with the above scenarios – proliferation on one hand of less expensive shells and, on the other hand, of more diverse loads including non-toxic shot and shell components – is availability. As diverse as the shotshell market now is, can you find the exact load you want exactly when you want it? Unfortunately for shell manufacturers and retailers, the answer is “no,” but that leaves a grand reason to reload your own shells.

Muzzleloaders required every shooter to load his own. In those old days, people learned to load from pa and ma and they stuffed their patches, powder and shot right down the barrel from the muzzle to the chamber. Once breechloading guns became available, things changed. Soon shooters could purchase ready-made cartridges that would fit their guns. Muzzleloaders and reloading declined rapidly in popularity.

This book does not give reloading data for “primitive weapons.” We are concerned with modern shotguns, the guns you use, expensive or not, to shoot dove or take to the sporting clays course. We are concerned with the guns you may use rather than demonstrating our knowledge of exotic weaponry or the history of hunting and shooting. We are not particularly interested in how the lords and ladies of deeply class-stratified old Europe spent their days in the field. This book is a practical handbook that you can use as a guide to load shells today for shooting at the range or from your duck blind tomorrow.