16ga.com ~ View topic

Member Joined: 27 Jun 2012 Posts: 1177

Every MLK weekend for years a group of mature gentlemen (OK, old farts) get together at a local preserve for a big weekend pheasant hunt. One of the other hunters is a 16 ga fan and was shooting his Ithica 37 with a new batch of Fiocchi GP #6 shells. His gun was freezing up after firing with that ammo and had to have the hull ejected with a rod, so I loaned him some Fiocchi GP that I'd had for several years and his gun functioned normally. Back at the lodge, we started looking at the ammo that was giving him problems, and the crimps were so dished that shot dribbled out. It looked like maybe the wrong wad had been used resulting in a drastically shorter stack height and severely dished crimps. I loaned him my DeHaan O-2 16 ga over/under and he used those problem shells without any issues. Ended up selling him the gun as he would not be denied and insisted, he had to have it. He did shoot it well and bagged quite a few birds with it.

I'm getting low on Fiocchi GP #6 and was afraid of what I'd seen on his ammo, so found some Fiocchi Field Dynamics #6 at 1300 FPS on Natchez and purchased a flat. Looks like the same high brass hull, same 1 1/8 oz of lead shot (not nickel plated), but perfect crimps.

My buddy says he's going to shoot those 4 flats of Fiocchi GP in the DeHaan and not worry about the crimps, but I'm wondering what velocity he's getting without a proper crimp. He killed birds with it, but it looks like the sloppiest factory shell I've ever seen. I would think if the Shooting Dynamics 1 1/8 oz shells look good, they could do the same thing with the GP as far as wad and stack height goes. Very poor QC in my opinion.

Joined: 09 Dec 2012 Posts: 911

Please feel free to nag, just in case it slips my mind.

Once we get back today from getting something to eat and taking the new employee to get some socialization at Cabelas, I will take a picture of some 16ga #5 F GP's and post them so you can see what those looked like. They are a little over 10 yrs old.

The new employee, his name is Scotty. He is an "oops". A local family have a champion GSP (M) and a champion English Setter (F) and M got to F resulting in puppies.

Member Joined: 15 Mar 2007 Posts: 618 Location: Virginia

Your pal could candle the shells in question and compare them with a normally crimped one. Might show if the wad or the powder level differs between them.

Member Joined: 27 Jun 2012 Posts: 1177

Good idea on candling the shells, but I think I'll just have him disassemble one of his GP's and I'll send him one of my Shooting Dynamics wads to compare. Again, I'm amazed those shells made it through quality control. A dished load like that from my loading bench would be cause for rejecting that load recipe.