I'm new to smothbores and could use some advice. I just recently aquired a T.C. New Englander 12 ga. and I have no idea as to loading for it. If anyone has experience with the T.C. 12 GA., or 12 ga. in general, I'd appreceate your help. I'd like to shoot both shot and ball loads in it. Thanks,

Ned

There are many loadings that work in these smoothbores but for balls in the 12 80 or 90 ffg is about all you will benefit from using a .690 ball and tight fitting patch. As for loads with shot i use so many different wad and shot combinations it would be hard to give advice without knowing the intended purpose of each loading. Say for instance you are after quail then you would probably want to use 1 ounce of number 7 1/2 or 8's with about 70 gr. f or ffg for rabbits 1 1/8 ounce of 6 shot with 80gr ffg and squirrels 1 1/4 of the sixes as for turkey at least 1 1/4 of 6 to 4. I have a 12 gauge double that will hammer a turkey with a load of only 1 1/4 ounces of six shot! no need to load 1 1/2 or more in this pedersoli double from cabelas that throws a 90 plus percent pattern out to 40 yards using 90 gr. ffg goex with two .135 cards on the powder one half inch cushion under the shot topped with a thin o/s wad. I use a single barrel cva trapper also which throws full to extra full patterns out to 30 yards from a modified choke using 90 ffg goex and one .135 with a federal 12 s4 with the base filled with grease patch followed by 1 1/4 of number sixes and a thin o/s wad. wonder wads work well in my guns also using two on the powder and one over the shot. I have always got better patterns with goex f and ffg and plain pyrodex rs. Just like with revolvers plain old blackpowder just works better in shotguns. I only use plastic shotcups in the cva trapper and never in my doubles unless i use steel shot in them which is perfectly o.k. in the 10 and 12 from cabelas. I also now only use 12 gauge guns because with the efficient patterns there is no need to tote the bigger tens unless you are after geese of course where you wont be toting the thing! after finding the correct wad and shot combo you will find that these can throw patterns better than most shell shuckers, just not as fast... 99 percent of the time i reach for my BP shotguns and leave my modern guns in the safe! I hope you find yours just as enjoyable and recruit more shooters/hunters into learning and using these fun guns.