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Mike, I feel a long post coming on, but for those who want to read it a lot of shooting will be reviewed. I’ll second what Dary has said completely. I am very familiar with Pyordex in ML S.G.s but will not use it in old pitted barrels for the reason Daryl describes. Pyrodex is a good powder, but not for old pitted barrels in my strong opinion.

If you have no alternative to Pyrodex, you may be able to improve your cleaning procedure. Using a bronze bore brush with the patch over it, instead of a jag, is useful. Perhaps you can clean in usual fashion, using hot or boiling water to open the metal pores a bit, then rinse, and then rinse again with a mild solution of sodium carbonate (washing soda) or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to hopefully neutralize the Pyrodex fouling still hiding in the pits and mini-cracks. Then rinse thoroughly again, dry well, and oil. I prefer non-petroleum products in MLs, to avoid killing primers. Others may be able to add to these thoughts.

The standard English load for the 14 bore SG was 3 drams BP (82 gr.) and 1 1/8 oz. of shot. I tend to download a little for my old guns, but typically use 78-82 gr. powder and either 1 1/16 or 1 1/8 oz. of shot. Slight changes in the amount of either powder or shot, even 3 grains of powder or 1/16 oz. of shot, can significantly affect the pattern. But most important in my experience is the wad column. Old guns seem to have a hard time getting a good gas seal, and therefore a LONGER column may do the trick.

I have not had good luck with fiber wads in old ML Sgs. Spend the money to get some good 1/4” felt wads, or lubed Wonder Wads, or both. Also some .125” OP (nitro) cards. Often a nitro card plus a lubed WW and a felt wad gives great patterns. Another excellent wad is to use a hard card or WW plus a palm sized piece of polyester fluff (pillow/teddy-bear stuffing). This provides a great gas seal and scrubs the bore, but does NOT melt. It is a bit messy in the environment tho, so be thoughtful where you use it.

As Daryl says, high speed photography shows that doughnut patterns are NOT caused by the wadding driving up thru the shot column, entirely contrary to widely held belief. I believe it is gas rushing around the wadding and into the shot that causes this. Thus, it makes sense that a wad of polyester fluff, or anything else that impedes this rush of gas, will improve the pattern and hopefully put an end to doughnut patterns. But of note is the fact that an OS card that is too heavy and does not blow out of the way instantly can be bad for patterns. Use an OS card that is snug or even one ga. size larger than your bore, but THIN. (V.M.Starr the famous jug-choker and SG shooter used to use a hard card over the shot too, but he was using jug choking and all his own tricks - so it's apples and oranges.)

I have read recently of the very good success of using an OS wad of cork, which blows apart instantly on leaving the muzzle. But all in all,the most important thing in old guns, in my experience, is the wad column - and it may take a longer one to do the trick - something you can really play with in a ML.

Pyrodex can be slightly "hotter" than typical BP like Goex or Scheutzen or Wano, and be sure you are loading by VOLUME, not grains, if using Pyrodex. Thus 75 gr. BY VOLUME of Pyrodex RS would not be unreasonable as a starting load - if you must use it.

Pattern your gun on a LARGE sheet of white paper, perhaps 40" high by 44" wide, aiming at an approx. 4" black center. Draw a 30" circle over the densest zone of pellet hits, and count the hits. Hits divided by number of shot in the load gives pattern percentage, as you may know. Don't rely on what you THINK the pattern is visually. Your eyes will lie! I shoot at 30 or 35 yds because even with cylinder bore, ML patterns can be quite good, and you can see what is happening with your pattern better.

Keep a record on each sheet of the load, wad column, distance, etc., for future reference and comparisons. You will find astonishing differences in the pattern results with different loads. And sometimes one barrel prefers a different load than its neighbor, if you are getting really picky as in turkey hunting! Digital pics of your targets and data make load review easy on the computer.

Aloha, Ka'imiloa

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Few pleasures exceed restoring a nice old gun and returning it to shooting and hunting.

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