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Straight-Rifled SxS Husqvarna 16ga - is it a Double Rifle ...... or a Shotgun?

I recently acquired a strange old Husqvarna SxS 16ga. shotgun. ? ? Its a model 20 side-swing under-lever from 1908. But, it has full-length "straight rifled" barrels - "no twist". I slugged the bores and they measure .670" bore and .690" groove with 12 lands and grooves - no choke.

Apparently these strange rifled shotguns were used for Moose hunting in Sweden in the early 1900's.

The straight rifling was an economical way to circumvent the Swedish game laws that put a ban on hunting Moose with smoothbores. The new law stated you had to use a rifled gun.

So, Husqvarna built shotguns with full length rifled barrels with "straight rifling" to meet the law. Now you had a "rifled" bore for the Moose hunt, but you could still load the gun with shot and go bird hunting without destroying the shot pattern. Rifling with a twist would have "swirled" the shot pattern, whereas straight rifling did not.

Now ... I wanted to shoot it...... so I set about loading some ammo ....

Finding data for 16ga slugs is nearly impossible, so a lot of "seat-of-the-pants" interpretation was required. I have loaded 16-bore brass loads in the past for my German Vogelbüchse rifles, so I used similar (but lighter) loads for the Husky.

http://forums.nitroexpress.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=234349&an=0&page=0#Post234349

Brass used was 2-1/2" 16ga Mag-Tech - these take a pistol primer. The procedure was as follows.

Primed the brass with CCI 350 Mag Pistol Primers.
Loaded with 78g FFFg Goex Black Powder.
Petals were cut off a Rem 12ga plastic wad and the "cup" portion was inserted as an over-the-powder wad.
Four (4) 3/8" thick 12ga lubed fibre wads were compressed on top of the plastic cup.
A .678" dia pure lead round ball - weight = 469 grains was placed on top and crimped.

I fired 10 shots on 2 targets at 50 yards.

The first target was 6 shots fired off-hand - standing - no rest.
The second target was 4 shots fired rested - sitting - loose rest.

Recoil was mild - and it shot really big holes, so I didn't need to use a spotting scope to see them and record the data. The Chronograph reading showed slightly over 1000 fps with an overall average of 1020 fps for the 10 shots.

The results look pretty grim, 12" to 13" total spread for the 10 shots combined from both targets. (see mock-up) I suspect this was due primarily to the excessive rattle-room with from the .678" diameter balls that I used in the .690" bore. Unfortunately this was the only mold I had that was close, so I used it. Perhaps paper-patching the ball would have helped. (next time)

However, since the intended game for this weapon was to be Moose, I superimposed the group on a "full-size" Moose target to see how I would have done. To my amazement, a Moose is a lot bigger animal than I had imagined. Although a 13" group at 50 yards equates to about 26 minutes of angle, and would be totally unacceptable for most hunting - not so for Moose.

At 50 yards, this old Husky shoots a very acceptable "Minute-of Moose" - and would have been deadly with all 10 shots.

I know that much improvement will be gained from further experimentation. Even though deadly, I don't think the Swedish Moose hunters would have been satisfied with my 13" groups. So, my next outing will be with a .693" diameter 1 ounce 12ga slug. (425g) Same powder charge with 3 fibre wads. I expect much better groups with this "full" bore size projectile. I will report back when tested - perhaps later today.

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"You never pay too much for something, you only buy it too early."

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