“a special Hawk Load”
I know it can be done. But such mistakes should be avoided.
Sane loads are pretty easy. Be careful to not stick the barrel in the mud before firing.
What kind of powder did you use?
I still have my first shotgun. It was a Montgomery Wards private label made by a Remington subsidiary in Brazil.
Shotgun: For the heavy stuff, use ONLY factory loads, period.
For the rifle/pistol cartridges: Load the Powder charge in lots of 50—visually check the powder level in EVERY case in the loading block of 50 with a flashlight.
This only takes a few seconds.
Then weigh your charge in the scale for the NEXT 50.
At least I haven’t blown anything up——YET!
It was a paper shell, plastic’s were just coming on the market.
The standard formula was a measure of flake propellant, two fibre wads probably 3/4 - 1 inch in total, and a measure of shot. We skipped one wad and added extra powder and shot to make up the space.
The loader had 4 stations as I remember it.
We also had a lot of fun shooting the primer’s against brick walls with our wrist rockets.
“Hawk Load” That’s what we call it. I remember it like it was yesterday.
Singularly the dumbest thing we ever did.