First Shotgun, little confused.

[nokia16601]

When I bought my Maverick model 88 12ga(yes i know probably not the best choice) I needed to by some shells for it. Well being pretty much clueless I bought a box of Winchester Universal shells. Im confused about all the numbers on the box. They read like this:
12 Gauge, 2 3/4 Inches, 3 DR. EQ., 1 1/8 OZ., and 8 Shot

I know what the gauge and inches mean. But what do DR.EQ., OZ, and shot mean? I know it's a newbie question, but i am a newbie

Thanks in advance!
Nokia

 

[joneb]

hi nokia, the dram refers to the powder charge 1 dram=27.3475 grains . the 1 1/8 oz is the weight of the shot load.

 

[Dave McC]

Actually, Dram Equivalent is an archaic way to tell the velocity. It means in this case," powder sufficient to give the same velocity as 3 drams of black powder". That translates out to 1225 FPS, IIRC.

1 1/8 oz is the weight of the shot. 8 shot is smaller than 7 1/2 and bigger than 9s. It's a good size for clay targets inside 40 yards and our smaller game birds.

These will work for now, but next time look for oz loads or even 7/8 oz loads. They won't pound you as hard while you're learning.

HTH.....