What's Next For The Gamebore Cartridge?

Powder perfect

However, our industry is a great one for innovation and refinement, certainly among the cartridge companies: we talk to David Scott, Gamebore’s UK Sales Manager, to find out what the company is doing to improve its cartridges.

It’s all about the propellant

“Gamebore has long been at the cutting edge regarding innovation in cartridge manufacturing, and one area of development has been the powders we use, many of which are exclusive to us,” David says. “We work very closely with our suppliers in the US and in Europe to produce specific blends to meet our exact requirements. The latest powders are ‘progressive’ in the way they burn, which means less recoil and less pellet damage, resulting in much better patterns and harder-hitting power downrange, where it matters.”

Gamebore also uses exclusive double-based powders in many of its high-end loads, such as Black Gold 20-bore and heavier 12-bore loads. They have advantages over single-based powders in these types of cartridges, being very progressive burning which gives unmatched high performance but again without excessive recoil so they are smooth shooting, according to David.

David also explains that the company is investing in new technology all the time: “We can now see exactly how cartridges behave when fired, from how long it takes the primer to ignite, when the crimp opens and how the pressure builds on detonation.” With this data, Gamebore can duplicate exactly the same performance each time a specific cartridge is loaded, and, as David puts it, “Consistency is key to good shooting, and that’s why top shooters like George Digweed MBE use our cartridges. They are the best.” 

With an in-house pattern testing tunnel, Gamebore also fine tunes loads before they go into production, and it manufactures its own shot – the company has the only working shot tower in the UK. “We even injection-mould our own plastic wads to our exclusive design. We want the best, so our customers get the best, and if that means making it ourselves then that’s what we do,” David says. 

As to new gameshooting cartridges, David is guarded, saying something very new for an early season game bird is imminent, “But we are launching a completely new Clear Pigeon cartridge. We’ve spent nine months developing this with Andy Crow and he’ll be at the launch at The Game Fair 2017.” 

As to game cartridges, while we wait for the new one to appear, David has two favourites: “For traditional side-by-side shooters, the Regal offers more reach than a standard 2.5in cartridge without increasing recoil. And it’s a true 2.5in/65mm cartridge, loaded with our exclusive diamond shot. For anyone wanting the best performance on high birds, then the Black Gold and Dark Storm are a ‘must have’ and are simply unmatched for performance. With exclusive propellants, they give performances that simply cannot be equalled with other powders. Combine this with our exclusive Diamond shot and you have a combination you can have 100 per cent confidence in and performance which simply can’t be matched for knock down power on high and handsome birds.”

Please visit Gamebore for more information.