Every hunter seems to have suffered from “magnum fever” at one time during our life. I well remember how many of the gun scribes of the late 1950s and early 1960s recommended heavy loads for small game. Believing anything, back then, that an outdoor writer said (I have now abandoned that line of thinking) I too wanted the “High Velocity Loads” for my new Remington autoloader.

I saved my grass-cutting and hay-loading money until I had enough money to make a trip to the local Western Auto to buy a box of 12 gauge 3 3/4 dram powder equivalent shells with 1-1/2 ounces of shot. For a little more change I could have bought two boxes of light load shells, but that’s not what the “experts” said do at the time.