[Mike Irwin]

Actually, not much at all.

For MANY years modern shotshells were talked about being loaded in "dram equivalents."

That means that the velocity/power of this shell, when loaded with smokeless powder, matches that of an old timey shell loaded with X drams of black powder.

It's only in the past 10 to 20 years that most manufacturers have stopped putting the dram equivalenency on the packaging.

You'd see things like 2 3/4, 7 1/2, 2 3/4, meaning a 2.75 inch shell, 7 and 1/2 shot, and a smokeless loading equivalent to 2.75 drams of black powder.

Of course, modern shotshells have gotten more powerful as the longer shells have been introduced, the 3" and later 3.5" 12 gauges come to mind.


Doc Holiday's 10 gauge was probably 12 to 15 pellets of buckshot and loaded with 4 to 4.5 drams of black powder (about 100 to 120 grains of black powder).