Low pressure 12 ga loads
 

Good evening to all
I just bought my first 12 ga with Damascus barrels can any one help me with a recipe using the powers I have on hand they are 700X ,green dot ,red dot for a one oz load that is safe in this old gun or let me know what is a safe pressure for Damascus guns and I will research it on my own thank you in advance
Alton Anker

What frame size is your Damascus 12 gauge and are the bores and wall thickness safe to shoot?

For load info go directly to the websites of the powder manufacturers. Hodgden and Alliant have all the info you need. And ditto what Dean said. I keep my loads around 6500 psi.

Low pressure loads
 

Thank you for the response
The gun that I just bought is a number 2 frame and the gun as well as the barrels are in out standing condition ( sounds like I am proud of my gun I am )
The 6500 is what I was thinking so with that being said I can go from there BUT
If any has a good load they want to share I will be happy to listen
Thanks again I look forward to the day when we can meet
Alton Anker

I use Clay Dot powder, 18.3 grs with 7/8 oz. grey Winchester wad.

I try to keep mine under 7500psi. With the powder shortage today sometimes you have to make do with what you can get and that may mean getting up in the 7500 range. Less would be nice but in the cold weather [ under 10 degrees ] the low, low pressure loads [ say in the 5000 to low 6000 range ] don't work too well - bloopers. Don't know what you're loading for - clay birds or hunting. For CBs, 3/4 or 7/8oz works just fine. For hunting then a bit more - 1 to 1 1/8oz would be better. http://www.claybusterwads.com/ has wads for everything and are a bit cheaper than most. I've used Nitro 100, Solo 1000, American Select, 700 and 800X, PB, and Red Dot - Promo is the same but cheaper. Promo is probably the cheapest of all and you'd use the same data as Red Dot, some claim it's a little dirty. For heavy loads some like Green Dot. And there's always black powder, good for any loads, if you don't mind the extra expense and clean up when you're done. Good luck - let us know what you settle on.

Paul,

I've been loading some 12 gauge 0.5 and 0.6 ounce loads for about a year using Alliant Extra Lite powder. Work and sound fine for close in targets.

I sent some samples of these loads to Tom Armbrust for testing and they are all under 5500 psi with the velocities around 1300 fps. I used Win AA and Rem Gun Club hulls, about 14.0 grains of EL powder, Rem and Win primers and CB 0175-12 3/4 ounce pink wads. I used 20 gauge card wads of 0.070" and 0.125" thickness to take up space in the bottom of the wad.

This morning I FedEx'ed Ground two sets of similar 12 gauge loads to Tom for testing: 0.5 ounce using EL and 0.6 ounce using 700X.

Probably be a couple weeks before I get results but will be happy to share that data with you or anyone else that's interested.

Bill

Low presure 12 ga loads
 

Any chance I could the contact info to send some of my reloads for presure testing
Thank you in advance
Alton

Pressure/Speed Testing
 

Alton,

Tom Armbrust of Ballistic Research can do your shot shell testing. His address is 1108 W. May Ave., McHenry IL 60051.

Five of your loads would be fine. Include all the data, components, etc: hull; primer; powder what kind and how much; wads; shot size lead or steel.

They have to be sent UPS or FedEx Ground. Here is a web site for some of his articles: http://www.armbrust.acf2.org/. email address is there too.

Pressure testing and speed
 

Thank you so much I will contact him and get this project going
Alton