Goose/Crane Loads
 

I have recently acquired a 1926 Trojan 12 gauge with 30" barrels.

I had it inspected by Kirk Merrington and he pronounced her to be tight on face, choked IM and F, chambers are 2 5/8" and minimum wall thickness over 0.040" on both barrels.

After pouring over old threads and scouring the interwebs, I am still looking for the "right" loads to try for lesser Canadas and Sandhill Cranes.

It seems that the Hevi-shot Classic Doubles 12 gauge 2 3/4" #2 offerings are $61.00 per 10 rounds from Bass Pro.

RST is out of stock of 2 1/2" #2 Nice Shot.

I can't find max dram equivalent loads with bismuth larger than #4 or Kent Tungsten Matrix larger than #3. I was trying to steer away from max dram loads to save the stock and my shoulder!

So I am leaning towards trying to load my own. I have found #2, #1, and BB Bismuth loose shot available from Rotometals, as well as, #2 and BB ITX shot from Ballistic Products.

I have zero experience loading anything other than AA trap loads.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated! Ideas about a good duck load would be helpful as well.

Thanks!!

they load the same as your trap loads just differant recipes for loading...you should have no trouble loading them....charlie

one point of order Scott

weigh the non-tox shot for the loads - do not use the charge bar - those are designed for lead and the density of bismuth - of all non-tox for that matter, is different

Thank you for the tip. Has anyone used the Ballistic Products ITX components where you get everything but powder? I guess I will have to get the ITX manual and see what the loads look like.

I figured with all the short Ten info out there on this site that someone surely had some data for 12.