Paul Harm
Thank you for the information. I have had some wonderfully helpful folks like yourself, coming to my aid. I really appreciate it because I have bugged the hell out of them! Due to their help and suggestions, I have some of the SG20S and the SG20M and a couple other wads on the way. Additionally the people at Hodgdon's and BPI and Precision Reloading have shared a lot of data, along with their time.
You are correct that I am pursuing low pressure loads. I shoot and hunt almost exclusively with Parker 0 frame guns of both fluid and Damascus barrels in 16ga, 20ga and 28ga. I have until now shot RST across the board and they have been great. With several thousand 2 1/2"once fired hulls in hand I think its time give shotshell reloading a whirl.
I have developed loads for many centerfire, smokeless and black powder cartridges, and own a Ohler M35 which I intend to attempt to use with my load development/testing for shotshells. I think I will run several 2 1/2" RST and 2 3/4" AA factory loads for their velocity readings, average speeds and standard deviations. If nothing else, it will give me some comparison of a small sample.
In speaking with the techs at the powder companies, it seems there are no current offered direct replacements for PB, 7625 or 4756. I asked about burn rates for comparison and found there to be some slight variations, but I think there are several current offerings that appear to be worth trying. As you mentioned Longshot is one, 20/28, Universal, 800X show up on the data(most of which is based on 2 3/4" hulls) the powder companies have sent me, and have been mentioned as powders some of my friends are using successfully, so there is maybe hope for me.
It is a shame that PB, 7625 and 4756 all got the ax, there was /is a fair amount of nice looking low pressure load data for those powders.
Many Thanks and Merry Christmas
Brett
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