herco powder

[charlie cleveland]

herco powder is one of the older smokeless powders. there is not a lot of newer loadings available for this powder... i had never used herco before so today i bought some... i looked up the loadings for this powder on the internet ..only thing wrong there was no load for the 8 ga.. there were some loadings in the 10 ga so i loaded up the 10 ga load in the 8 ga...the loades listed for the 10 ga was 35 and 35 1/2 grains of herco plus1 5/8 ounce shot . this was listed to have a low presure of around 7500 psi... i loaded this load in the 8 ga hull with no crimp... like brass shells....forgot to mention used the sp8 rem. wad plastic...i shot this load at 40 yards..24 inch circle.. the pattern is very uniform. best of all the recoil is very light...20 ga light load would have more recoil.... best of all clean up is gonna be alot easier than bluedot powder..... charlie

[C. Aaron Beck]

Your post intrigued me so I googled the recipe you were referencing. The one if found was listed as having 10k + pressures in a 3.5" shell. Same load?

[charlie cleveland]

this load i found was for the 2 7/8 inchlenth 10 ga shell it was a roll crimped shell using old style wads... 35 grains of herco 1 5/8 ounce lead shot... old remington hull... no 57 remington primer... charlie

[C. Aaron Beck]

can you tell me where? do you mean fiber wads?

[Bill Murphy]

You will not blow up an eight gauge with that load. The Herco will give somewhat better ignition in light loads in the eight than Blue Dot because of its faster burn. Blue Dot is a bit slower burning than Herco and will give very low pressures with light shot loads in the eight. It is very hard to find 2 7/8" ten gauge loads in powder company loading manuals. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and invent your own. The eight gauge loads are even harder to find. Unfortunately, Sherman Bell used a lot of obscure components in his recommended loads. I would rather stick to the Alliant powders that I have used for fifty years rather than go shopping for boutique powders that are hard to find and expensive.

[Pete Lester]

OK I will come out of the closet. File this under made up load for the 2 7/8" 10ga; Federal hull, Win 209 primer, 22grs Green Dot, SP10 wad, peel a sliver off (1/16 to 1/8") of a .50 16ga or 20ga fiber filler wad and put largest part inserted inside SP10 wad, 1 1/8 oz of shot. Star crimp. Pull, bang, dead bird and often it's a long way out there.

Disclaimer - I am an untrained unpaid non-professional ballistician who has not had a gun blow up on him in 35 years of making shotguns go bang. The above load is not in any reloading manual nor pressure tested but it works good for me. Your results may differ (but I doubt it).

[Bill Murphy]

The load Pete mentions will ignite well in good weather and won't blow up a ten gauge if it had plastic barrels. Way to go, Pete.

[Cal Lego]

I found a 10 gauge load on BRI site using 30 grains Herco and 1-1/4 oz shot in a 2-5/8" case. Shot these in Winchester 1901 using #6 (I know-nothing politically correct for trap). It broke the birds way way out there too!

[Pete Lester]

I found a 10 gauge load on BRI site using 30 grains Herco and 1-1/4 oz shot in a 2-5/8" case. Shot these in Winchester 1901 using #6 (I know-nothing politically correct for trap). It broke the birds way way out there too!

What is the BRI site? Can you give us a link to it? Thanks.

[Cal Lego]

What is the BRI site? Can you give us a link to it? Thanks.

Sorry about the BRI name. It's "Ballistic Products Incorporated" (BPI). Been mixing up my acronyms.

The link to the 10 gauge data is: (now corrected in first post)

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/bpi/load_recipes/loads_pdf/DeciMax10ga040504105.pdf

I substituted a Remington SP10 for their Decimax wad.

[Bill Murphy]

I have never shot my 1901 Winchester but now that I have read Cal's post, I may go out and shoot her a bit. These guns are plenty strong, but the 12 1/2" stock and severe drop makes them fairly unsuitable for serious shotgunning.

[Cal Lego]

I have never shot my 1901 Winchester These guns are plenty strong, but the 12 1/2" stock and severe drop makes them fairly unsuitable for serious shotgunning.

Thanks Bill for the info on the gun being strong & all. It appears to be in great shape mechanically and just a few light pits ahead of the forcing cone area.

Someone butchered the butt stock even shorter and am keeping an eye out for a replacement.

[Paul Harm]

Those leather slip on pads are great to make a stock longer. Cut some leather shims to put inside to make one even longer. And for the drop in those old stocks - just learn to shoot them with your head up, not down and out like a turtle. :) With light loads you won't feel the recoil anyways. Charlie, was your data useing paper wads ? They usually have less pressure than useing plastic. Just from feel - the same load useing plastic wads kick alot more then when useing paper wads. Paul