Harry,
So 3 drams of black and an oz of shot will go around 1200? And the fellows who loaded 1080 fps where using a lighter load? ch

Calvin,

Most of the black powder loads were equal volumes of powder and shot. FF was the powder of choice and an equal amount of shot to 3 drams of powder was 1 1/4 oz. That would sail out the barrel at about 1080 fps. If you dropped the shot charge to 1 1/8 oz with 3 dram of powder you would get close to 1200 fps. Equal amount of shot to 2 3/4 drams of powder is 1 1/8 oz. That too had a velocity of about 1080, but if you drop the shot to 1 oz in a 2 3/4 dram load you will get about 1200 fps. The difference in foward allowance between a shot charge at 1080 fps and one of 1200 fps at 30 yards is just a 3 to 4 inches. In England not that many years ago a standard velocity load was 1070 fps and a high velocity load was 1120 fps.

Harry

Harry,
That's helpful. U ever shoot 1 1/4? ch

Out of deference to the age of my guns and my shoulder I only shoot 1 1/4 oz loads out of my 10 gauges and when I am duck hunting with my 12 gauges. With a 12 gauge I much prefer to shoot 7/8 oz or 1 oz loads at about 1150 fps. They kill wonderfully and they break targets plus they are cheeper to reload and very easy on the shoulder when shooting 100+ shells a day. I have few #1 frame Parkers that are very light and the 7/8 oz load really shines through these guns when busting alot of caps.

Harry

I have been loading up old paper hulls with BP and would like to get some 12 and 16 ga brass hulls. Do these need to be full length resized if you are shooting them in different guns ?? I have some old brass Alcan 10 ga shells that will not chamber in any 10's I have owned. Can they be resized in a MEC single stage press ? I just need to order a few boxes of Alcan brass and get going. The hammer double brass uses 209 primers but they are a little more $$.

Kurt

Kurt, I would never shoot brass cases in more than one gun unless the guns had identical chambers. If the cases need resizing, quit using that lot of cases in the smaller chambered gun and get some new cases for that particular gun. We don't want to be "working" brass cases every time we load them. They will not put up with much of that. The same goes for chamber inserts that are relatively thin, like 8 to 10 or 10 to 12. If you shoot a heavy load in a thin chamber insert, it will expand and not fit in the smaller chambered gun any more. I have been bitten by that dog before and now dedicate thin chamber inserts to one gun only.

Calvin, to answer one of your questions; I use 10ga overpowder and overshot wads- 11ga filler [ or cushion ] wads when loading the brass shells. From my muzzleloading days I like a tight fit and the 11ga overpowder wad doesn't feel right to me. Loading the new plastic shells I just use 12ga wads. I like 82gr and 1oz for clay shooting. At one time I was able to prime and deprime brass shells on a Mec 650 but sold the tooling and all my brass shells to a cowboy shooter. Now I have a second 650 just for BP. Paul