I took me awhile to find it, but over on another web site a fellow or two have loaded 1/2oz shot with 15grs of Extra Lite powder, CB-0175 wad, with no filler. They use Win hulls which are a bit smaller than Rem hulls. No wad pressure, lots of start crimp, and very little final crimp. The shells looked great. Claimed the barrel was clean - a good powder burn.

Paul

My CB 0175's in a AA hull, 15.7 of Red Dot, 3/4 oz of # 9 fills a bit below the top of the wad, of course all measures don't throw the same and # 9 is going to settle lower than larger shot like 7 1/2.

Still seems to me 1/2 oz is going to need some filler to crimp well. Loading some 3/4 now may throw a few with the 1/2 and 5/8 bushings just to see.

William

Turns out I don't have a P-W 1/2 oz bushing. I did weigh the # 3 - 3/4 oz and # 2.5 5/8 oz throws

Using Eagle # 9 shot

3/4 oz bushing throws 352 grains of shot, little more than 3/4 oz, should be 327 grs

5/8 oz bushing throws 302 grains, again over, it should throw 270 grs

5/8 bushing drop hardly any visual difference from the 3/4 oz bushing drop and crimps almost the same with no adjustment

Loaded a box of the 5/8 will try them on the skeet field and couple of shots pattern board & let you know. Bet they work just fine.

P/s my powder charge is 15.7 Red Dot -weight checked

William

What sort of patterns are you guys getting with these very lite loads? I've never shot anything below 3/4 oz in a 12 gauge.

Ed,

I have never patterned my light loads to see how they perform. I just shoot them at those close targets and the hits seem to be fine when I do hit the target. And I can probably account for my "misses" to holes in the pattern. Sounds like an ideal excuse for those misses. :)

Hope to hear from some of the other light load shooters on their experince.

Bill

I have come to the conclusion that patterning any load is bad. It either instills over-confidence or ruins your faith in things. Thus, I don't do it. And I still hit a LOT of targets with 3/4 oz of shot. That makes me happy.

Can't do much better than being happy. Me too! :)

I have patterned light 12 loads, Nothing complicated use a 12 inch plywood disk with a 2 inch hole in the center trace it on a piece of cardboard & shoot at normal distances for the gun and load. No counts or percentages just eyeball the results. I have a stack of them all gauges short to long distance.

When I bought a 26 inch 12 G Parker with factory open chokes, .007 right barrel .010 left used my regular long barrel tight choke loads. 7/8 oz of 7 1/2 at skeet distances = 21 yards patterns were open too open I thought.

Switched to # 9 and patterned with 7/8 and 3/4 oz, just finished pattering again with 5/8 oz

Shot spread looks about the same all 4 loads difference is how dense the patterns are. 7/8 of 9 more shot than you need to break skeet targets. 3/4 is what I settled on, checking the 5/8 loads they are still adequate for skeet targets and more dense than the 7/8 oz 7 1/2 oz loads

Using a chart off the internet illustrates what you can see on paper

7/8 oz # 7 1/2 = 306 pellets
3/4 oz # 9 = 439 pellets
5/8 oz # 9 = 365 pellets

Only takes a few # 9 pellets to break a skeet target and the 5/8 oz loads put more pellets on target than 7/8 oz of 7 1/2. Shooting the 5/8 this week they break birds just fine. I did try some of the 3/4 # 9 loads on sporting clay's targets at longer distance. 35-45 yards I don't trust them. It's not the density it's the small pellet I figure. Have done fine with 3/4 oz # 7 1/2 at 35 yards in a full choke gun.

One of the skeet shooters told me I was re-inventing the wheel. They use 28's and 410's all the time 3/4 and 5/8 oz with # 9 and don't consider it a handicap compared to a full load 12 g

William

You would all do well to read Tom Roster's article on patterning in the most recent issue of Shooting Sportsman. Years ago I virtually made a lifestyle of patterning; after reading his article it struck me how many more times I could have gone shooting rather than counting holes!

I agree Kevin. I used to be anal about patterning every new gun/load and did have fun doing it. Now I just shoot the pattern board for POI. The proof in the load to me anymore is how it breaks targets and how hard. It ain't rocket science.