Another thought. I'd think you'd want to keep the bimuth shot with in the shot cup so the barrel walls are protected. In your picture it's above the shot cup. You're going to have to find a different powder/wad height to take up the room without jacking the shot above the wad. Maybe Big Friend 10 will chime in on this seeing how he does a lot of waterfowl hunting. Hey Mark, where are ya ?

Paul’s comment reminds me of an embarrassing blooper I had while shooting at Wallingford with Dave Suponski. I had loaded up a bunch of cheap Winchester hulls with AA wads,but the hulls turned out to be straight walled. I took my station, confident I was going to nail it, and after a mere pop, burning powder shot out the front along with wad and shot, which landed about 10 feet in front of me. We made quick work of the grass fire, and while the laugh was on me, I couldn’t help but laugh also.

Four or five airsoft bbs work well for that. Plastic filler beads from the fabric store are lighter and also work well.

i am also trying different loads

but part of the point is that this load just plain does not work as presented - and its a published load - how could they have tested it as is - i wonder if some loads are calculated and never actually loaded

thanks guys for the ideas for modifying it, i may have some of the altered recipes tesdted

I have never had any problems using a RP-10 wad in Cheddite 10ga hull or the fig 8 in a cheddite 12ga hull. Paul why would you be concerned with bismuth making contact with the barrel?

Craig - i am going to try the Remington figure 8 as you have in your TM load

I've never loaded shells for waterfowl so I assumed bismuth could be detrimental for steel barrels. I have a friend who like a lot of us are always trying something different with the reloads. He was using some foreign straight walled hull and Claybuster Win/Rem wads, the 1118-12ga. I told him he could do it, but would loose a little pressure and velocity. I gave him a handful of wads meant for a straight wall hull to try. That was it, for some reason he switched immediately. If I remember, he said he cut one open with the wrong wad and found powder leaking by the wad. If powder can leak by, how much pressure will leak by ? Yes they can be used, but why do it if you can just as easily use the correct wad ? A 3118 or 2118 work in Fed style shells. Go here to check em out http://www.claybusterwads.com/index.php/federal-style
If you want stack height higher go to a wad that holds less shot. The shot cup isn't changed much, but the cushion height is.

the point of using Bismuth is that it is safe for barrels

Hey Rick,

I'm a little late to this party but I use those foam polish packing peanuts. Break off a piece that looks about right and if it is a little large it will compress. They hardly weigh anything so cannot increase pressures very much. My problem is finding them without going to a stationary store to buy a huge bag of them.

Jack Kuzepski

you just don't buy enough crap off eBay then :rotf:

but yeah they would make a good filler -

but still - this was a published load- and it doesn't work without adding something