8 gauge all ready to go.
 

Loaded up my first batch of 8 gauge shells yesterday, ready to give it a go. Winchester hulls, WW 209, 30 grains Clays, SP-8, 2-10 ga .130 card wads, 1 1/2oz #7 1/2 lead.

They look great .

Looking good!

They look pretty

Have you test fired one yet ? I’m curiouse how they feel recoilwise in your 12-14 pound gun .

those look really good the recoil should be very light...the Winchester hull when new and reloaded really stand out...charlie

Craig those shells look great...it makes me want an 8 gauge! Let us know how they shoot.

Very cool, to be honest, I don't ever remember seeing an 8ga loads.

I wish my eight gauge loads looked like that.

Thanks guys will let you know how it goes. My two bigs are on tap for some fun tomorrow.

Sounds like fun , I'd like to be there . Enjoy !

Craig, the D grade hammer gun is an eight? Have you told us about it before?

Bill no its a 10 gauge.
I shot the 8 and it is a blast, smokes targets at 50 plus yards, had all my buddies giggling. The load is very nice shooting little recoil, no flinching.

Thanks, Craig. Have you had the 30 grain Clays loads tested? What was the result? I have a full keg of Clays but understand that it isn't made any more. Is that correct?

Clays is still being made, it was impossible to find a couple years back during the powder shortage. I got the load from Tom Armbrust 1200fps 8500psi. Shots were very consistent and the Clay's burns very clean. The mec bushing actually throws 29.1gn, so I figure a little less speed and pressure.

Bill, Hodgdon still makes Clays. It is a good powder. Burns clean.

Craig, do you use a hand loading machine or did you find a press? Did you mill the industrial "rib" of the hull or did you buy them that way?

Mike I bought new Winchester hulls because they can be fold crimped. I bought hulls already swadged from Tom Armbrust. I also bought the converted MEC. Simple and easy.
My understanding is the Remington hulls can only be roll crimped. When reloading a roll crimped hull the mouth needs to be heat conditioned so the wad can be inserted. I plan to shoot my 8 at clays so I went for the press and fold crimp route.

Some Pictures first run with the 8

That is awesome! 8's are a charge to shoot

Craig I am glad the gun and your load recipe shot well. I must admit, since I first saw your post with the bucket of newly loaded 8 gauge shells(that looked beautiful by the way...) all I have been thinking about is getting a Parker 8 gauge of my own someday. Looks like too much fun!

Craig, who did the conversion to the MEC?

Ken Burns makes the presses, my prime contact was/is Tom Armbrust.

When I talked to Tom about one of the presses he told me a great many things I didn’t absorb of perhaps went over my head . Do they use an older style 600JR and rebuild repaint etc or do they take new presses and change them out ?

You can buy just the dies and fit them to an old style JR press, or fully set up for your load in a used JR with new dies. I decided to go for the fully set-up option to keep it simple and not waste hulls setting up a press and dies. If you are familiar with reloading either approach is not a big deal.
Many guys pick up one of these big Parkers and say "I could never shoot that thing". But I can say from experience that Parker produced beautifully balanced guns and once you shoot a few rounds you forget about the size and weight.

I just got off the phone with Ken Burns . I’ve got a 600JR coming as well as their resizing setup and an old reconditioned Herters press . If I had an RCBS Rockchucker I wouldn’t need the Herters but at present my rifle presses are incapable of accepting his resizer apparatus. He sent me a picture of the resizer deal in a Herters and an RCBS .

Now would'nt you really like to sneak that baby out on the marsh just to bag one duck just to say you did it?:nono::bigbye:

Looking good my friend living the life.

My little jon boat would sink if I put my 8 in it.

I thought I would want to take mine duck hunting, but decided it was too heavy to lug around the marsh.

I hand carried my AYA Matador ten around the Dorchester County Maryland marshes for years, just because I had the shells and didn't want to give up a 90 yard chance if it presented itself. One time, we were invited to clear out a pond that had been populated by hundreds of RSA mallards that were run out of a polluted home base. I had my ten that day, but wished my eights were a little closer than 120 miles up the road. The lady of the house begged us to take a
"big shot" like in the old days, but we shot everything on the wing.

To be honest I’d like to take it out in a cut cornfield for the early resident goose season !

One of the last couple times I hunted the Blackwater for Sika during the gun season I carried my little Savage 220 bolt action rifled 20 gauge AND a Parker Grade 2 top lever 10 gauge in case they came by within 30 or so yards . Luckily that trip I was within a couple hundred yards of the truck and had a game cart for tree stand removal etc .

As I get older, I only hunt with a twenty, and try to only keep a handful of 7/8oz loads in my pockets. I still carry a Zippo, even though a BIC is lighter.

I carry a Zippo in my pocket every day . However my Zippo isn’t a lighter but rather a tape measure ! When I lay it beside my grandfathers old Zippos the lighter cases and the tape measure case match right up .

Interesting that you chose to carry a slug gun in that marsh as in that county you can use a rifle. You can see a long way in those marshes and a target could appear from 50-200yds.

Not on the Blackwater ! NWR gun regs are shotgun ML and I think handgun now . Dorchester county is rifle but not the refuge .

At the present I’ve got 25 new hulls and 25 already fired hulls . So I loaded one of each . Loaded a fired one first , only problem was getting it out of the depriming sizer station next time I’ll use Imperial Sizing die wax on the brass .

Also loaded three with 0000 buckshot . Tried the first without buffer and then two with buffer . Ten of the 0000 buck pushed by 31 grains of Clays . In the two buffered I also put an overshot card just to try and keep the buffer from sifting out the tiny hole in the middle of the crimp .

That is cool.

Thanks ! This was a first I had the press clamped down on the breakfast table as it’s a bit warm out in my shop LOL’s !

I’ve got 00000 buck already cast somewhere out in the shop just couldn’t lay my hands on them quick . I also have a pair of .415” round ball molds and a .775” ball mold coming from the old Tanner mold company in the UK . The .415 roughly equates into 000000 buck and the big boy I’m going to try as a punkin ball . Also bought a mold from a friend in Ohio , he’d had Accurate Molds cut it for an LC Smith 10 he had with no choke barrels , I cast with it before but only used it in my McFarland 10 gauge ML , but those slugs are also .775 HB and 730 grains they fit quite comfortably in the SP-8 shot cup . When the mold from OH gets here I’ll cast a couple dozen and give her a go .

I’ll try the 0000 buck for pattern this evening or tommorrow and if it does okay out to say 35ish yards I’ll cart it along Friday when we go damage control hunting . And who knows :corn: