2.5" 16ga low pressure loads
 

Hello everyone. I have been on a decades long hiatus from reloading and am now getting back in to it. I have a VH16 0 Frame with 2.5" chambers. Practically every search I do leads me to the 16ga society and their spreadsheet of low pressure loads. I have gone to the 16ga.com site several times to try and join but I get the message "Membership orders are temporarily disabled". I was able to find the person that manages the spreadsheet in their forum. I have sent him my request along with a check for $20 dollars. Hoping I get an email with the spreadsheet attached.

Does anyone know if this group is still active? I would love to join and get my hands on the spreadsheet.

Thank you

If you search this forum, you will find that many if not most of the published options are discussed. There is also a spreadsheet, perhaps it is the same one.

There is a gent who frequents the DG site, skeetx, I think is his call sign. He has some connection with the operators of that site. I think the moderator passed some years ago and the site is in limbo. Good luck. There are many lite 16 loads on the Hogdons site.

You may find something of interest in these. Good luck finding the components.

Here's a thread that I started a while ago with some information:

http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthr...light=pheasant

Thank you very much everyone! Now, as stated, the challenge is to find components!

I also believe there was an article last summer in dgj about light 16 loads, but I havent read it.

Components are scarce, but there are bits at the various sources. You're going to need Hulls, Wads, Powder and Shot. Primers too, if you're starting out with once fired hulls. Ballistic Products has a couple different Cheddite hulls, and both they, and Precision Reloading have some Guillandi wads. My all time favorite 16ga. powder was 7625, which was discontinued a couple of years ago, however, ironically, those who switched didn't necessarily root out all the remaining supplies. Rather than waiting until everything you need is 'in stock', but what you can, when you can. You may have to mix and match shot amounts to the available wads. It's bleak, but not hopeless.

Hogdons reloading site will give you loads using 2 1/2" cheddite/RST hulls. I use Universal withe the SG/Gulandi 16 wad and 7/8 oz loads. I also use Universal with Claybuster 16 wads in those hulls--but flare the bottom of the wads a little as claims are you will get powder leakage from the CB wads in straight walled hulls--got that tip off the 16 ga forum-may raise pressure a little--CB wads cheap and easier to find-made in the USA.

When the spreadsheets were on the forum, I down loaded them, including the low pressure loads and have them on my computer. I am not very computer literate, so really dont know how to copy and send them, I think I have them on a flash drive also.

The DR16 wad is great also, but are currently not available, I use it with International in 3/4 oz loads.
7625, as Edgar noted, is also a really good powder if you can find it, I got 4 lbs left(NFS)

That is a long sad story. I used to be very active on the board and own a lot of 16 ga guns. There are three distinct entities there: the 16 Gauge Society Forums, the 16Gauge Society Itself, and the 16 Gauge Low Prssure Loading group(maybe the most important). They had a big following and a lot of activity.

For a number of personal reasons that developed, I didn't participate for several years. I tried to log on a year or so ago, and had no luck and no response. Turns out the owner, founder and moderator did die suddenly several years ago. I worked off and on for months trying to get hooked back in, with no luck. The 16 Gauge Society ran a storefront and sold merchandise to fund the website and the low pressure group charged a membership to pay for the data developement and testing.

On the owners death, apparently the family wanted to keeep ownership and control, but they had no real knowledge. They depended on volunteers to do various parts such as web administration and web maintenance. It has been operating this way for several years with things done when time allows and reponse often slow. The web forums are still in use but not as busy as formerly (my opinion). Still a lot of good info passed back and forth. You can still join the society at a very moderate fee and worth it if you shoot a lot of 16's. The Storefront appears to be permanently shut down. The membership fees and calls for donations fund the web operation.

The low pressure loading group was a little different than the Society and has always operated apart from the rest of the members. Just recently, I found that they have found a permanent home as an independent forum on 24 Hour Campfire. You need to get access permision for their section in addition to the entir website access. That is now the home of the loading group data, in addition to their original actual webmail based group communications.

It's all a little clouded still in my mind as to who runs and controls what, but it is an excellent reference source to a specialized need.

Skeetx is a contact who can tell you who to get in touch with for requests, but it can take a while to go through the steps. I actually got in touch with him on the DoubleGUn board and have seen posts from him here too. It took a couple of months to join the loading group and get my check cleared and my registration confirmed. Strange as it may seem, asking on the 16ga.com forums is largely a waste of time. The forum seems to be running on autopilot, and most people actively using it haven't a real clue as to how to change anything. This is exacerbated by the fact that the forum software seems to be buggy and no one has time or money to work on it.