I haven't heard anyone mention that there was a problem with procuring ammo for an eight gauge until the last few posts. When my late uncle sent me my grandfather's E Grade Lefever pigeon gun when I was about 10 or 11 years old, my dad told me that the gun had "soft" barrels. I had no idea what "soft" barrels were, so I started reading. I read that the barrels were "Damascus" and should only be shot with black powder. My dad's friend in New York, Bill Lea, a serious gun collector, sent me a loading set. It was an old time BGI set with adjustable shot-powder measure, wad seater, and crimper. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to obtain wads, so, for a few years I used newspaper for wadding, a nail to extract primers, and a hammer to place new primers. Those shells worked just fine in the small quantities I used them. Eight gauge shells can be loaded in the same crude way if you lack some of the tools to load them. Wads are available from Circle Fly and all other loading problems can be solved with hand tools. Believe me, I have been loading eight gauge shells since 1969 and I have never loaded one with a loading tool that had a handle.
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