Win AA 3 3/4, 1 1/4 , 7 1/2 reloads

[Pittypatdugan]

I have a lot of Winchester AA hulls and want to load some 3 3/4, 1 1/4 no 7 1/2 shot for the second dove season. what is the best recipe for these hulls?

Thanks in advance

PDD

[MarketHunter]

Pigeon Loads!!!!

Wish I could find some AA Super Pigeon shells in that factory loading, they're absolute death.


Destry

[Joe Bernfeld]

Originally Posted by Pat Dugan

I have a lot of Winchester AA hulls and want to load some 3 3/4, 1 1/4 no 7 1/2 shot for the second dove season. what is the best recipe for these hulls?

Thanks in advance

PDD

Those loads are WAY, WAY overkill for doves! I assume you mean 3 3/4 dram equivalent in 12 ga? I use 7/8 oz, minimum dram equivalent reloads, or Winchester AA low noise, low recoil 26 gm factory loads (in 12 ga) for doves. When the doves don't fall from the sky, it's not because of the shells . More often I use 1/2 oz 28 ga reloads for doves (and that's for the 1st or 2nd season), and they work fine to 35 yards. You can find plenty of good reloads at http://www.alliantpowder.com or http://data.hodgdon.com.
Save your money, your shoulder, and keep some lead out of the environment and use appropriate loads for the intended quarry .
Joe

[Pittypatdugan]

I have been known to occasionally use a Benelli when it is very cold and the wind is blowing very hard and the birds are flying super high. This only happens when the season is about over in early January. These loads would only be eaten by my very heavy No 2 frame Parkers. It would not bother them, but it would pound my shoulder. These heavy loads would hardly be noticeable with the Benelli, so that is what they would be used for. The other dove hunts I use 1 1/2 frame Parkers with 28 or 30 inch barrels and shoot 1 1/8 no 7 1/2. Asa Kelly and I shoot Quail mostly with 28 Ga Parkers with 3/4 oz. 7 1/2.

Thanks for the reloading links

PDD

[Labowner]

Try this site http://data.hodgdon.com/shotshell_load.asp they have a few loads around 8000 psi 1250 fps. I like the 800x burns pretty clean and you can use it for other loads, makes a great 1 1/8 load.
Bob

[Bill Murphy]

Nothing wrong with using 1 1/4 ounces for high doves, but there is no point in a 3 3/4 DE load. A 3 1/4 DE classic pigeon load will kill as far since the velocity at the dove is not much different. The big difference is in the recoil. My experience is that the pattern density can be astounding with slow 1 1/4 ounce loads.

[Pittypatdugan]

Bill that sounds a lot better to me than using a 7/8 oz powder puff load that might get up to the high ones.

PDD

[MarketHunter]

Pat,

I've preached to these boys about "using enough gun" or "shell" for a long time but Murphy and Kaas are about the only ones that practice the true religion.


Destry

[Pittypatdugan]

I have been to a lot of Dove shoots where most of the other shooters use the cheapest low brass shells wounding bird after bird and blaming it on the fast Dove. The truth is they are hitting a lot of them but don't have the shell to kill them. They are shooting not killing many, thats why they call the activity Dove shoots.

[Bill Murphy]

The fairly slow 1 1/4 ounce loads are good for anything from long yardage trap, high doves, flyers, pheasants, preserve mallards, you name it. I have loaded the same load in different shot sizes for forty years. AA empties, Winchester Red wads, Herco enough for about 1200 fps or just a tad more for flyers. Before we went to no-tox, I loaded a carload of these things in soft #4 and I'm still sitting on a few. About four or five years ago, I loaded another carload of them in hard 7 1/2 for flyers. My calculations say that, at $8.00 a pigeon, I have my whole 401K taken care of in these shells. I have not spent any time at the pattern board with the 7 1/2 loads, but the #4s were patterned in a long barrel Fox at 50 and 60 yards and the patterns tell me that the duck should be a bit farther out to avoid meat damage. I have shot passing preserve mallards with this load at ranges that surprised even me and the ducks just keep coming down. I think that's legal. For gosh sakes, they were raised in cages.