perfect pattern powder usage

[J.B. Books]

Originally Posted by Frank Srebro

I loaded 100 shells with a light load of Perfect Pattern and shot them on test yesterday with my gang. 12-gauge, 5 times fired Remington Gun Clubs, Nobelsport primers, and 7/8 ounce of 8-shot in CB1078-12 wads. I don't like to publish powder grain charges - mine was extrapolated much lower than published Hodgdon data and it was just a tad heavier in recoil than the practice load I've used for years now, with same components but with Alliant E3 powder at about 1150 speed. The testing with PP is to position for using up my inventory of E3 which is of course unobtainable. I have a MEC 9000 Progressive press dedicated for 7/8 ounce in GC hulls and it throws somewhat lighter charges than even a conservative reading of the Hodgdon powder/bushing charts. Progressive presses like my 9000 will generally throw lighter charges than the same powder bushing in a single-stage press, and of course a good powder scale and attention to detail are musts and especially so with low volume/high energy powders like PP. I settle the powder cannister by tapping it and then throw eight (8) charges and average them to verify the actual charge weight with that lot of powder. The PP dropped within a very tight range of weights. Well anyway I shot a really good score, a little better than my norm, and the barrels just had some light flecks after shooting, almost but not quite as clean as with E3. I'll also test with the next lower number powder bushing but at this point I'm good to go with the readily available Perfect Pattern powder when my E3 runs out.

Given the lower volume of powder required with Perfect Pattern I suspect you went down in bushing size by 8 to 10 numbers from what you were using with E3. Did you have to change the wad to have proper stack height with the PP load in the Gun Club hull?