Light 0.5 and 0.6 Ounce 12 Gauge Loads

[Paul Harm]

I took me awhile to find it, but over on another web site a fellow or two have loaded 1/2oz shot with 15grs of Extra Lite powder, CB-0175 wad, with no filler. They use Win hulls which are a bit smaller than Rem hulls. No wad pressure, lots of start crimp, and very little final crimp. The shells looked great. Claimed the barrel was clean - a good powder burn.

[William Davis]

Paul

My CB 0175's in a AA hull, 15.7 of Red Dot, 3/4 oz of # 9 fills a bit below the top of the wad, of course all measures don't throw the same and # 9 is going to settle lower than larger shot like 7 1/2.

Still seems to me 1/2 oz is going to need some filler to crimp well. Loading some 3/4 now may throw a few with the 1/2 and 5/8 bushings just to see.

William

[William Davis]

Turns out I don't have a P-W 1/2 oz bushing. I did weigh the # 3 - 3/4 oz and # 2.5 5/8 oz throws

Using Eagle # 9 shot

3/4 oz bushing throws 352 grains of shot, little more than 3/4 oz, should be 327 grs

5/8 oz bushing throws 302 grains, again over, it should throw 270 grs

5/8 bushing drop hardly any visual difference from the 3/4 oz bushing drop and crimps almost the same with no adjustment

Loaded a box of the 5/8 will try them on the skeet field and couple of shots pattern board & let you know. Bet they work just fine.

P/s my powder charge is 15.7 Red Dot -weight checked

William

[Ed Blake]

What sort of patterns are you guys getting with these very lite loads? I've never shot anything below 3/4 oz in a 12 gauge.

[Bill Jolliff]

Originally Posted by Ed Blake

What sort of patterns are you guys getting with these very lite loads? I've never shot anything below 3/4 oz in a 12 gauge.

Ed,

I have never patterned my light loads to see how they perform. I just shoot them at those close targets and the hits seem to be fine when I do hit the target. And I can probably account for my "misses" to holes in the pattern. Sounds like an ideal excuse for those misses.

Hope to hear from some of the other light load shooters on their experince.

Bill

[Kensal Rise]

I have come to the conclusion that patterning any load is bad. It either instills over-confidence or ruins your faith in things. Thus, I don't do it. And I still hit a LOT of targets with 3/4 oz of shot. That makes me happy.

[Bill Jolliff]

Originally Posted by John Campbell

And I still hit a LOT of targets with 3/4 oz of shot. That makes me happy.

Can't do much better than being happy. Me too!

[William Davis]

I have patterned light 12 loads, Nothing complicated use a 12 inch plywood disk with a 2 inch hole in the center trace it on a piece of cardboard & shoot at normal distances for the gun and load. No counts or percentages just eyeball the results. I have a stack of them all gauges short to long distance.

When I bought a 26 inch 12 G Parker with factory open chokes, .007 right barrel .010 left used my regular long barrel tight choke loads. 7/8 oz of 7 1/2 at skeet distances = 21 yards patterns were open too open I thought.

Switched to # 9 and patterned with 7/8 and 3/4 oz, just finished pattering again with 5/8 oz

Shot spread looks about the same all 4 loads difference is how dense the patterns are. 7/8 of 9 more shot than you need to break skeet targets. 3/4 is what I settled on, checking the 5/8 loads they are still adequate for skeet targets and more dense than the 7/8 oz 7 1/2 oz loads

Using a chart off the internet illustrates what you can see on paper

7/8 oz # 7 1/2 = 306 pellets
3/4 oz # 9 = 439 pellets
5/8 oz # 9 = 365 pellets

Only takes a few # 9 pellets to break a skeet target and the 5/8 oz loads put more pellets on target than 7/8 oz of 7 1/2. Shooting the 5/8 this week they break birds just fine. I did try some of the 3/4 # 9 loads on sporting clay's targets at longer distance. 35-45 yards I don't trust them. It's not the density it's the small pellet I figure. Have done fine with 3/4 oz # 7 1/2 at 35 yards in a full choke gun.

One of the skeet shooters told me I was re-inventing the wheel. They use 28's and 410's all the time 3/4 and 5/8 oz with # 9 and don't consider it a handicap compared to a full load 12 g

William

[Kevin McCormack]

You would all do well to read Tom Roster's article on patterning in the most recent issue of Shooting Sportsman. Years ago I virtually made a lifestyle of patterning; after reading his article it struck me how many more times I could have gone shooting rather than counting holes!

[Double Lab]

I agree Kevin. I used to be anal about patterning every new gun/load and did have fun doing it. Now I just shoot the pattern board for POI. The proof in the load to me anymore is how it breaks targets and how hard. It ain't rocket science.