The dreaded "Is shotshell reloading worth it" question

[Researcher]

Through my competition NSSA skeet shooting career I lived by the Winchester Western Ball Powder Loading Data --

Ball Powder Loading Data.jpg

Filling my compression formed AA hulls with the loads that had the * next to it indicating it duplicated the factory AA. Still using them for my old 20- & 28-gauge AAs and my supply of compression formed 16-gauge UPLAND and Dove & Quail hulls.

In recent years the powder companies have put out these combined manuals.

Combined Reloading Manuals January 2009.jpg

Often stacks of them at local gun clubs and reloading component stores.

My beloved 7/8 ounce 12-gauge load in the Remington STS hull and 3/4 ounce 20-gauge in the STS or Gun Club hulls from here.

Got my 7/8 ounce 16-gauge loads from the 16-gauge site --

http://www.16ga.com/forum/index.php

[Andy]

OK so I'm popping about our basement and found 4 bags of Lawrence Brand Chilled Lead Shot #7 1/2. So I have 100 lbs of that. I totally forgot I bought it YEARS ago for $10 a bag only to use as ballast on my Lead Sled. Is this better for bird hunting rounds or clays? I know it's between magnum and plated shot from the Ballistics Products web site. Certainly would like to use it up. Sorry but this is all new to me.

[Harold Pickens]

7 1/2's are fine for clays or small upland game like grouse. Currently 4 bags of shot would probably run you $150 or more. I use 7 1/2's or 8's indiscriminately for sporting clays or grouse. 7 1/2's a little more downrange effective

[Richard Flanders]

I use #8 or #9 shot for all my closer in clays shooting but sometimes put a #7-1/2 load in the left barrel if I'm letting a clay go wayyyy out there where #8 will just chip them but #7-1/2 will break them. Same with grouse hunting; a central body hit with a single #7-1/2 pellet will kill a ptarmigan out to at least 50yds. For longer range trap shooting I'll use #7-1/2. And Harold is right; you'd pay a hefty price for that shot now, up to $42/bag up here I think.

[Andy]

Thank you folks. That's what I thought, I'll have a bajillion late season grouse shells to use : )

[6pt-Sika]

Originally Posted by Dave Noreen

Through my competition NSSA skeet shooting career I lived by the Winchester Western Ball Powder Loading Data --

Attachment 92638

Filling my compression formed AA hulls with the loads that had the * next to it indicating it duplicated the factory AA. Still using them for my old 20- & 28-gauge AAs and my supply of compression formed 16-gauge

]

We pretty much went down the same road it seems ! I’d go to Fairfax R&G in January or February each year and buy 40 bags of shot a case of wads for each of the skeet gauges initially all WIN wads then changed over to PC knockoffs . A ten pounder of 452AA a ten pounder of 473AA an 8 of 540 and an 8 of 296 . As well as 10,000 WIN 209’s . Later when WIN brought out the AA16 and WSF that got added as well but most of that came from Green Top in Glen Allen ,

[charlie cleveland]

a 25 lb bag of shot has cost me 50.00 for a long time you boys in the north have it made...charlie

[J.B. Books]

Originally Posted by Andrew Sacco

OK so I'm popping about our basement and found 4 bags of Lawrence Brand Chilled Lead Shot #7 1/2. So I have 100 lbs of that. I totally forgot I bought it YEARS ago for $10 a bag only to use as ballast on my Lead Sled. Is this better for bird hunting rounds or clays? I know it's between magnum and plated shot from the Ballistics Products web site. Certainly would like to use it up. Sorry but this is all new to me.

At normal shotgun ranges I have never worried much about chilled vs. magnum shot. If I am shooting long range handicap trap I would stick with magnum shot but other than that chilled shot works great.

[6pt-Sika]

Originally Posted by charlie cleveland

a 25 lb bag of shot has cost me 50.00 for a long time you boys in the north have it made...charlie

When I first started loading shells shot was $9 or $10 for regular chilled and $1 more for magnum . At the end of my competitive career the rooskies were hoarding lead snd shot was up to $20-22 a bag and we thought that outrageous . If I order shot now I can usually get it for about $35 a bag with shipping added . If you buy I think it’s $500 worth they ship for a little of nothing . I have however been picking it up from folks selling it that a loved one had left over etc and would get it anywhere from $20-35 @ bag . Hence I’ve got a rather sizable pile of bagged shot . Mostly all 9 , 8 or 7 1/2 . But there is a bag of 7’s I got for the heck of it the last time I ordered and 2-5 bags of 4’s and 6’s .

[Stan Hillis]

I really am insistent about not using 9s for much of anything. I used to use them to load my own spreaders for very, very close rabbit targets and crossers, as my sporting clays comp gun has fixed .020" and .020" chokes. Then I discovered Fiocchi Interceptors and stopped loading them myself. They're probably fine for skeet, but I don't shoot that discipline.

Number 9 shot just sheds energy too quickly for me to be comfortable with it, even on smaller birds like quail and doves. Because of that, 9s almost never pass through a quail or dove. I hunt quail a lot with a close friend who believes in 1 oz. of 9s for quail. I've cleaned, and eaten, his birds shot with 9s and mine shot with 7 1/2s. I almost never bite into a 7 1/2 pellet, but it's common to with the 9s. If nothing else, that reason alone is enough for me to not use them on birds.

I've got three bags of 9s that were given to me a few years ago by a good buddy. I use them to balance my Allison XTB boat when I'm driving it alone and want to run it at high speed. The Allison doesn't seem to care what size the shot is, but having not tried 7 1/2s in it, I can't prove that.