Bad time to start reloading 10 gauge?

[Fishrising (Ben)]

So I want to start hand loading short low pressure 10 gauge for my plain twist barreled lifter. Read through a lot of the threads on it. Seems a lot of components/materials are hard to get right now. What I have around my bench is:

- Ability to roll crimp 10 gauge

Hulls:
- 10ga Cheddite 3.5” primed w/cheddite 209 (can cut hull to size)

Powder:
- IMR Red
- IMR Blue
- Hodgdon Clays
- Hodgdon Universal Clays
- Hodgdon H110

Wads:
- 10ga (Hornady) Pacific Versalite (same as REM-SP10?)
- 10ga Precision XY12510 1/8” nitro cards (overpowder or as filler in shot cup)

Overshot cards:
- 10ga
- 12ga
- 16ga

But I can’t find a recipe to utilize these components.

Guess it’s time to roll a few up and send to Tom Ambrust for testing.

Anyone have any suggestions to begin with? Is one of these powders close to red dot? As I seem to see alot of red dot recipes. I did find an IMR Blue recipe but I need 16ga 1/4” fiber cards.

[Milton C Starr]

A 12 ga fiber wad may be able to be used in the shotcup as filler instead of a 16 ga one. If you got a local harbor freight or similar store you can run down there and get a 3/4" punch or smaller and punch out some cardboard discs to make some filler wads.

[6pt-Sika]

I used to use cards as filler now I use plain old little red beans you buy at the grocery store and a lot cheaper . And they’re never out of stock .

[J.B. Books]

From what I have read IMR Red will produce similar velocities and pressure as Red Dot with same number of grains. IMR Red is more dense than Red Dot and a smaller bushing must be used to deliver 19 grains of it than you would use for 19 grains of Red Dot.

The Hornady Versalite wads can be problematic and I am not quite sure why. It seems to me they don't provide an adequate gas seal with light loads and they produce off sounding weak loads.

[Steve Hodges]

Pete, I read just the other day that IMR Red has been discontinued. I was looking for it to replace the Winchester AA Lite that I have used for years but unfortunately has also been discontinued. It is bad enough that powder in general is scarse, but worse when they do not make it any more.

[J.B. Books]

Originally Posted by Stephen Hodges

Pete, I read just the other day that IMR Red has been discontinued. I was looking for it to replace the Winchester AA Lite that I have used for years but unfortunately has also been discontinued. It is bad enough that powder in general is scarse, but worse when they do not make it any more.

I had read IMR Red was discontinued as well. It seems it has been added to a growing list of powders no longer produced, PB, 800-X, 7625 etc. etc. It is my observation powder is currently the most difficult component to obtain. Sometimes a bottle of discontinued powder will show up somewhere. Last month I found some bottles of 800-x at the old price in the low 20's for a small bottle at Shooters Outpost. Unfortunately they limited sales to one bottle of any powder per customer.

[6pt-Sika]

Originally Posted by Stephen Hodges

Pete, I read just the other day that IMR Red has been discontinued. I was looking for it to replace the Winchester AA Lite that I have used for years but unfortunately has also been discontinued. It is bad enough that powder in general is scarse, but worse when they do not make it any more.

If I’m not mistaken the IMR Blue’s been discontinued for a bit as well . Also the stuff IMR was supposedly making to compete with Unique .

[charlie cleveland]

was lots of powder on gunbroker but it was sky high....charlie

[StubTwist]

Sad to hear about 800X. People disliked 800X because it metered terribly and powder flakes were the size of potato chips. Due to this it was always available on the shelf. This is a great pistol powder with good velocity and low standard deviation numbers dispensed with my RCBS Chargemaster. Used it for 20 gauge too .

[Fishrising (Ben)]

Originally Posted by Pete Lester

From what I have read IMR Red will produce similar velocities and pressure as Red Dot with same number of grains. IMR Red is more dense than Red Dot and a smaller bushing must be used to deliver 19 grains of it than you would use for 19 grains of Red Dot.

Thanks Pete! Now….how daring do I want to be trying a Red Dot recipe with IMR Red? Wonder if Blue Dot can be swapped for IMR Blue?