question on shot.....

[charlie cleveland]

a 7/8 ounce load works well in a 12 gaand a 1 ounce load works fine in a 10 ga.. would a 1/2 ounce load work good in a 20 ga...by just reason of logic since these other low dose loads works so well why should not the 1/2 ounce load work....around the turn of thecentury 1900 i have seen several 5/8 ounce loads in the 20 ga...what do yall think.... charlie

[Paul Harm]

You'd have to load with fiber wads or plastic with a filler. They now make a 3/4oz 20ga wad [ Claybusters ] . Half oz would be a 410 load. I don't know, but would there be a problem with the bigger volume and small amount of shot getting the powder to burn good ? Guess you could look up a 410 load and try it in a 20ga hull. Might be a dirty barrel indiacating a incomplete burn. Paul

[Paul Harm]

I used to get on another web site about reloading, and there was a guy who was down to 5/8oz in the 12ga - so a 1/2oz 20ga should be possible. Shot string should be getting short with these loads. Paul

[John Farrell, Charter Member #33]

For several years I shot a 12 gauge 7/8 oz for skeet and preserve chukars. I went down to 3/4 oz 12 gauge, too, but it did not perform as well as the 7/8 oz of shot. The downside of the 3/4 oz was also having to put in the buffer to help fill the 7/8 oz wad sufficiently to get a decent crimp.

[Bruce Day]

Every guage has its best range of shot and powder. Depart from that and you need filler wads, crimping problems and incomplete burning on the low shot end and recoil and shot stringing on the high end. For 20ga, its 3/4 to 1 oz, and I have had enough problems with 3/4oz shot loads. You want to shoot 1/2 oz loads, get a .410. Maybe a 28ga, but I have no experience with a 28ga and 1/2oz loads.

[Paul Harm]

A friend shots 3/4oz 12ga by useing Claybuster 0178 wads meant for 7/8oz. He does fine - tightens patterns for his cyl bore guns. You will find that an 1/8oz less than the wad was meant for will fill the shot cup - there will be nothing sticking above it. You can still get a good crimp. I like the results I get with about 13/16oz - half way between 3/4 and 7/8oz. Good crimps and breaks clay birds nice. Paul

[Double Lab]

Paul,
I mentioned in a previous post using the WWSL 1oz. wad for a 7/8oz. load. You are correct in that all the shot is contained within the wad and gives a uniformly tight pattern but evenly distributed. It crimps well and fully protects the shot column. I've always used 1 1/8oz. wads for a 1oz. load, 1oz. wad for a 7/8oz. etc. I firmly believe that a uniform pattern, one that is consistent from shot to shot will break more targets and kill more game due to all of the payload arriving at the same time and on the same plane without shot stringing. That's the beauty of the reduced loads in any gauge. By the way your 15/16oz. load sounds interesting. Care to share it with us?
Regards,
Daryl

[Paul Harm]

By having an adjustable charge bar it's easy to put any charge you want in a shell. I just use the same powder charge for 7/8oz but bump the shot down a tad but not so much that I can't get a good crimp. The Claybuster guide that comes with their 4100 wads shows 16grs of 700X for a 7/8oz load giving 1200FPS at 6400PSI. A little less shot should up the FPS a bit. The IMR handbook shows 15grs/5300PSI at 1150FPS with a 24gm load. Is 24gm between 1oz and 7/8oz ? Everything I listed is with a Remington or Win shell. I noticed the same of everything but going to 1oz ups the PSI about 1500. Paul

[Double Lab]

Thanks Paul. I use Clays, 16.5gr. but I'll try 700x and compare. 24gm. is the metric equiv. of 7/8.
Thanks,
Daryl