Scatter gun load?

[Will52100]

Well I finaly broke down and got a Lee shot gun loader (the 30$ one) on the way to load black powder shot shells.  The guy I was buying from said he used 50 grains of 3F.

What do ya'll sugest for a load in 12 gage?  I've got plenty of spent hulls, wads and #7 shot.

Thanks,

Will

[ButlerFord45]

Will, I do my shot shells in 20 ga.  so I can't help with specifics, but there are a couple of general things I thought I'd pass along.  It's really easy to blow the center out of your pattern by trying to use too much powder.  I can attest to the fact that a 20 ga shell can be made to hold 80 gr powder and an ounce and a sixteenth of shot.  Makes a lot of noise and smoke and kicks like a mule but does'nt pattern worth a hoot.  Big hole in the center if you put it on a pattern board (newspaper)  It is not worth the effort to cut the shot cup off of a wad so you can get more powder in.  Plastic wads work just fine.  The melted plastic residue comes out easily with hot soapy water.
Don't tell anyone, but I use the powder hopper in the same loader.

[Will52100]

Thanks Butler, I loaded 25 up this after noon, loader came in today.  I only messed up a couple of rounds, figuring it out.  The powder bushing throughs 45 grains by weight, so I dipped them with a 45-70 smokless powder dipper that throws 50-52 grains.  That charge seams to fill the powder chamber about rite with very little compression.  I'm using 1 1/8 once #7 shot.

I'll take the shot gun out tomorrow and see how it does.

I found out rite quik to empty all powder and pellets before trying to change bushings though!

[ButlerFord45]

Will
      "I found out rite quik to empty all powder and pellets before trying to change bushings though!"

HEHEHEHE!!!!   Yup!!!!

Like to hear how they turn out.  It sounds about right.  Ideally, power volume = shot volume.

[Will52100]

Well I havent' patterned them yet, but they compare favoribly with Winchester light AA target loads.  They rolled a 5 gallon bucket pretty good too.  Would have done more testing but it's bloody cold out right now.

[fffffg]

pattern with one load at a time. until you find a good load for that temperture.. cold weather will pattern  diffeently from  moderate weather and diferently again in warm weather..   black powder NEEDS compression to shoot best.. it shold start off slow and burn up the barrel  to give more velocity ..  loose powder with plastci crimp will give heavy recoil and low velocity loads at best..extreems, (very loose powder, and very tight crimp)  could be dangerous.   use about 75- 82 grains 2f g for starters in paper federal hull..  blow on end of fired hull to see if it has a hole in it after firing and before reloading.. paper hull will only get a couple reloads at best.. . winchester primers will work fine..  put in powder, then  .135   12 gauage nitro card, then 1/8 inch cork or what ever to fill out load for good crimp, and then 2 -1/8  or 1/4 thick 12 guage wool felt wad soaked in hot thompson center lube in the tube, called bore butter,  and sqeeze excees  lube out of felt. let cool an load in hull.this wad system should have about 45 pounds wad pressure.. then 1 1/8 ounce shot. nickel plated is best unless you like scrubbing out lead from bore.. this load is for shot gun with choke.    i abhore plastic wads, some swear by them..  when loads get hotter, weather gets extreem, cold or hot,,, plastic wads have failed me..  to each his own.  paper hulls work best becouse  they dont compress the nitro card diameter,  they dont melt on a hot day, and most important they dont give high starting pressures.. yo can go to 3f ater youve gottern used to loading this black .. not many use automatic or bushings for loading black, some say its dangerouse, some dont mind.. ive found it s too inconsistent, and dont like the possibilitys of spark. ive read a account of some poor chap who had his glasses melted into his face from a mishap.  he used sandpaper as a funnel to pour powder back not the can.  . i put a funnel in the top where the plastic powder holding tube goes and pour powder into it when hull is up in that position.  compress the powder not the shot..  good luck dave..

[Will52100]

Thanks, I did notice that I got pretty heavy plastic fouling, it cleaned up with no problem, but still agrivating.

I'm going to try a teaspoon of corn meal on top of the powder and go from there.

If that doesn't work, I'll make a punch and try cardboard wads.

I should say that for hunting with shotshells I'll only use smokless :eek:

The only reason I'm loading shot shells in the first place is for CASS to be able to shoot in Frontiersman and Frontier cartrige.  Though if I get the loading worked out I may have to try some qual with black loads :-)

[Cuts Crooked]

Went searching and found this old thread that has some good info in it: http://www.graybeardoutdoors.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=3863

[JBMauser]

I read your post, You stated that you used a dipper to load your powder.  I just wanted to check to see that you know you can never use the lee loader to measure BP as it has plastic hoppers that can not be used with BP.  Static can form with plastic with an explosive result.  As Martha would say, "not a good thing" or others might say, could be the last thing.  JB

[Will52100]

I don't think plastic is a problem, but the choice is yours, I wouldn't use it on my sayso.  But the bigest portion of black powder is carbon, a conductor.  I remember an experiment a while back where a guy run high voltage arcs through black powder on paper and it burned the paper but not the black powder.  I tried it my self with a 15000 watt 30milamp neon transformer and couldn't get the powder to ignite.  Trust me, that's enough voltage to sling a pair of needle nose pliers accross a parking lot. :eek:

I use two plastic powder measures for the majority of my black powder loads.

Keep in mind also that the majority of black powder comes in plastic contaners now.