Hey guys, I'm wanting to begin reloading some buckshot.... Preferably 00 Buck. I've got Winchester AA, Federal Gold Medal, and Remington Sure Shot Dove shells. Western WT12 wads, Winchester W209 primers, and Hodgdon Titewad powder right now that I've been playing with for some 7 1/2 shot upland game loads. A buddy of mine has been wanting me to get into buckshot though but I don't really know that much about it. Can I load buckshot pellets into a regular wad or will I need to add a buffer media in the shell with the pellets? I assume as long as I load, say, 9 OO Buck pellets (which should equal out to 1 1/8oz.) into the hull with my standard 17.8g ~ 18.0g charge of Titewad I'll be safe.

Any help and pointers on this will be greatly appreciated. Safe reloading!

Thanks, I've been meaning to pick that particular loading manual up. I've got some other documentation that I borrowed from a friend of mine.

Using most wads, it will be easier stacking your 00 buck into 4 pairs of 2.     If you want to stack layers of 3 with standard wads, you'd be better off casting 0 buck.  

I use Green dot (1oz data), Win AA12 White wads, W209 primers, WW hulls (have used other hulls in the past, but AA hulls crimp better), and 8 00 buck for most of my blasting loads.   IIRC, you can't use the claybuster wads because the petals are different.   (This may only apply to slugs/i'm not sure)

So I should be GTG. I've looked at .340" 00 Buck pellets which are approx 1/8oz each. So 8 of those will round me off to approx 1oz of shot. Reduce my powder charge according to the data for 1oz. loads and proceede from there with my standard WAA12 wads and just stack them in 4 stacks of two pellets each. Seems easy enough. I figured there was something far more complicated to loading buckshot

....... Now I just need to find me a good shot mold and start casting my own buck pellets because these lead prices are through the ROOF!

I have both the Sharpshooter mold and the Lee 00 mold and the Lee works A LOT better for me.

Also, you're going to need to run any big capacity buckshot mold HOT HOT HOT as well as the alloy.

I set my PID at 725 degrees when making normal bullets, but 800-820 with pure lead when making buckshot.    You also want to run a fast tempo to keep your mold hot.  

EDIT to add:   That lee buckshot mold makes a lot of buckshot in a big ole hurry once you get it running good:



This is right at an hour's worth of work.  

Wow, that's an impressive amount of shot you can produce in an hour.

Another good source is Ballistic Products for manuals/materials.

I make my own with Unique, obsolete claybuster wads, and an overshot card.

It is fun.

Quoted:
Shotgun reloading is different from rifle and pistol in that you use the exact loads listed in shotgun loading data.
No starting load and work up.


WHOOPS- I set up my chronograph and tweaked the loads until I had a good pattern while remaining at or below published velocities.  I was nervous but the chrono survived.

Where did you get the tools for making a roll crimp?

Ballistic Products has one.