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Posted: 3/17/2003 3:52:48 PM EDT
| Has anyone here reloaded buckshot? I'm contemplating reloading #4 and/or #1 buck and would appreciate any insights gained from previous experiences. |
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It's real easy to do, but not on a progressive press. The best way I found is to just low budget it and buy a Lee press ($25). For the most part you just run the shell as normal, but when you get to the lead shot stage, you just drop in the # of buck shot spec'd and final crimp. Also, depending on the size shot, you may or may not want to use a buffer. Also a note, unless you’re going to be shooting buckshot by the truckload, Wolf sells buck shot for $32 for 200. Unless your casting you own buckshot, it's about the same price as reloading, due to the price of buckshot by the bag. Where reloading makes a big difference is if you are reloading slugs and casting your own slugs. Lee has a 12 gauge slug mold that the slug fits into a standard wad, and if run it down a Hastings rifled barrel, the slug works great out to 100 yards. To get lead cheap, just go down to the local tire store and buy old tire weights from them and melt them down to get the impurities out. The last place I got tire weights from charged me $.08 a pound. So I would show up with a few 5 gallon buckets and bathroom scale. |
| Thanks Dano. I have an old MEC loader a buddy of mine gave to me. Another shooting buddy shot some Wolf this past Saturday at the match and it seemed to do well for him. I've got tons of hulls in 5 gallon buckets from the range, so I still might go ahead and try making my own to see how they work. |
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To reload shotgun hulls you need: the hulls wads of a suitable type primers, usually type 209 an appropriate powder Sounds like you already have a press and some hulls. In shotgun reloading as a general rule the shot size is not important but the weight of shot is extremely important. I have not reloaded buck shot. I would recommend that you look into a shotshell reloading manual that includes some buck and slug loads. There are many different types of wads and they are not all interchangeable across all types of hulls. Also the wads have different size shot cups depending on the weight of shot you are loading. (example in 12 guage wads are commonly available with 7/8, 1, and 1-1/8 shot cups. The cup are normally sized so that, when filled up with #9 birdshot, they hold the specified weight. Loading with larger shot will be slightly less weight due to the extra air space between the pellets. when loading really large pellet sizes you probably need to count them out. Good luck. |
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OK I got out my Lyman Shotshell Reloading Handbook, 4th Edition. Here is a load for 2-3/4" Winchester AA hulls. Don't know what kind you have. Wad - Winchester WAA12R Use 27 pellets of #4 Buck Herco powder @ 24.5 grains Primer Winchester 209 Velocity 1272 @10,400 LUP There are also loads for #1, #0, and #00 buck but the wads, powder, and and charges vary. Dont try to mix and match. Hope this helps. |
I'd say yes if you are loading 1-1/8 oz loads. with this weight shot 2-3/4 dram is equivalent to about 1145fps vs 1200 for a 3 dram load. You need to be more specific though. what number bushing are you using, powder, hull, and wad? |
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