Armory Sponsor
Posted: 9/4/2012 12:52:22 PM EDT
|
Since I now have a shotgun that holds a retarded amount of ammo, I'm thinking it's time to load buck and slugs instead of spending a ton on loaded ammo. For the time being I'm just going to load projectiles that I can buy and get into casting my own at some point down the road. Does anyone have any suggestions on components and loads? This is all confusing me more than metallic reloading for some reason. I've found very little info on buck and slugs, and none about reduced recoil loads (bad back, can't handle shooting a case of high velocity slugs anymore). It's going in a pump, so I don't have to worry about cycling the thing, so I want to load 9 pellet 00 and 7/8 oz slugs to around 1200 FPS, if not less. I'll stick with factory loads for social work, this is just plinking ammo.
Anyone have any suggestions? |
|
I've been wanting to load some light recoil 00 buck as well. From what I can gather you can substitute the same weight of 00 buck for bird shot. So if I'm going to load a 1 1/8 ounce load of bird shot then I just need to make sure that my 00 buck payload weighs the same. So 9- 00 buck shot would weigh 1 1/8 ounces. I haven't tried it yet so take it for what it's worth. The load I'm thinking about using is:
Rem STS 2/34 Nitro hull - 18 gr Red Dot - Rem 209P primer - Fig 8 wad - 1 1/8 ounce or 9 00 buck pellets stacked in 3's - 1145 fps - 9200 psi YMMV |
|
Quoted:
I've been wanting to load some light recoil 00 buck as well. From what I can gather you can substitute the same weight of 00 buck for bird shot. So if I'm going to load a 1 1/8 ounce load of bird shot then I just need to make sure that my 00 buck payload weighs the same. So 9- 00 buck shot would weigh 1 1/8 ounces. I haven't tried it yet so take it for what it's worth. The load I'm thinking about using is: Rem STS 2/34 Nitro hull - 18 gr Red Dot - Rem 209P primer - Fig 8 wad - 1 1/8 ounce or 9 00 buck pellets stacked in 3's - 1145 fps - 9200 psi YMMV I was thinking the same thing about the weight, but there's a catch. You can't get 3 pellets in a flat layer with a shot cup wad. I just looked at a round of factory loaded 00 in a clear hull (Rio Royal Buck 9x00) and the plastic wad has no petals around the shot. 9 pellets of 00 is just under 1 1/8 oz (1.10somthing), so that should be fine. What about 9 pellets of 0? That's right at an ounce (1.008) and may fit in a birdshot wad, so the data would be the same except for the number and size of the projectiles. Going at this from a different angle, Hodgdon has a couple of loads. Both are 9x00 in Winchester AA hulls with Win 209 primers and WAA12F114 wads, one has 30 gr of HS-6, the other 24 gr of Universal, both are 1250 FPS. What happens if you back off, say, a half grain? |
| Ballistic products has a manual of slug & buck shot loads and lots of components. http://www.ballisticproducts.com/ |
|
Sorry it's taken so long to get back to this project, it's been a bit hectic around here lately.
Anyway, here's my current plan: Find loads for 8 or 9 pellet OO buck, 7/8 oz. Lee slugs, and some size of round ball that conveniently fits whatever wad I can find a load for. Pick up the components specified in those loads, along with a Lee Load-All 2 (I know, Lee isn't the best, but I've had very good luck with Lee presses and metallic reloading, though I prefer RCBS pistol dies). Load a few hundred rounds, then start casting the Lee slugs. My most urgent need is the round ball load, which I intend to use at Zombie Camp in November. I suspect that a .70-ish caliber ball moving at 1200 FPS will drop the targets (paper over a wood "head" that absorbs the energy and knocks the target over) with authority. Another project, which will be down the road a bit, will be figuring out how to adapt the Lee press to load Aguilla Minishells. My KSG will hold 11 per mag and they feed fine as long as you aren't doing a gymnastic routine while chambering a round. I may skip the press entirely on that one and cut down primed virgin hulls from BP and roll crimp them in the drill press. I'm halfway considering picking up a cheap bust open single barrel and putting that in a vise with a string on the trigger to use as a test barrel. Again, down the line. I have absolutely zero desire to blow up either my KSG or myself. |
|
It takes a lot of idiot to blow up a good shotgun. They are much more forgiving that loading centerfire cartridges. I don't load any buck or slugs, but I do reload a ton of target loads. Backing off a grain won't hurt anything....in fact when you weigh your charges in that Load All you'll be surprised at the variance in powder drop. Consistent powder drops are a function of how well the press is mounted, your repeatability in how you manipulate the press, and the characteristics of the powder. Just don't try to cram a high PSI 3 1/2" load into a 2 3/4" shell (like some guy did here a short while ago) and you'll be ok. Getting any press to work with the mini shells will be challenging. That might be more trouble than it's worth. If you can find a used MEC single stage loader, you will be light years ahead of that Load All and save yourself a ton of aggravation. |
|
Lee makes 18 cavity molds in 000, 00 and 4 buckshot, which should really speed up the casting process. http://www.midwayusa.com/find?userSearchQuery=lee+buckshot
Depending upon the volume you want to load, you could try the old Lee Loader (the one that uses a mallet). Lee no longer makes them for shotguns, but they show up on eBay all the time. The prices seem to have gone up lately. |
|
If you want to load 00 buck with a shot cup, you'll want to stack 8 in 4 layers of 2.
I like loading single 0 buck in 3 layers of 3 or 00 buck in 4 layers of 2. I use Green Dot powder for those rounds. If you want something heavier, I've found 15x#1 buckshot makes a nice medium weight load. I use SR4756 for those rounds. I have the sharpshooter molds for #4, #1, and #00 buck. I have lee round ball 2 cavity molds for #000 buck and #0 buck. 
#00 buckshot loads @ 15 and 20 ft. 
#1 buckshot loads @ 15 and 20 ft. 
Pardner pump 18.5" cylinder bore was the shotgun that fired these. |
Armory Sponsor