BP shot shells....

[dlbarr]

I loaded up some 12g shells just like Mike B showed on his recent video series. My load was 60gr 2fg Goex, .125 hard card, .500 fiber wad, 1.5 oz 5/6 combination.

Now, I just had a poly choke put on my H&R 12g barrel, had it screwed all the way down to X-Full choke and at 25 yds I was lucky to have 3-4 pellets in the kill zone on my turkey target. At 13 yds it was no better. Couldn't believe this didn't pattern any better than this. I had reloaded both plastic hulls and MagTech brass shells - same identical load in each.

Anybody got any ideas or advice on what I may be doing wrong?

 

[eastbank]

maybe open up the poly choke to improved and work tighter to see what happens. eastbank.

 

[Hawg]

60 grains is a pretty wussy load, maybe its hitting low. An equal amount of powder and shot by volume is usually the optimum load. Try bumping up to 75 grains and see what happens. You can split the wad to make more room if you need to to get things equaled out.

 

[mwells72774]

ive been curious about loading shotshells with bp. can someone post a good link to info?

 

[noelf2]

Same happened to me. In my experience adding more powder and equal volume of shot still gave me a hole through my pattern. Bump up the powder to 75 gr and use a bit more shot than a square load. add a bit more shot until you get more shot in the kill zone. It's going to take some experimentation. What wad are you using over the shot? What does your pattern look like with manufactured ammo?

 

[B.L.E.]

80 grains Goex FFg, .125 nitro card, .5 fiber wad, and 1 1/8 ounce shot loaded in Estate brand shells or something similar is my pet 12 gauge cartridge load. Sometimes I'll dip the fiber wads in a crisco/beeswax mix to keep the fouling soft.

 

[dlbarr]

OK, I'll increase my powder charge next time. Do most of you use plastic hulls or brass (maybe even paper?)??

 

[Hawg]

I use plastic but you can only use them once.

 

[Fingers McGee]

I use plastic but you can only use them once.

That's true for AAs and oher ribbed hulls. I can get two or three, and sometimes four reloads out of Remington STS & Nitro Gold 27 hulls.

 

[B.L.E.]

I use plastic, the el-cheapo dove and quail load shells that no one bothers to reload and that you can pick up by the hundreds at most trap ranges. I save the Win AA and Remington STS shells for my smokeless reloads.
I also use a plain old star crimp. A good solid crimp is important for consistant ballistics with black powder and even more critical with smokeless. That's why I don't try to get one more reload out of shells that are starting to crack on the crimp folds.

 

[Hawg]

I use mine in period guns with short chambers so I cut them off and roll crimp.

 

[dlbarr]

I've been using plastic of any kind and reloading them 5-6 times probably....I am not clear on why this may be problematic as long as the load itself is effective.

Am I hearing some of you say that this could be a reason for poor performance?

 

[B.L.E.]

The main reason I reload black powder shells only once is I don't feel like cleaning the powder fouling out of them and I use the cheap shells that can be picked up by the hundreds.
I'll re-reload them if I'm going to shoot them immediatley.
At muzzleloading trap matches, instead of taking a bunch of reloaded shells with me to shoot the black powder cartridge class, I take a portable reloading press and a bunch of components. I tend to shoot three shots at one station and then pick up those shells and re-reload them and then shoot three at station 2, etc, shooting the entire 15 bird match with the same three shells.

The sweet load for my 12 gauge muzzleloader is also 80 grains FFg and 1 1/8 ounce of shot, except I use two .125 nitro cards instead of a nitro card + fiber wad. The main reason I use fiber wads in the shells is because the total length of the load column has to be a certain length in order to get a nice crimp.