My first foray into shotshell reloading

[painter]

I know we don't discuss this much here, but I figured I'd add some comments for comic relief, if nothing else.

Shotshell is different. The recipe must be closely adhered to. The wad choices, hull variations, primers, powders...it's mind numbing.

You won't save money unless you load hunting rounds, or spreaders, or the like. At $5 a box it's just too cheap. You, of course can load a higher quality round if you think that's what you need.

I got into it because I have an old Charles Daly/ Miroku with fixed chokes and a non-selectable trigger that's choked full over modified and I want to shoot it at 5 stand, and don't want to modify the barrels. I'm loading spreaders. You can buy them for $14 a box, plus freight. I can load them for $7 using scrounged hulls.

Anyway, after buying a used PW 375C, wads and all the components from Graf's and BPI, I have a few observations that you might find humorous after loading my first few test shells.

Always, when verifying powder throws, pour the powder back into the powder hopper, not the shot hopper...yes, you can suck the powder off the top with a shop vac. Luckily I didn't try the reverse.

Always put powder in the hull before you insert the wad. It won't work otherwise.

Most importantly, after you punch out a primer always install a fresh one before you put powder in the hull. It gets pretty messy otherwise.

I'll likely find new ways to screw it up as I go.

[IDescribe]

I can't wait until you chrono these.   

[1SOW]

Like!
I debated reloading my expensive 16 gage shot shells for my old Browning Sweet Sixteen,  but I don't shoot it enough to join the fun.
I use it for mano-o-mano steel shoots at a local match that does one a few times a year. 
Keep us posted on your results.  Intetesting.

[FN in MT]

   I loaded my first 12 ga on the hardwood floor in my bedroom, with a LEE kit when I was twelve. HOW I never hurt myself, and WHY my Dad allowed it...I will never know.  You seated primers with a mallet or hammer, I quickly found that one of my Dad's framing hammers was MORE than required. Exploded a primer on my floor and it left a big divot.   Moved to a much lighter rubber mallet after that.  HOW I got my start on tinitus as a 12 year old.

  I remember I got a pound of red dot, 250 fiber wads, a few hundred WW primers  and 25 pounds of #6's from Art's Sport Shop for WAY  less than a ten dollar bill.

  Since then I couldn't imagine the tens of thousands I have loaded. using a Spolar now, but still have that old LEE someplace.

 

[painter]

I can't wait until you chrono these.   

That would be interesting.

[Wobbly]

Using a Spolar now, but still have that old LEE someplace.

Spolar ? My, we have moved up in the world. That's a long way from burning holes in the floor !


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zY_153nFac

[Wobbly]

Here's a video my son and I did. At the time there were no videos on the P-W 375 anywhere. In fact, this video was used on the P-W web page for several months until they finally made their own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLMWkeXVO5Y


If you look in the background about 2:15 into the video you can see my Dillon 550.

Fun stuff this shotshell reloading. 

[ReloaderFred]

I can't count the rounds of shotgun ammunition I've loaded over the years.  For some reason, it's the one loaded round I don't keep a record of, and that's probably because it's a love/hate relationship.  We go through many thousands of rounds of a special load for shooting steel targets, and a like load in factory ammunition is the Winchester AA Lite, which is expensive.

I do my loading with a MEC 9000GE, which is run by an electric motor.  You put the hull on the carrier, add a wad and push the two buttons at the same time and a loaded round is ejected out the back.  Simple, right?  Except for when the hull wobbles, and the decapping rod goes through the side of the hull, or the wad fingers catch the side of the hull and collapse it.  That causes shot to go everywhere.  Oh, and sometimes the new primer doesn't land correctly and gets mashed when seating, or lands upside down, both of which cause powder to spill and mess up the whole procedure. 

Whenever something goes wrong, be sure to check all the stations to make sure what was supposed to happen at each one actually happened.  Bloopers are embarrassing........

No matter how careful you are when loading shotgun shells, shot and powder are going to eventually end up where you don't want them.  It's a rule.  I mostly load #8 and 7 1/2 shot, and it's just the right size to get down into the carrier and cause problems.  Small forceps work well for picking them out of where your fingers can't reach...  I've yet to find a way to keep shot off the floor, too.  I didn't know lead shot was magnetic, and that concrete was a lead magnet.............

I dread loading shotgun shells, which reminds me that I've got to load more, since our stock is down to about 10 boxes, which won't last long.  I normally load in batches of 3,000 rounds, mainly because I consider it a chore, rather than a labor of love like reloading metallic cartridges, so once I start, I get enough done that I won't have to do it again for awhile. 

The other thing about shotgun loading is the amount of room the components take up.  Shotgun hulls are bulky, and a case of 5,000 wads takes up a lot of room.  Bags of shot are heavy, and getting more expensive all the time.  I got lucky and bought a ton of shot a couple of years ago for $23.00 a bag, and I've still got about 500 pounds of it left.  When that's gone, I don't know what I'll do, since I'm not about to pay what they want for shot in the retail outlets, which was $40 to $50 a bag the last time I looked.

Did I mention I don't really like loading shotgun shells?  In case I didn't say it, I DON'T LIKE LOADING SHOTGUN SHELLS!!

Hope this helps.

Fred

[M1A4ME]

My dad bought a Mec 600 Jr. back in 1972 when we lived in IL.  Over the years we killed squirrels, rabbits (cotton tails, jacks and snowshoes), sharptail grouse, ring necks, ducks (just ducks, I never did learn all the different types), quail (bob whites and scaled quail), turkeys, a few doves (not sure how you develop a taste for those), crows, a few bobcats, a few foxes, and even a few feral cats back in the mountains.

That 600 Jr. is still bolted to a bench in what was my grandpa's bedroom in the house they lived in up in the WV mountains.  You can open the window in the summer and hear the creek chuckling over/between the rocks as it carries water down to Meadow River, that dumps into the Gauley River, that dumps into the Kanawha River that dumps into the Ohio River that dumps into the Mississippi River that dumps into the Gulf of Mexico.

That water goes a long way after it used to help us get to sleep on warm summer nights.

Memories.  I'm lucky to have so many good ones.

[Earl Keese]

My dad bought a Mec 600 Jr. back in 1972 when we lived in IL.  Over the years we killed squirrels, rabbits (cotton tails, jacks and snowshoes), sharptail grouse, ring necks, ducks (just ducks, I never did learn all the different types), quail (bob whites and scaled quail), turkeys, a few doves (not sure how you develop a taste for those), crows, a few bobcats, a few foxes, and even a few feral cats back in the mountains.

That 600 Jr. is still bolted to a bench in what was my grandpa's bedroom in the house they lived in up in the WV mountains.  You can open the window in the summer and hear the creek chuckling over/between the rocks as it carries water down to Meadow River, that dumps into the Gauley River, that dumps into the Kanawha River that dumps into the Ohio River that dumps into the Mississippi River that dumps into the Gulf of Mexico.

That water goes a long way after it used to help us get to sleep on warm summer nights.

Memories.  I'm lucky to have so many good ones.

[copemech]

I think Fred is right, not for me!

[larryflew]

30 years ago i did 10 boxes a week for our trap team. Did that for 4 years and finally packed it all up and started buying shells. Should have done a little price checking b4 letting all my stuff go way too cheap.  Now have 4 loaders and none are for shotgun.

[M1A4ME]

Let me share some things dad figured out over the years.

When he started reloading he bought the "big" shot cups and was loading 1&1/4 to 1&1/2 oz. shot loads.  At some point, he went to lighter shot loads.  Not lighter powder loads, lighter shot loads.  The last few years, he was loading 1&1/8 oz. shot loads.  He'd found that the lighter loads moved faster and less lead was needed on those fast moving grouse or high flying turkeys (more on that in a minute).  There was a couple years there, when all four of us were getting in a lot of grouse hunting, that we killed over a 100 grouse a year hunting in the woods/strip mines around home.

Another thing he did was move away from #6 shot to #7&1/2's.  I don't remember the pellet count per oz. but it's a really big difference when you go to the smaller shot.  He killed everything with the 7&1/2's.  Squirrels, grouse, turkeys, foxes and bobcats.  I've seen him shoot/knock down turkeys at distances I'd never even shoot.  Just looked to be "too far" to me but that turkey would fall out of the sky when his M37 went off.

Ever "pass shoot" turkeys?  We did.  The dogs could sent turkeys 100's of yards up the side of the mountain from the old trail/strip mine/road we'd be hunting and they'd beeline up the side of the mountain.  You knew it was turkeys from the way they left and headed up hill.  We'd spread out with 50 to 75 yds. between us along the road/strip mine and wait.  At some point (pretty often) the dogs would force the turkeys off the ground and into the air.  Turkeys don't fly easy, so they'd beat there way through the tree limbs to the open sky and then turn downhill and spread their wings out to coast down the mountainside above the tree tops.  They'd be pretty high up when the came over the road and we shot (I never did hit one like that, even when I felt it was close enough to shoot at) and moving fast, too.  The ones that made it past dad and my brother would stay way up as they cross the creek/valley below us and coast part of the way up the opposite mountain side before looking for an open area in the trees to drop down through to the ground.  They'd be flapping their wings like crazy then, trying to clear the limbs on their way down.

Dad knocked down two turkeys at just over 85 yds. one day with a 16 ga. loaded with 7&1/2's (don't know what the shot load weight was on those).  He was squirrel hunting and the turkeys decided to cross the old road out in front of him.  He shot, ran up and got the turkeys, then paced back down the road to pick up his empty (yeah, two with one shot - they'd been crossing 1 and a time and he got ready for one to cross when two decided to make that crossing).

I agree, these days you can get the "field loads" cheaper than you can reload them.  I remember dad buying a few boxes and then telling me not to waste my money.  He said he got tired of having to shoot some squirrels twice and went back to hunting with his own reloads.

[painter]

I'm a clay shooter. A couple hundred rounds a week. I'd like to do some live bird hunting, but I don't have anyone to go with, and I don't have a dog.

Factory ammo can be had for $5 a box delivered to my door. It's plenty good for 5 stand, or trap, and it isn't worth cranking handles for that price...I'd lose.

As I said in my OP, I have an older gun that I don't want to modify that I want to shoot, and I can't afford $14/box plus shipping. I can swing the $7 ish that building my own costs, and I get to hang out in my shop. I might even load up some 6.5x55, some .223, or some 9mm while I'm out there.

I like all the stories. Keep'em coming.

[Wobbly]

If you want to save big money get some reclaimed shot and mix that with new stuff. If you're loading Remington hulls, then you can find recipes for using Winchester primers.