Light shot gun loads?

[Luke H]

Hi Everybody,

I am going to have a go at reloading my own 12g shells for SAS shoots...

I have done a bit of loading and development for rifles and a little for pistol, but I havent tried loading SG cartridges, nor have I worked down a load like this...

All the load data I can find is for 30" barrels using a specific primer (I havent been to the LGS for primers and powder yet) and I was wondering the issues surrounding the 20" barrels on my coach gun...

I was looking at using No. 7 shot but backing off the ammount used, and also a lighter powder charge with a cooler burning primer... The idea is to reduce recoil as much as possible, but still knock down steel targets at around 10m...

Any help/suggestions at this point would be awesome...

Thanks

[Shooter]

Why bother reloading? With the price of sporting loads running aroud the $75-$90 for a 250 round case of 7.5 shot 28Gram loads it wouldn't be worth your while. The 28gram loads dont kick that much.

[Happy jack]

Post Number 1 - trumpet roll please !!! That is good advice from shooter . It starts to become more viable when you make your own solid slugs and mould your own buck shot but no 7 ammo is as cheap as you can reload . Buy the clay target sizes in baulk and keep the hulls to reload into slugs and buckshot , SSG and AAA size is good.
Lyman made a good slug mould .

[Luke H]

Price of reloading isnt a problem... I only use about 20 rounds a month and a couple people in the club drop their own lead shot, so the price isnt any different to buying a brick in the end...

With loading for Single Action Shooting price isnt the real issue... Recoil and time is... Its different to clay shooting in your shooting a static target at close range... The desire is to just knock the targets down as fast as possible reload and do it again till they all lay flat... 4 rounds in less than 10 seconds is achievable with full loads, but with lighter loads it can be done faster...

I was just asking if there was anyone on here in the know about reloading for SAS...

NO 7 shot is a basic clay target size . You can use it for lots of things.
Loading shotgun ammo with small shot is basically the same for any purpose you adjust the load as you need . You have to ballace the volume of the powder load with the height of the shot in the wad so the crimp is in the right place.
If the shot level is too low the crimp will fall inwards. If it's over full it will not close properly and you may end up using too much pressure and crushing the shot column and bulging the case .
Winchester did make a 1 oz shot wad . with suitable powder , primer and 1 oz of 7 shot it should all work out to a neat star crimp.
If you can't find a 1 oz wad then playing around with a 1 1/8 oz wad with card spacers could do the same job .

[Comanche]

Just use the adi cowboy data they are reduced loads, as50 is what I used to use. I used to download the shotgun loads when I was 12-15yrs old when the normal loads knocked me around to much but now the standard win aa trap loads are perfect as they'll still knock down the heavy targets, low recoil and are still cheaper than reloading. At our club we have heavier targets to combat the gamers with light loads but that's just us :P

[TwoFourThree]

About the lightest load you could load in a 12G is 3/4 oz (21grams) of shot. Just use any 24gram (7/8 oz) load data. AS30N powder would be best. You can even reduce the powder charge as well. Any size shot will work for your purposes. 24 gram wads would be best but you will need to put a wad (card disc) over the shot to maintain a good crimp.
I have used such loads for clay target practice and they will readily break clays at reasonable ranges so should not be a problem for your purposes. Recoil is non-existent with such light loads.