Best Powder for Clay Shooting

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Wis-Harpo

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Years ago I was a sub for a Trap team. I shot Red Dot in a Rem 870. I still have the 870, but shoot Sporting with an older 1100. Red dot was dirty, and the 870 being a pump did not have to be cleaned as much as I feel the 1100 would now with Red Dot. So with all of the new powders for shotguns, which is clean burning in gas auto's ?

I have about 300 old style Win AA's, and new Rem STS and Gun Club empties.I am on the reloading site, but pistol and rifle reloading is discussed, and shotgun not so much. So here is the question, and not in the reloading forum.
 
Red Dot, 700X, Green Dot, Unique, Clays, Titewad. It doesn't matter. All leave residue. Dirty is a product of shooting. Get over it. Clean now and then. My 1100 has gone way more than 500 rounds with only a wipe down.
 
I am using American select right now, only thing I had available at the time, everything else was out. Clays, Clay Dot, Titewad, all good powders, Titewad seems a bit dirtier though. I am kinda liking my American Select, seems cleaner than Clays that I ran before, runs my light 7/8oz loads through my 11-87 without a hiccup.
 
Try shotgunworld.com. There is a dedicated and very active sub-forum for reloading.
 
I preferred 700x and 800-x, particularly in autos, but I sent a lot of 71/2's and 8's at clay with Red Dot, too. There are lots of new powders since I quit reloading shotgun almost 30 years ago.
 
I still run Red Dot for 12ga and Unique for 20ga. They work well, and neither is dirty enough to make me care enough to switch.
 
I don't load standard 1-1/8 oz loads since its usually cheaper to buy them, but I do load lots of 7/8 and 1 oz somewhat reduced loads that are a little easier on the shoulder and I've only used red dot or clays. Clays does seem to burn cleaner than red dot. I haven't tried the new Canada-produced Clays, only the Australia-sourced stuff.

Matt
 
I only asked about powder, because I have 2 bags of 7 1/2 shot, 2 bags of 8 shot, and 1 bag of 9 shot that I got at the Radiological Lab I worked at when it closed in 1996. I have several full bags and part bags of 7 1/2 and 8 shot that I have had from when I reloaded in the 90's. The shot was used in a double walled radiation containment vessel. and was never used. One of the managers asked if I wanted the shot in the double walled unit, and he could net remember if they used 16 or 18 bags to fill it. I assumed that it contained 7 1/2 , 8 and 9 shot, so I did not get it. I thought that separating the shot was too much work. We did have some stainless screened sieves, but they would not separate the 3 shot sizes good enough by the screen dimensions we had. Now hind site being 20/20 I should have taken the shot, and fired the mixes 8 and 9 shot, because one of the screens could have separated out the 7 1/2 shot. But shot was much cheaper then.

I looked at Cabels web site, and they list Clays powder in stock. So I may give that powder a try, because Red Dot is nowhere to be found in my area. A Local Gun Shop has Greed Dot on hand, so that too is a possible try.
 
Clay Dot is on sale at Wideners right now for I believe $109 a 8# keg. Good price. It is supposed to be very similar to Clays, and a bit cheaper.
 
Many years ago I was watching a few young ladies shooting skeet on the USA Shooting's range on Ft. Carson, CO. Their shooting was great and I only saw a very rare miss. After a couple of hours, one of them walked by me headed for her car. I asked her how often she cleaned her gun, and she said it was never necessary. She opened her fancy O/U and the action and barrels looked like she had just cleaned them. She was using a load with Clays. I've used Clays ever since then in my 12ga guns, with upland game loads.

Mike
 
I have never not needed to occasionally clean wad fouling from the barrels of my guns, even those guns that are back bored. I wonder how she managed to avoid that…
 
I've been using Red Dot, for well over 30 years in my Remington 1100, and before that I used PB, never had a problem, in fact I still have over 8#'s of the Red Dot, which states new and improved on the full can. BTW it is a great pistol/revolver powder also.
 
I see that IMR lists IMR Red and IMR Green powders as being available. They are listed as clean burning. Is that relative to the old Red Dot and Green Dot, or just plain clean burning? Has anyone loaded these 2 NEW powders yet. There are loads listed on the IMR reloading site, so that is not a problem.
 
a good friend died and his brother, a non shooter gave me his powder and in it was 24lbs of red dot and i have been useing it with no problems in a remington 1100 trap and a remington trap 1187 and 4 browning trap-skeet shotguns along with a few remington and winchester pump shotguns. i have E3 and clays when i use the red dot up. eastbank.
 
I have no idea how many pounds of Red Dot I burned before I switched to Green Dot, or how many pounds of that I burned before Clays became my favorite. The real difference is good for conversations; downrange, the birds break the same. Red Dot may be the dirtiest of the three, but I don't mind cleaning my 1100 from time to time. 700X looks like a good bet, but I'm too lazy to change my reloading setup. If I was starting from zero, I'd craft a load around whatever powder is generally cheapest.
 
Used Clays for 12ga until the factory in Australia burned to the ground several years back and went to Clay Dot, meters the same, velocity is the same, charge is the same and just as clean. I use WW Super Handicap for 20ga, and shoot them through a Franchi 720 Diamond (gas auto) I clean it about every 300 rounds and it really isn't too bad, but I'm addicted to the smell of Hoppes. I use Alliant 410 for .410 in a older 1100 (1970) clean it every 500 rounds, great powder. I use 3/4 oz 9's loads in 12ga and 20 for skeet. 7/8 oz of 8's in 12 & 20 for 5-stand.
 
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