7/8-oz 12-ga loads - You've convinced me, Dave

[Superreverb]

Nice shooting with you again today, Dave!! You and Doug have sold me on 7/8-oz loads. I've been shooting 1-1/8-oz. Figured I'd do that 'til I found my feet again, trap-wise. I used to shoot 1-oz handloads, and still have a couple of bags of wads in the cabinet down in the loading room. I believe they're the same ones you listed as using in my last question about 7/8-ouncers.

So - I did the math, broke out my scale, set it to 54.7 grains (which my calculator assisted, pee-pee poor math skills tell me is 1/8-oz) and started counting pellets into the scale dish. 48 pieces of my #8 hi-antimony shot equals 1/8-oz. Roughly 100 pieces less than 1-1/8, but only 50-ish less than the 1-ouncers I shot for years (even registered tgts...). I reckon that full choke 34" will handle it with aplomb (as long as I do my part....).

Now I must go call Hornady and get a bushing for my 366 that'll give me the right charge for 700-X.

I'm lovin' it!

Ed

 

[marklbucla]

7/8 oz. load makes a big difference in recoil when compared to the 1 oz. Glad you found one that works.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Glad we helped you, a couple things...

Pellet count in the shell is one thing, pellet count in the target is another. The minor loads like these have less pellets deformed and leaving the pattern. If you pattern 1 1/8 oz loads side by side with 7/8 oz loads the pellet counts will be lots closer than 100 pellets difference.

Most shot loads are under 50-60G of acceleration. 1/8 oz prior to launch turns into several lbs of weight. Squashed pellets do not fly well and veer off quickly.

With my loads, all the pellets are inside the wad. This means less pellets scrubbed out of round by the bore and choke area.

With the minor loads, hard shot is a big help. For warmer times, I like the West Coast 8.5s for everything short of the 25 yard line. Now I'm using hard 7.5s simply because someone gave me 50 lbs or so.

For those that weren't there, this started when Ed and I were watching The Other Doug smoke some Chinese Trap targets at 40 yards or better with his Model 12. Besides TOD, Al and Doug Kelly were also using 7/8 oz loads and busting them way out dere. I wasn't doing bad either.

TOD's 12 has about 40POC, a tight Full. I was using 28 POC. With pellet count down a bit, using a tad more choke to keep up density makes sense.

Hope this helps, if there's questions sing out...