Basic 1 oz clay load 12ga

[Daveweldz]

Just about have all the equipment to start reloading. Unfortunatly the costs have gone up so much I find myself looking to cut costs were I can.

I have held off buying componets so far. I need a basic 1oz target load at about 1200 fps. I plan on using once fired Remington STS hulls and 7 1/2 shot. Of course I find plenty of different loads that fit this bill but am wondering which might be the easiest on the wallet.
Two questions:

What is an economical powder that will be good for light to mid power loads? Its hard to sort this out with both the differences in grains thrown per powder bushing number and the grain equilvent from one powder to another.

Second is about wad/shotcups I realize the load recipe requires a given wad to reach the right height and there are other considerations. But the reloading tables I am looking at list just one wad number per load. Is there a cross reference somewere that a guy can use and feel confident that the load is safe?

 

[oneounceload]

my former one ounce load, (hence the screen name), was Clays powder and claybuster or windjammer wads. The clays load, IIRC, was about 17.3 or something like that - go with what the loading manual says

 

[Dave McCracken]

The Hodgdon site has lots of stuff on their powders.

I use Clays. Widely available, economical, flexible.

I can use up to about 18.5 grains with a 1 oz load using....

Remington STS hulls.

Winchester WAA12SL wad or the Claybuster clone.

Winchester 209 primers.

West Coast hard shot in 7 1/2s.

NOTE: I am using recycled shot for the moment.

Currently, I use 17.3 gr. This gives good results, but my loads are 7/8 oz, not an oz.

An extra 50 shots per bag is a bonus, but the lessened recoil is the big reason.

17.3 is a good starting place, I've gone down to 16.5 and up to 19 with 8.5 shot for skeet. Naturally,16.5 is cheaper.

This is right from the Hodgdon manual, so sue them not me.

HTH....

 

[mswestfall]

I too load Clays. A bunch of guys at my club have switched to Promo Powder. I believe it is about 70% of the price of Clays.

 

[Pete409]

With the 12 gauge Remington STS hulls or Winchester AA hulls, I like the following one ounce load:

Win 209 primer
17.0 grains Clays powder
Winchester WAA12SL wad (or the Claybuster clone)
1 ounce of shot (or slightly less)

This makes a good, effective target load whose recoil doesn't knock the fillings out of your teeth.

 

[sargenv]

Alliant Promo is about the cheapest out there.. Hodgdon Titewad is also good for light loads. You will likely pay less for these two in the long run over clays or 700x. Alliant Promo uses the same load data as Alliant Red dot (according to their web site).