Help the newbie with clay ammo choice!

[marcodo]

A friend gave me one of his older Winchester semi-auto shotgun (sorry I just don't remember which one and it was left up at my camp) Its a 12 gauge. He also loaned me his clay thrower. He brought the first batch of ammo (remington 12 g 2 3/4" 3 dram #8) Now its my turn to by some ammo. Those numbers are greek to me. I'm looking for the least expensive shells so that we can play in the backyard. No competition.

Other than the 12 gauge and the 2 3/4" part, I'm lost.

Please help!

 

[homers]

For clay pigeons, go to walmart and buy a 4 pack (of 25 shells each, ie 100 total) of any 7 1/2 or 8 shot. Should be about $20-$22 bucks. Have fun!

 

[tcrocker]

Remington 12g= the calber
2 3/4 = the shell length
3 drams= the powder charge
#8=the shot size

 

[marcodo]

Thanks guys!

Other than the obvious...

whats the practical difference between the 7 1/2 and the 8.
What about the load 7/8 vs 1 oz vs 1 1/2 oz shot?

BTW just picked up 2 value packs of the 7 1/2 and 2 of the 8. $21+ at Walmart each. I think they were the 3 dram and 1 1/2 oz...let the fun begin!

 

[mswestfall]

#8's (.09") are slightly smaller than 7 1/2's (.095").

If you are shooting under 40 yards I personally recommend #8's. I shoot one ounce of #8 till I get to the 25 yard line in Trap. Then I switch to 7 1/2's.

If the thrower is next to you (rather than 16 yards in front, like in Trap) you can easily shoot #8's or #9's. The bird won't get more than 30 yards from you before you shoot.

I probably bought 3 dram, 1 ounce loads or 3 1/4 dram 1 1/8 ounce loads. Either will do fine. You really don't need the "larger loads for clays".

You do need to give a range report after you shoot.

Good luck, shoot often and have fun.

 

[yukon454]

Drams!


Drams is an archaic method to inform one of the black powder equivalent relative to velocity! Use to be the powder charge. Sorta...
Industry definition:
"The accepted method of correlating relative velocity of shotshells loaded with smokless propellant to shotshells loaded with black powder."
A good discussion is in the Lyman 4th Edition, (there's a 5th out now), with full page of Dram tables to delight those enthused by moot points.

Interestingly, it, the 'dram code', was developed some time after smokeless had replaced black altogether.
Basically it changes with each shot charge and gauge. EG, a 3 dram in 12 ga., (aprx 1,200 fps with a 1 1/8 of shot), is 1,220 in 16 gauge, is 1,230 in 20 gauge; 2 3/4 dram eq. in 12, again 1 1/8, 1,145, 16 1,185, 20 1,175. Hmmmm, see a pattern developing? Yeah, it was a blatent pun.



3 DRAMS of smokeless....not so good!

 

[RP88]

For clay pigeons, go to walmart and buy a 4 pack (of 25 shells each, ie 100 total) of any 7 1/2 or 8 shot. Should be about $20-$22 bucks. Have fun!

$22.01 after tax (at least at my Wal-mart)

seems perfect for clay and skeet, along with going for a trip to hit paper silhouettes at the range for HDef practice.

 

[TX1911fan]

Do not buy the cheap Winchester ammo in the white box from Walmart. They are known to have problems in many semi autos. I'd get cheap Federal or Remington, but not the Winchester. If you get the Super X in the silver box, or AA in the black box, you are ok, but they are not as cheap.