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Yesterday, Logan, my 9 year old nephew expressed an interest in shotguns, specifically skeet and trap shooting, basically, he wants to try his hand at shooting my shotgun
Thing is, the smallest shotgun I have available for him is my H&R Topper Deluxe Classic 20 gauge, and the TDC can best be described as "overbuilt", it's an 8-9 pound shotgun, he had little trouble hefting it to his shoulder, but keeping it held there would be problematic, or as he said
"it's too heavy for me to hold up right now"
The solution is simple then....
I need to buy another shotgun, one that fits him and this afternoon, at KTP, I found a likely candidate, a used but in 98% condition H&R Topper 158 in 20 gauge, it's got a 28" Modified choke barrel, the false color case hardening looks brand new, and the pallet wood stocks have nice grain and character to them, all for $75, so, I put the gun on 7 day hold because KTP was absolutely packed today, I'll go back and get it midweek, can't go wrong with a nearly-new Topper for $75, heck, that's two weeks worth of gas with today's gas prices...
Anyway, to the point of this thread, I wanted to get Logan into shotgunning, but not intimidate him, so far he's only had experience with BB and pellet guns, neither have any recoil, so jumping right into a shotgun with full power trap/recreational loads, or even the Winchester WinLites may be a little much for him.....
I have a 20 gauge reloading press though, and that got me thinking, there has to be a way of loading up some low-power, quiet plinking/training rounds, I had read a while back about SM's "popcorn rounds" and it got me thinking, one problem I see with popcorn is the fact that they are not uniform in shape, oval, teardrop with a point at the end, but they are light weight, so minimal powder charge is neccesary
then I had a brainstorm...
Airsoft BB's! they're uniformly round, light weight, and designed to be used as projectiles, I went back to KTP, picked up some shotgun wad columns, and a small bottle of Crosman "heavyweight" (.20 gram) biodegradable airsoft BB's and some 209 primers
back at home, I grabbed some Winchester AA hulls out of my bin of fired shells and set up the reloader, I wanted to work up a load that had no recoil, and was quiet, hopefully quiet enough to not require hearing protection (even though Logan and I will be using hearing protection) I started with two loads;
1; primer only, no gunpowder, this one worked, sort of, the airsoft pellets left the barrel and hit the target 20 feet away with a wide pattern, the report was nearly silent, the click of the hammer and the thwack of the pellets hitting the target were louder than the report, the load threw a very wide pattern, but the wad column had stopped about half of the way down the barrel and had to be pushed out with a dowel
2; 3.5 grains of Unique, this one *almost* worked, it was only a little louder than the primer only load, the pattern once again was wide, and the wad column stopped 3/4 of the way down the barrel, once again being pushed out with a dowel
3; 6 grains of Unique, this one almost was a complete success, just a slightly louder "pop" upon firing, and this time the wad column stopped right at the choke tube, pulling the choke tube allowed me to easily push it out, clearly the choke tube restriction was too tight, oh well, back to KTP for a third time (thankfully I live a quick 5 minute drive away )
I picked up a used Improved Cylinder choke tube, came home and swapped out my Trulock Modified tube for the Winchester Imp. Cyl
I tried load #3 again, and this time the shot pattern tightened up dramatically, *AND*.....
The wad exited the barrel completely!
So, looks like I have a training round that works, the recipe is;
Winchester AA hull
Federal 209 primer
6 grains of Unique
Federal 20 gauge one piece wad column
Airsoft BB's (approx 20 BB's)
I'm going to try a couple different variants, maybe up the powder charge to 6.2 grains or so to insure the wad leaves the barrel, maybe try some Trail Boss powder instead as it's fluffy and will fill the gap between the wad piston and primer flash hole better
Now, Logan will have some training rounds to use with the Topper 152 when I get it home, the 152 is a bit lighter than the TDC, and with the training rounds I'm loading up, recoil will be a non issue
Personally, I'm not a fan of airsoft or airsofters, I think it sets a bad precedent for beginning shooters, using realistic looking firearm mimics to shoot at each other, it's willful breaking of Cooper's Four Rules and I find that troubling, it teaches airsofters (the younger kids mainly) that it's "okay" to shoot at other people because "it's just airsoft", but the ammo is useful for shotgun training shells
Thing is, the smallest shotgun I have available for him is my H&R Topper Deluxe Classic 20 gauge, and the TDC can best be described as "overbuilt", it's an 8-9 pound shotgun, he had little trouble hefting it to his shoulder, but keeping it held there would be problematic, or as he said
"it's too heavy for me to hold up right now"
The solution is simple then....
I need to buy another shotgun, one that fits him and this afternoon, at KTP, I found a likely candidate, a used but in 98% condition H&R Topper 158 in 20 gauge, it's got a 28" Modified choke barrel, the false color case hardening looks brand new, and the pallet wood stocks have nice grain and character to them, all for $75, so, I put the gun on 7 day hold because KTP was absolutely packed today, I'll go back and get it midweek, can't go wrong with a nearly-new Topper for $75, heck, that's two weeks worth of gas with today's gas prices...
Anyway, to the point of this thread, I wanted to get Logan into shotgunning, but not intimidate him, so far he's only had experience with BB and pellet guns, neither have any recoil, so jumping right into a shotgun with full power trap/recreational loads, or even the Winchester WinLites may be a little much for him.....
I have a 20 gauge reloading press though, and that got me thinking, there has to be a way of loading up some low-power, quiet plinking/training rounds, I had read a while back about SM's "popcorn rounds" and it got me thinking, one problem I see with popcorn is the fact that they are not uniform in shape, oval, teardrop with a point at the end, but they are light weight, so minimal powder charge is neccesary
then I had a brainstorm...
Airsoft BB's! they're uniformly round, light weight, and designed to be used as projectiles, I went back to KTP, picked up some shotgun wad columns, and a small bottle of Crosman "heavyweight" (.20 gram) biodegradable airsoft BB's and some 209 primers
back at home, I grabbed some Winchester AA hulls out of my bin of fired shells and set up the reloader, I wanted to work up a load that had no recoil, and was quiet, hopefully quiet enough to not require hearing protection (even though Logan and I will be using hearing protection) I started with two loads;
1; primer only, no gunpowder, this one worked, sort of, the airsoft pellets left the barrel and hit the target 20 feet away with a wide pattern, the report was nearly silent, the click of the hammer and the thwack of the pellets hitting the target were louder than the report, the load threw a very wide pattern, but the wad column had stopped about half of the way down the barrel and had to be pushed out with a dowel
2; 3.5 grains of Unique, this one *almost* worked, it was only a little louder than the primer only load, the pattern once again was wide, and the wad column stopped 3/4 of the way down the barrel, once again being pushed out with a dowel
3; 6 grains of Unique, this one almost was a complete success, just a slightly louder "pop" upon firing, and this time the wad column stopped right at the choke tube, pulling the choke tube allowed me to easily push it out, clearly the choke tube restriction was too tight, oh well, back to KTP for a third time (thankfully I live a quick 5 minute drive away )
I picked up a used Improved Cylinder choke tube, came home and swapped out my Trulock Modified tube for the Winchester Imp. Cyl
I tried load #3 again, and this time the shot pattern tightened up dramatically, *AND*.....
The wad exited the barrel completely!
So, looks like I have a training round that works, the recipe is;
Winchester AA hull
Federal 209 primer
6 grains of Unique
Federal 20 gauge one piece wad column
Airsoft BB's (approx 20 BB's)
I'm going to try a couple different variants, maybe up the powder charge to 6.2 grains or so to insure the wad leaves the barrel, maybe try some Trail Boss powder instead as it's fluffy and will fill the gap between the wad piston and primer flash hole better
Now, Logan will have some training rounds to use with the Topper 152 when I get it home, the 152 is a bit lighter than the TDC, and with the training rounds I'm loading up, recoil will be a non issue
Personally, I'm not a fan of airsoft or airsofters, I think it sets a bad precedent for beginning shooters, using realistic looking firearm mimics to shoot at each other, it's willful breaking of Cooper's Four Rules and I find that troubling, it teaches airsofters (the younger kids mainly) that it's "okay" to shoot at other people because "it's just airsoft", but the ammo is useful for shotgun training shells
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