Trap loads using Longshot

[Thomasss]

Well, if primers weren't bad enough, I haven't seen much in the way for shotgun powder either.
A relative went to an indoor pistol range yesterday and found 8 pounds of Longshot and took it home.
He now wants to load it down for trap. I was on the Hodgdon website which only shows max .loads and average velocity near 1,400 fps and average 10,000 psi.
Between us we do have: Rem RXP or STS or Gun Club, AA and AA clone, Gold Medal and Hi-power and Gold Metal paper hulls available; primers available are Fed 209A or Winchester 209; wads are WAA12, Fed 12S3, Windjammers, both Claybuster and Downrange and 12WAA Super light..

Any suggestions?

 

[Random 8]

In short, no. I highly doubt you will have success downloading LS. I've tried it with super handicap which is a very similar powder. I got very erratic results with listed loads on the bottom end of the pressure curve. Unless my crimp was perfect, I got some that were noticeably soft in report and recoil. Wish I had better news.

A fellow shooter was in the same boat as you. He had LS for field loads and annie oakley. Ended up shooting shoulder biters the rest of the season.

Keep an eye on Recob. They have recently had Green Dot, Clays and one of the Win WST. They offer reduced HAZ shipping to WI and other midwest states via SpeeDee.

 

[Howa 9700]

I tend to agree. I recently picked up a pound of Longshot, but it is intended for some heavier high velocity test loads. A year ago, I was doing the same thing with rifle powders. Grabbing anything available that might work.

Having said that, there is some odd stuff going on around these parts. As noted, I live close enough to both Midway and Grafs to order powder with no haz mat and no shipping. About 60 days ago, decided to refresh stash of shotgun powder. Since then, have snagged small canisters of Red Dot, Green Dot, Clays, Titewad, Nitro100nf, Ramshot Competition, Longshot and HS6. For the past month, Graf's retail store has had Titewad and in abundance. A week or so back, an 8 pounder. Have also seen an 8 pounder there of Tightgroup. Not once have I seen the rifle powders I'm using. Varget. 4350 or 4831. OTOH, full circle reloading in St. Charles recently got a shipment of those exact rifle powders, but not a pound of shotgun powders in the place.

Keep looking. What you want will turn up.

 

[Random 8]

@Howa 9700. Mostly the opposite here. No varget, but all the H and IMR rifle numbers have shown up. Some dedicated handgun powders. HP 38 or 231 keep showing up. The only shotgun powder I've seen in the wild was the 1# can of longshot I snagged for some dedicated heavy upland loads. Thankfully I got the last rat off the ship in 2020 with 8lb of Red Dot and 8lb of promo. Lots of trap shooting the last 2 summers, I'm into the promo now after having to subsidize my teams ammo a bit the end of last year.

 

[kalielkslayer]

I don’t know anything about longshot! My shotgun reloading days go back to W540 and W571.

That was old lead waterfowl loads, heavy payloads.

Now my go-to load is the MEC #32 bushing with HS6 and 1 1/4oz #6 shot for chukar.

I was using HS6 for 9mm. But I only have 5 lbs left so I got off of that powder, saving it for shotgun.

Is Longshot in the same ballpark???

I haven’t loaded upland shotgun for over 10 years. But now is the time since I can’t find factory.

Truth be told, I used to load the #34 bushing with W540 and lead #4s, awesome waterfowl load. It would break an 1100 in about 3 shots. But our Browning B-80 ran fine on that load!

PS: I have a few lbs of Hi Skor #700 I used to use for sporting clays. But I deemed it dirty.

 

[Random 8]

Yes, Longshot will cover the classic 3 3/4-1 1/4 lead waterfowl/pheasant load. With some components, you can get it faster. I used to use H-6, and have since switched to LS for this application. It also makes lightning lethal ultra fast 1 1/8oz loads, and will work with the heavier than 1 1/4 oz loads. If you find some pick it up. I really like it for heavy shotgun loads. It also works very well (I'm told) for heavy 9mm and medium .357 loads, but I still have HS-6 to use up there. If it does well in the handguns, I will be phasing HS-6 out of my lineup.

 

[Thomasss]

In short, no. I highly doubt you will have success downloading LS. I've tried it with super handicap which is a very similar powder. I got very erratic results with listed loads on the bottom end of the pressure curve. Unless my crimp was perfect, I got some that were noticeably soft in report and recoil. Wish I had better news.

Any chance you can remember what the recommended load was and how far down you tried to reduce the charge?

 

[IMtheNRA]

He won't have any luck with light LS loads. I tried it last month when my 700x ran out. Even low end of the published data was really unpleasant with my heavy Rem 1100.

 

[Random 8]

Any chance you can remember what the recommended load was and how far down you tried to reduce the charge?

This was oranges and tangerines. I was working with super-handicap in the last shortage, which I've been told is in the same "family" as longshot, albeit a bit faster burn range. They are both geared towards producing maximum velocities in 12ga while keeping the pressure under control. I was using the lowest listed loads for 1 oz in Fed GM hulls per Hodgdon data. When everything worked perfectly AND temperatures were above 60F all went well. At colder temps or with weaker crimps I would get erratic ballistics. This powder fared slightly better with 1 1/8 oz loads, but I was still happy to be finished with it! Heavy 1200 and faster 1 1/8 oz loads performed very well.