12 guage reloading

[3macs1]

While I like premium cartridges, and have been shooting AA for about 45 years, lower Antimony shot will make no difference to scores in Skeet, or 16 yard Trap for 99% of shooters.

45 years or one year 45 times with that comment and I still have you by 11 years LOL
Just kidding you Fun shooting maybe one would not care but when you drop one or two targets and lose a competition or prize it is huge

Honestly shoot some paper with both and see where a target can get through and then tell me what you think. Has nothing to do with the shooter it is the potential hole(s) in the pattern. You think it is high antimony in STS and AA for giggles I have seen the difference many times
If it makes no difference why don't they make them all 2% and sell the shells cheaper. Lead is not lead
I have seen holes a duck would be missed in. Then again I have patterned my skeet and trap guns since the 60's when it wasn't the norm
I will stick to what I have seen not the internet plus I don't know if I can even buy 2% shot new for reloading
Hummasons extra hard is 6%
Cheers
Not my words

Not all lead is created equal. The more antimony that is mixed into the lead when it is refined, the harder the resulting shot will be. Hardness translates into resistance to deformation, and resistance to deformation means that the sudden shock to the lead when the powder ignites creates fewer oval shaped pellets. The problem with an oval shaped pellet is that it doesn’t fly straight – the odd shape causes it to veer to one side, resulting in a pattern that may have holes in it.

But antimony is expensive – it costs 2 to 8 times as much as lead, and the cheaper shells use less of it. (Antimony levels can go up to 6 %, but anything over ½ of 1 percent can legally be labeled “hard shot”. Don’t be fooled – find out what the actual percentage is.)

Another source of misses attributable to the quality of the lead relates to the uniformity of the pellets. Cheaper shells have more variation in the size of their shot. It is easy to see that this will affect the uniformity of the pattern as well as the length of the pattern – the smaller pellets take longer to get there. (This is one of the major drawbacks to using reclaimed shot – no effort is made to size the shot, so your lead can be a wide variety of sizes, which results in non-uniformity in the pattern.)

Patterning percentage is predictable, to a point. That is the foundation of Ed Lowry's work on the matter. 2% (or less) level antimony shot never patterns as efficiently as 5 - 6% level shot-- never, ever, assuming the same payload and velocity.

When someone says a "nice pattern," no one else could possibly know what that means. You hear it all the time "nice patterns, "good patterns," "really breaks the clays" patterns. There is no such thing. It is all based on pattern percentage. Unless you have an actual pattern percentage at 40 yards, no comparison is possible.

 

[saskbooknut]

High antimony shot increases pattern percentage in the central core, where it matters, particularly at longer range.
In 12 gauge Skeet, you get sure hit shot density in the central core of the pattern, even with softer shot.
If you can't place the centre of the pattern on the target, you are dependent on luck, and increased pellets of high performance shells in the core pattern, aren't going to help you.
Higher quality ammunition could add a bit to scores of higher performance shooters in .410 and 28 gauge Skeet because of lesser pellets, giving less pattern effectiveness.
In 16 yard Trap, promo loads with 2% antimony shot give very high hit certainty in the central core of the pattern, at 32 yards, where targets are often taken.
Handicap distances are where premium cartridges make the big differences, keeping more pellets in a thinner central core pattern, increasing hit certainty for the skilled shooter.
I don't believe that a low skill shooter could ever detect the advantages of premium cartridges, due to their aiming errors. Thus the old adage, "you can't chip your way to a perfect score."
Eyeball analysis of patterns will lead you astray.
You don't have anything unless you shoot 10 patterns and statistically analyze pattern performance.
It is boring tedious work, which is why so few do it.
Writers like Dr. A.C.Jones, John Brindle, and Neil Winston on Trapshooters.com have done the work, analyzed the data, and provided us with a much better understanding of how shotgun patterns work.

 

[3macs1]

High antimony shot increases pattern percentage in the central core, where it matters, particularly at longer range.
In 12 gauge Skeet, you get sure hit shot density in the central core of the pattern, even with softer shot.
If you can't place the centre of the pattern on the target, you are dependent on luck, and increased pellets of high performance shells in the core pattern, aren't going to help you.
Higher quality ammunition could add a bit to scores of higher performance shooters in .410 and 28 gauge Skeet because of lesser pellets, giving less pattern effectiveness.
In 16 yard Trap, promo loads with 2% antimony shot give very high hit certainty in the central core of the pattern, at 32 yards, where targets are often taken.
Handicap distances are where premium cartridges make the big differences, keeping more pellets in a thinner central core pattern, increasing hit certainty for the skilled shooter.
I don't believe that a low skill shooter could ever detect the advantages of premium cartridges, due to their aiming errors. Thus the old adage, "you can't chip your way to a perfect score."
Eyeball analysis of patterns will lead you astray.
You don't have anything unless you shoot 10 patterns and statistically analyze pattern performance.
It is boring tedious work, which is why so few do it.
Writers like Dr. A.C.Jones, John Brindle, and Neil Winston on Trapshooters.com have done the work, analyzed the data, and provided us with a much better understanding of how shotgun patterns work.

10 how about 10 times that at a paper session I am all about paper and patterns always was now more especially being a steel shot reloader since day one
Years ago when I shot like a robot it was all four gauges in skeet and when you drop a target or two and lose it makes a difference so hard shot was very important to me in my reloads. Never cared in trap since losTTTTTTTTTTT was very common there LOL
All I shoot now is for fun and 28ga and 410
Like I said don't think I could buy 2% if I wanted to but know 100% those promo shells and don't care what make they are sure don't pattern like a AA or STS plus I have over 90 bags of 6% in my stash to use up
Take care