I am wanting to get into more playing with slug and buckshot reloading. Whats some good reloading manuals with good data in it? I have the Lyman shotshell manual here #5 but it seems to me that the lyman #2 manual had good data for older casings listed in it. An like a fool, many years ago when I sold off my shotshell reloading equipment i let the manual go with it. Might have to post a WTB add and see if anyone has a copy they want to part with as I have a ton of old hulls sitting here.Also I am specifically looking for reload data using 000 buckshot as the new manual I have only lists 00 buck in it. Any help would be appreciated.
Good books on reloading slugs and buckshot question.
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BattleRife
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I have the Lyman #2 here at my desk and it has only 1 load in it for 12ga, 2-3/4in. 000 buck:
AA Hull / Alcan 220 primer / Alcan PGS base wad + 2 x .135in. card wads / 33.5grs SR4756 / 8 pellets
In terms of hulls, in the buck & slugs section they have data for Win AA, Remington SP Plastic, and Federal Hi-Power plastic.
I would have to dislike you pretty bad to sell you this copy. It came with some other books in an online auction win, and the previous owner tagged it heavily with post-it notes and handwriting. More importantly, every page positively REEKS of stale tobacco smoke. If I flip through the pages for more than a few minutes I can literally feel my finger tips start to tingle from the nicotine. I don't let it touch my other books, and I will trash it as soon as I find another copy at a reasonable price.
AA Hull / Alcan 220 primer / Alcan PGS base wad + 2 x .135in. card wads / 33.5grs SR4756 / 8 pellets
In terms of hulls, in the buck & slugs section they have data for Win AA, Remington SP Plastic, and Federal Hi-Power plastic.
I would have to dislike you pretty bad to sell you this copy. It came with some other books in an online auction win, and the previous owner tagged it heavily with post-it notes and handwriting. More importantly, every page positively REEKS of stale tobacco smoke. If I flip through the pages for more than a few minutes I can literally feel my finger tips start to tingle from the nicotine. I don't let it touch my other books, and I will trash it as soon as I find another copy at a reasonable price.
Here's a couple that may scratch your itch ! Check with Wil and Donna Bilozir (https://bilozir.net/) they usually carry all / most BPI products.
Interesting, only 1 load with 000 buck.I love the stuff on plinking targets. Does that book have listing for say 11/8 ounce trap or hunting loads using the old Imperial hulls? I have probably over 5k old hulls here that run from remington, winchester, federal,Imperial, remember the hulls that were used for "sportster? 12 gauge shells from CO-OP stores plus a few others. I even ended up with over 2500 hulls that are brand new and I believe they were sold as the "active" brand. Complete plastic hull with a small metal ring around the base to aid in extraction and ejection. I have a few "eclipse" hulls here also. Used to load them puppies up for plinking shooting.
Thanks. I did check out their website but it doesnt look like they ship, I may be wrong though. I could always shoot them a e-mail.
YUP, they do ship. Least they always did in the past. Ordered BPI products from them quite a few times.
Sporteque in QC also carries some BPI products...fair amount actually. Also a great spot to get Ponsness & Warren reloader parts here in Canada (when available)
Sporteque in QC also carries some BPI products...fair amount actually. Also a great spot to get Ponsness & Warren reloader parts here in Canada (when available)
I load 12, 00 buck in a hull with powder for a 1 1/8 oz 12 gauge trap load, and cut off the petals. I've shot hundreds, may be thousands of those shooting beavers and various other varmints. Coyotes, possum, raccoon, any thing else I want a guaranteed one shot kill. Prevents any learning curve.
I use my own home cast 00 buck from the Lee buck shot molds.
I used to use 000 buck 23/4 inch loads for varmints back when a person could easily find it and it was cheap.Are you using a filler or just layering them? i am going to get a lee mold as I already do lots of casting,are you using pure lead or W/W? I still have about 300 lbs of pure lead sitting here to use up.
I'll use what ever I have most of or most handy. Pure lead is a little soft, but I stack them 3 in a layer in a trap shell with a trap load of powder and then crimp the hull on top with my Lee Loadall. I've poured up a few gallons of #4 buck as well but I've never loaded any of those yet.
Have you loaded any slugs yet? I've loaded some of the Lee slugs and a Lyman sabot slug but I wasn't satisfied with the accuracy from either one. About that time they decided we could use rifles for deer and quit working on that.
What are you using to work your lead? I use a rocket stove I built and a dutch oven pot for smelting scrap and wheel weights.
Took this pic after a little fluxing with candle wax. I use pine needles a lot but they aren't as dramatic.
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I load and cast 12 buckshot and slug , you can source components but you will need to shop around a bit . Ballistic products have a buckshot and slug book that you can find here just have to search around , you can also search google for load of the week on the ballistic products website and look through there archive . On YouTube buba round tree outdoors loads plenty of buckshot and gives his loads
For casting I use a RCBS promelt. I did up a load using a Lee 1 oz. slug but only tried them at 25 yds. as I just intended to use them for when I was in thick bush hunting whitetail. All 3 shots were touching at that range so good enough for its intended purpose.I picked up a 80 thousand BTU propane burner, stainless pot and spoon and made a dipper out of muffler pipe for when I melt down the last of my wheelweights which is 6 five gallon pails which has been sorted already and is all lead. But I have somewhere around 600 pounds already melted into cup cake size bars which weigh about 2 pounds each. So I am in no big panic to get that little task done yet.
I was thinking about taking the pure lead and melting into it about 25% or so WW material to harden it up a little.Not sure if that would be a good move or not.
I wouldn't mix the ingots just so you have the option to use pure lead if you want it. I've got a Lee electric pot I'll use when pouring bullets and just throw 1/2 to a full pound of WW ingot in there it I want it hard for pistol or rifle bullets. I drop them ALL in to a five gallon bucket of water to quench.
I used the cup cake pans for ingot mold for a LONG LONG time. A set of real ingot molds are just a whole lot easier that cake tins or welding up home made ones. If I were starting out now, I'd just buy some and use 'em for 50 years.
You can use a set of art pencils to test for hardness if you need to. I only started doing that a few years ago.
All the slugs I made at home would have been good enough for 25 yards but I could hit pop cans with the Winchester slugs past 100 yards. I wanted to at least match factory slugs.
the shotgun scientists on you tube also do a lot of buckshot reloading and show how to make the shell and components used
I have the Ballistic Products buckshot manual and it uses all of their wads rather then the more common clay buster wads plus some of the data shown seems a bit sketchy as far as powder amounts used
I have read on different forums that some of BPs data was found to be severely overpressured so use their data at your own risk
I have the Ballistic Products buckshot manual and it uses all of their wads rather then the more common clay buster wads plus some of the data shown seems a bit sketchy as far as powder amounts used
I have read on different forums that some of BPs data was found to be severely overpressured so use their data at your own risk
Check Ebay and online used book sellers for old manuals. Used Lyman #2 is available.
Abe Books is a good used book seller.
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BattleRife
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Lyman #2 has lots of data for target loads in the CIL Canuck hulls. And a few field loads in Imperial high-brass paper hulls.
I certainly remember the Activ composite hulls, though I think of those as an 80s invention. I believe there is data in the Lyman #4 for those.
