3" #4 buck loading advice

Deathrawt said:
For a 2-3/4 inch shell I’ve used 27 or 28 grains of longshot
If you have blue dot it is a good powder too
The clay buster waa12r red wad is the wad to use as it allows for more payload capacity
Remington made some wads that were great for heavy buckshot loads but they are hard to find as they don’t make them anymore
Bubba Roundtree and the shotgun scientists have u tube vids on making buckshot shells, you could watch a few and get some ideas, I don’t think their loads are published data though so keep that in mind
Also hogdon has buckshot load data on their website and I believe Alliant does too
A good 000 buck load I make is
Rem sts/nitro27 hull
Ched or win 209 primer
27 or 28 grains long shot
Cb 1138-12 wad (waa12r)
8 pellets 000 buck stacked in 2s
Bit of buffer and overshot card on top
Fold crimp
With my semi auto 12gauge turkish shotgun and a mod choke it patterns around 4-5 inches at 40 yar
Mr Bill said:
Consider playing with buffers, flour, corn meal, granulated polyethylene etc. etc…
Reduce powder charge, remove a few pellets from the payload and see your patterns tighten up at distance dramatically. Many commercial buckshot loads punk out at 30 yards but Federal Premium copper plated buffered loads deliver killing patterns at 60 yards out of a good barrel/choke combination. Federals should be your benchmark to achieve and exceed using buffer, larger pellets and not trying to push them much over 1250 ft/sec.
Click to expand...
most commercial buckshot loads are just a gas seal and buckshot no wad cup , the federal filter control are in a league of there own
Click to expand...
 
My press is a mec grabber and it’s set to use Remington shells
It will load AA shells too but I don’t like constantly adjusting the press
You can also weigh your buckshot pellets and then use the data for normal shot loads for the same weight
Your velocities will be less then optimal but it still works
You don’t need to overthink things too much years ago there was no pressure testing when it came to reloading shot shells
Most old loads/data were much hotter then what is today and guns didn’t blow up back then
Load data these days is actually under loaded to comply with lawyers and legal crap, same with metallic cartridges
A Remington 870 shotgun was tested and it took more then 30k pressure before it was damaged
You would really have to screw up a load before you even came close to that
Squib loads and barrel obstructions have destroyed more shotguns then an over pressure load
 
#4 buckshot in 12ga is normally loaded without a cushioned wad but with a gas seal. (There are exceptions)

Most commercial 3” #4 loads are 41 pellet …. and they are only loaded with a gas seal and nitro cards.

#4 buckshot stacks in a 12ga hull in groups/rows of 7.

  • 1 Row = 7
  • 2 Rows = 14
  • 3 Rows = 21
  • 4 Rows = 28
  • 5 Rows = 35 (34) (The middle pellet of the last row gets removed)
  • 6 Rows = 42 (41) (The middle pellet of the last row gets removed)

Have a look in the Ballistics Products Buckshot Manual …. You should be able to find a load that you can use as a reference.

https://kalypso.net/temp/other/BPI_Buckshot_Manual_combined_lowres.pdf

Here is a picture of how #4 buckshot loads are loaded.

BB_and_4-Buck_Loads.jpg



For illustration purposes .... here is a 12ga buck and ball load with 3 rows of #4 buckshot .... i.e 21 pellets of #4 buckshot .... and a 54 caliber round ball on top.

Buck_and_Ball_Load_No4Buck_21Pellets_54calBall_lowres.jpg
 
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