Light loads for skeet/trap

Westward1 said:
Do you notice a difference in your scores between Top Guns and AA’s ?
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I'm not consistent enough to say yet - and most of my training, I don't even score. Lets just say the sample size is too small for statistical significance. (Maybe 4-5K per year)

I like the 7/8 oz 1200 fps Top Guns - the reason I use them for most of my shooting. I believe in the AA 1 oz Xtra-Lite @ 1180. One less thing to wonder about when I should be completely focused on the lead edge of the bird.

Rob!
 
Picked up a flat of Kent ELITE 3/4OZ @1200 FPS today. Really looking forward to trying them out.

By the way, someone a few post back suggested the only reason for lighter loads is recoil sensitivity. I respectfully disagree. Light loads generally pattern more evenly (less deformation getting a lighter load moving). More importantly is the endurance factor. You may be fine with 1 1/8 OZ loads for a few rounds of skeet - but shooting hundreds of birds a day, it becomes more about efficient use of your strength and consistency vs extra shot to pick up a bird you probably didn't deserve. Same thing goes for the gun. You'll be shooting better after 300 rounds with a 9 pound gun - than with a 6 pound gun.

I'm still favoring 1OZ at 1200 (ish) but am enjoying experimenting with lighter loads too. When I'm on, the load doesn't seem to matter much. When I'm off, the load doesn't seem to matter much.

Rob!
 
Rob! said:
Picked up a flat of Kent ELITE 3/4OZ @1200 FPS today. Really looking forward to trying them out.

By the way, someone a few post back suggested the only reason for lighter loads is recoil sensitivity. I respectfully disagree. Light loads generally pattern more evenly (less deformation getting a lighter load moving). More importantly is the endurance factor. You may be fine with 1 1/8 OZ loads for a few rounds of skeet - but shooting hundreds of birds a day, it becomes more about efficient use of your strength and consistency vs extra shot to pick up a bird you probably didn't deserve. Same thing goes for the gun. You'll be shooting better after 300 rounds with a 9 pound gun - than with a 6 pound gun.

I'm still favoring 1OZ at 1200 (ish) but am enjoying experimenting with lighter loads too. When I'm on, the load doesn't seem to matter much. When I'm off, the load doesn't seem to matter much.

Rob!
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And that is so true, if I am on at skeet, the 410 breaks targets just fine, if I have a bad day, it doesn't matter what I use. I like the 1 ounce loads for sporting clays and trap, because they pattern so evenly in my chokes. I do find though that they pattern a fair bit tighter than they are labeled . I just picked up another 8 flats of the Kent 1 ounce loads yesterday.
 
stubblejumper said:
I am shooting 1 ounce loads for trap and sporting clays these days, usual the Kent Velocity loads. I actually passed up six flats of AA Supersport loads at a swap meet a week ago for $60 per flat, because they were 1-1/8 loads. I may buy them after all at the fall swap meet, if he still has them.
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That's not a deal that I would pass up! I like the AA Supersport loads for long range shooting on sporting clays and turkey shoots, I don't find the recoil intolerable.
 
I use 3/4oz 12g loads all the time. Use the CB0175 (bright pink) wads in the AA hulls, federal 209A primer and normally 700x but sometimes promo. I load them up faster- it doesn't affect recoil too much and they burn cleaner. I'm loading 1250fps or above.

On the pattern board I find I need to choke up a step to keep the same density from a 1oz load- so yes, the margin of error is slightly less. It is still much smaller than my margin of error.

In my 8.5# target gun a 3/4oz load is very very light recoil. For skeet they work fine- if I miss with the 3/4 I would be missing with a 9/8 load too. I carry these with 1oz loads on sporting course- for the longer targets the 3/4 loads just don't have the density. There are too many "I thought I should have broken that one" moments so I just use 1oz for longer shots. It likely is still me missing but it makes me feel better to blame the shells.
 
If you consider.... 3/4 oz #9 is 434 pellets and 1 1/8 of 7 1/2 is 394....
Providing there is enough energy in the pellet to break the target, the 3/4 oz load should work just fine.
 
Update: Finally got around to trying the 3/4 OZ Kent Elite loads yesterday - about 150 rounds Sporting Clays. Meh! They break birds - much like the Aguila 5/8 oz Mini-shells do if I do my part. Kills are not as convincing but a chip is still a kill I guess. They are cool, but I don't see them as a regular item for me.
 
I love Canadian manufactured Score Bronze (1oz) for shooting trap from my old 870 pump :shotgun: feels softer shooting than all other 1oz loads I have tried. On the Prairie Shot website, there is a low-recoil (1,100 FPS) 12ga shell listed @ 1oz that I have not ever seen on shelves, but memory is telling me I have seen Score target in the 'international' 24 gram load (Prairie shot seems to have killed off their 1 1/16 oz Silver line, so maybe the 24gr was also a casualty).

Looking forward to trying out some of the Extra Light Challenger I managed to grab from the last of my local Cabellas' stock, but I do not want to fall in love with them as they have been discontinued as mentioned above by nitro-express :(
 
3/4oz at 1050ish is my skeet load. On windy days I can tell when I miss due to holes in the pattern. Or I think I can :).

On tourni days I move up to the Winchester promo white box stuff which is same velocity, 1 oz shot, and its like Ive got super powers.

C
 
I just picked up two flats of the Score 1100fps 1oz. loads to try. If your local score dealer doesn't have them regularly, just ask them to bring some in. I think they should be just the ticket for soft shooting.
 
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