New 12ga MP Mold

[Ruger007]

I have the Lyman mold. Shot a pile of these through my old Mossberg pump. Gone to the Savage 212 now. Still shoot pretty good.
AA hulls, Blue Dot 44.0 Win 209 WAA12R book says 1474fps. But the Savage seems to be around 1550 over the labradar.

Can be a bit hard on the shoulder.

 

[wharforb]

Why not switch to the Winchester yellow wad and skip the spacer wad?

I have been loading Lee 7/8 & 1 ounce slugs for a couple of years. I only cast pure lead for these. My best results have been with 25 grains of Unique, Federal Gold Medal hull, Cheditte primer, Federal 12S0 (1 ounce) wad with the 7/8 once slug and Federal pink (1 1/8 ounce) wad with the 1 ounce slug. Load data provided for comparison purposes only. Fairly soft in comparison to factory loads!
Very good groups at 25 yards, approximately 3 to 4 inches at 50 and double that at 100. The 1 ounce slugs performed a bit better.
I would really like to start casting 20 gauge slugs .... Anyone know where to get a mould?

"The reason I ask is that when the slug is 1/4" to 1/2" away from the top of the shell the fold crimp doesn't crimp properly. doesn't create that little lip/wall around the rim of the shell."

that's why you may need fiber filler discs to bring the wad columb up to the desired height.

 

[smokeeter]

Just using what I've got. I have a load of red wads. I do have some of the yellow wads but never spend enough time with them yet.
Any of the old AA components are hard to come by these days.

 

[f55]

I got the recipe from Lyman reloading manual. It does say to do 23 grains of unique but I’m a weakling for full power so I purposely did a lighter load. I still need to do a work up. I’m so new to reloading for shotgun I almost need a mentor lmao.

I load my MP slugs with 22gr unique for the mini 1 3/4", 26gr for the 2" & 2 3/4", mine weight from 500 to 510gr

The 26gr kicks hard, the 22gr mini are easy on the shoulder. I have shot 100's through 590A1, fabarm STF12 (11" Barrel), 590s, 870 and single shot.

 

[Helka]

I load my MP slugs with 22gr unique for the mini 1 3/4", 26gr for the 2" & 2 3/4", mine weight from 500 to 510gr

The 26gr kicks hard, the 22gr mini are easy on the shoulder. I have shot 100's through 590A1, fabarm STF12 (11" Barrel), 590s, 870 and single shot.


View attachment 649019

Is there an accuracy difference in cutting shells down? Pro's and Con's in doing so?

 

[f55]

I only use 1 3/4 because i have a mossberg 590s which allows for proper function with shorter shells, accuracy no difference.

in my mossberg i can get 5 2 3/4 and with the 1 3/4 its 9, also the mini shells mean less powder and less recoil.

 

[theshootist]

I've got a pile of Win AA hulls, Lee & Lyman molds but could never get around to becoming successful with finding the other components required to complete a reloading recipe for using a roll crimp.
The roll crimp seems to me to be advantageous in that you can adjust the height of your crimp easily, when compared to the set height of the fold crimp off a press.
Would be great to learn more about what others are doing with roll crimped shot shells. I understand roll crimps can deliver higher velocities over fold crimps too.

 

[f55]

I've got a pile of Win AA hulls, Lee & Lyman molds but could never get around to becoming successful with finding the other components required to complete a reloading recipe for using a roll crimp.
The roll crimp seems to me to be advantageous in that you can adjust the height of your crimp easily, when compared to the set height of the fold crimp off a press.
Would be great to learn more about what others are doing with roll crimped shot shells. I understand roll crimps can deliver higher velocities over fold crimps too.

How successful a roll crimp depends on a number of hull factors for me anyhow, this is just for informational purposes only.

1. New hulls, i use the lyman 5th edition data for reloading slugs, so i use win AA HS (or equiv) , WINAA12F114 and 2 x 20g nitro cards, this gives me a nice roll crimp

2. Hulls that have previous fold crimp, i cut the hull to approx 2.25 otherwise your rolling the fold crimp it looks crap as show below, i use either a red winaa12r wad or i cut the the yellow waa12f114 (also used win pink,white and grey) as below. Same load data

3. As stated this is what i do, i know people are get all worked up about sub wads, but this is what i do and i have had no problems with my shotguns.

 

[Helka]

Thanks for all the great info!!

 

[theshootist]

Yes thank you F55 for putting that info together and posting it. It is appreciated.

 

[Helka]

Just an update. I finally got around to hitting the range after filling the bottom of the bullet with wax. Here is a before(hollow base) and after (filled base) this is only at 25 yards with iron sights

 

[vagrantviking]

Pretty clear distinction between those loads! Impressive.

 

[Helka]

I’m definitely impressed.