Crow Busters Forum

My go to crow load is a 1.25 oz load of #7.5

I load Win AA hulls, Win 209 primer, Claybuster 1138-12 wad, and 37.5 gr of Blue Dot........somewhere around 1425 fps...........I can load them for around 7 dollars a box.....

It is a pretty high pressure load, but it patterns great, and I have had no trouble with it in any of my guns........it is fairly dirty though....

I tried loading some loads with Longshot, and I didn't particularly care for them....

-- Edited by Buckshot1822 on Thursday 21st of February 2013 03:23:50 AM

Blue Dot is great powder for 12ga 1 1/4 ounce loads at 1275 to 1330 fps. Never failed me in a NH winter. Since we are discussing payloads and velocity I thought the quotes from and article attached are good information.

"A look at the exterior ballistics of shot tells the tale: it is better to increase shot size than velocity for downrange wing shooting performance. Lyman's shows the drastic difference, for example #7-1/2 shot launched at a muzzle velocity of 1330 fps has only .9 ft. lbs. of energy left at 60 yards. Take #5 shot, launch it at just 1135 fps, and at the same 60 yards it retains in excess of 200% more terminal energy, 2.1 ft. lbs. Compared in a different way, 1200 fps #5 shot has more energy at 60 yards (2.2 ft. lbs.) than #7-1/2 has at 20 yards (2.1 ft. lbs.) launched at the identical velocity."

"Moderate, highly efficient (near optimum) loads are exemplified by the 3/4 ounce 28 gauge load, 7/8 ounce 20 gauge load, 1 ounce 16 gauge load and 1 1/8 ounce 12 gauge load. Often, adding more shot in any of these gauges does not make for longer killing range patterns, but looser "blown" patterns with less effective killing range."

"No way can so-called "back-bored" factory barrels compete with the pattern efficiency of a larger gauge. That gives a shorter shot column for a given payload well beyond what back-boring can possibly achieve."

"If there is a trend in what we are doing, it would be using more shot than we should and more choke constriction than we should, a trend that should be resisted. Instead, we should be focusing on quality high antimony (hard) shot, moderate (square) shot loads, and defining personal patterning performance in our own individual guns."

http://www.chuckhawks.com/squared_load.htm

 

-- Edited by nhcrowshooter on Thursday 21st of February 2013 07:20:15 PM

Coming around the club house turn it looks like blue dot is in the lead.

I've read a couple places blue dot is temperamental in the cold. Anyone notice a problems.

Mike

needmorebacon wrote:

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mike ive read that in a few different places, ive shot mine down to around 6* and i really cant see it being a problem. No "off" sounding shots or anything like that.

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I have never experienced a problem, and I have shot them all day long in 0 degree windchill temperatures.....

don't have the recipe in front of me, but AA hulls, win209 primers, rem wads & wsf powder (which they do sell in pound cans) Been shooting these for over 2 years & I'm pleased. Somewhere between 1150 & 1200 fps.

Doing some investigating, it seems like long shot is for really hot loads.

Win wsf is now developed by hodgdon, not that it is a bad thing.

Tracking any one of your powder choices locally is my biggest hurdle right now. Since I'm not looking to load cases of these shells, getting 1lb. or even 4 lbs. delivered is a deal breaker. The hazmat fees alone are $27.50 from most places, plus shipping.

More input is welcome.

Mike

Mallardsx2 wrote:

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I gave up bluedot years ago to switch to longshot. Never looked back and I dont pick powder out of my eyes anymore when shooting straight up. Damn bluedot...

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It's only a wee little bit that gets in your eyes......

Mike27 wrote:

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I never would have thought I opened up a can of pain in the a$$ trying to get my 1 1/4 components from one site.   Nobody has in stock or not even offered, wads, a charge bar, shot and powder that I need. I've stopped around and called and nobody has powder.

I'm not done trying. I will have my mighty 1 1/4. 

Mike

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I just bought an adjustable charge bar at Cabelas 2 weeks ago.  It is amazing. A couple  of buddies have had them for a few years so it came highly recommended.  It has an adjustable knob on each end, like a micrometer. It makes all of those separate charge bars and powder bushings obsolete. This one bar will do almost  any combination of shot load/powder amount possible. Even does steel shot and other non-toxic shot.  Cost me $44.99.

 

Here's the link;

http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=741155&productVariantId=1324348&WT.tsrc=CSE&WT.mc_id=GoogleProductAds&WT.z_mc_id1=29920000&rid=40&channel=GoogleBaseUSA&mr:trackingCode=665AE7CC-958E-DF11-A0C8-002219318F67&mr:referralID=NA&mr:adType=pla&mr:ad=19135903871&mr:keyword=&mr:match=&mr:filter=43607722991&gclid=CN7BiMPc47UCFdGd4AodgBwAXA

 

-- Edited by Mainehunt on Monday 4th of March 2013 06:25:28 PM

My new favorite is either alliant unique or herco for 1 1/4 oz. loads. Blue dot and longshot can be used, but seem more appropriate for heavier loads or if you want to drive 1 1/4 oz loads to hypervelocity.

I cannot find blue dot anywhere at this point...........people need to stop with this hoarding already......it is getting real old, real quick....

I thought about the universal charge bar, but the cost is the deterrent. A regular 1 1/4 oz. bar is all I really need. I already have a bunch of powder bushings. I might be heading to PA. the end of the week for a hunt, I'll see what is available for components, especially powder.

Mike

Mainehunt wrote:

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Mike27 wrote:

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I thought about the universal charge bar, but the cost is the deterrent. A regular 1 1/4 oz. bar is all I really need. I already have a bunch of powder bushings. I might be heading to PA. the end of the week for a hunt, I'll see what is available for components, especially powder.

Mike

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 What I have found with regular charge bars, is that when you use one, your shot weight will be different from one sized shot to another. For example, when I put the 1 1/8 ounce charge bar in, the #8 shot will weigh more than an ounce and an 1/8 and the #5 shot weighs less.  With the adjustbale bar, I can adjust it so no matter which shot size I use, (including steel shot, bizmuth, tungsten, etc..) I can be sure that it is actually the weight I want.

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Remember we are reloading for shotguns, close is truly good enough on both powder and shot, that is why standard bars and bushings only get you close.  Example; changing from chilled shot to magnum shot lightens the payload because antimony is less dense than lead.  Powder density can vary lot to lot.

Shotguns are loaded based on volume not weight, we are not expected to or looking for the precision required in metallic cartridge reloading where consistency to the 10th of a grain is needed for powder and projectile.

Don't overthink it, just use the recommended bar and bushing and go blast crows

-- Edited by nhcrowshooter on Wednesday 6th of March 2013 03:28:23 PM

Mainehunt wrote:

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Ted, Where do you live? I would buy that powder. Kev

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 Kev, I'm in Western Canada. Getting 8 pounds of powder across the 49 parallel would be an insermountable feat!

Ted

-- Edited by M12Shooter on Friday 8th of March 2013 12:22:20 AM

8fishermen wrote:

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 So what you are saying is #6 is close to #7 1/2 so they are the same and don't worry about it?

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 8 you of all people no better, would you like me to repost the thread where you said you just laugh at people when they don't believe how far you can stone with 5 and 6 shot?

M12Shooter wrote:

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Mainehunt wrote:

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Ted, Where do you live? I would buy that powder. Kev

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 Kev, I'm in Western Canada. Getting 8 pounds of powder across the 49 parallel would be an insermountable feat!

Ted

-- Edited by M12Shooter on Friday 8th of March 2013 12:22:20 AM

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 Darn!

i dont personally use it but my uncle almost exclusively reloads his .45 and 9mm with it and absolutely loves it,very consistent. Do you intend on using it for shotgun loads?...ive heard that its good bc of the low pressure it achieves in the chamber while still giving you some good velocity.

The guy I got my Red Dot from is out of that but he's getting me 700X instead. It's coming highly recommended from a friend who does a ton of reloading.

IMR is not showing 1 1 /4 oz. receipes for 700x

Mike

Mike27----
700X isn't appropriate for 1 1/4oz loads. It starts getting "pressury" with 1 1/8oz around 1250fps and is probably at its best pushing 1oz of lead.

That is a great powder for heavy field loads. It works well with 1 1/4 and 1 3/8 oz loads and can be loaded low pressure. It is a touch faster burning than blue dot. Cost and dirty were the two drawbacks I found when using it. Using a rem wad and this powder produced a 1 3/8 load of 5's a sparrow could not have made it through the core of at forty yards much less a turkey's head. And that was with a imp mod choke patterning at 81 %. 

I used DuPont 7625 in my 20 gauge hulls for over 30 years. It was a good powder for keeping the chamber pressure down. Then for a while there it was difficult to get so I used 800x in it's place, that was also a good powder but I liked the 7625 better. I only reloaded the 7/8th ounce load in the 20 gauge.

When a sack of shot hit $ 18.00 a sack I said "I think I'm just going to buy factory ammo from here on out" My time was worth something and it just wasn't worth it to save a buck a box.

Bob A.

I shot a pair of 20 gauge model 12 Winchesters in those days and thats why I liked the 7625 powder, it kept the chamber pressure down.

For me it was not worth reloading any more because it took plenty of time to reload 6,000 or more hulls for the next season. I used to injoy reloading when the components were cheap enough to make it worth your while. But... that is a personell choice on my part.

Towards the end of my reloading I got fed up with always trying to run down components that were in short supply. Every time you turned around the price of powder & shot was going up. It was just much easier to pick them up by the flat already loaded and ready to go, at least for me it was much less trouble.

Bob wrote:

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I used DuPont 7625 in my 20 gauge hulls for over 30 years. It was a good powder for keeping the chamber pressure down. Then for a while there it was difficult to get so I used 800x in it's place, that was also a good powder but I liked the 7625 better. I only reloaded the 7/8th ounce load in the 20 gauge.

When a sack of shot hit $ 18.00 a sack I said "I think I'm just going to buy factory ammo from here on out" My time was worth something and it just wasn't worth it to save a buck a box.

Bob A.

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 Bob,

We first started loading back in the early nineties. Shot was around that price or a little cheaper. Buying components in bulk saved money i.e. thousands of primers, wads and 8 lbs. kegs of red dot. We were loading a box for $2 something, I don't remember the exact figure. Hundreds of rounds a week went to the trap range so it paid off. A 12 pack and or a bottle, 3 of us would kill a night, each making a few boxes. But your right, it became a chore after a while.

Today $40 plus a bag is getting rough.

Mike

i probably did the reloading thing for 30 plus years myself. there was a time when you could save decent money. you still can if you load the 410 or 28 gauge. even when there was little $ to save with the 12/20 gauge i told myself that you could reload better shells for the same money or reload specialty shells that werent available. over the last 24 months i've used up the very end of my reloading supplies and dont plan to buy more. i now go in with 2-3 others and split a pallet of shells at a time. i dont get any particular enjoyment out of reloading and in fact find it sucks up time that i would rather spend on other things i enjoy. secondly, over a couple of years i've watched a few of the very best sporting clay shooters in the country/world compete at various events. as a general rule they are shooting the cheapest 1 oz load of 7.5's they can get so that they can shoot fitasc tournaments. they break targets at distances i at one time thought not possible. but after enough practice i now realize the shell amounts to darn little in that equation. so for now i personally have no reason to reload