? for skeet reloaders

[jkmo]

I have been shooting some skeet and want to get back into reloading. I reloaded years ago but don't remember what my load was.

I am wanting a light load for skeet, five stand and some sporting clays. I am partial to Red Dot and want to shoot 7/8 ounce of 9 shot.

I will reload AA hulls. How many grains of Red Dot and what wads should I use?

What is your favorite load?

Thanks!

 

[DougE]

It's been a long time since I've loaded any shot shells so I don't recall off the top of my head. Here is the load info from Alliant's website:Alliant Powder - Reloader's Guide

 

[venomballistics]

I have been shooting some skeet and want to get back into reloading. I reloaded years ago but don't remember what my load was.

I am wanting a light load for skeet, five stand and some sporting clays. I am partial to Red Dot and want to shoot 7/8 ounce of 9 shot.

I will reload AA hulls. How many grains of Red Dot and what wads should I use?

What is your favorite load?

Thanks!

I was always partial to 1 1/8 oz No.8 magnum shot over international clays.
Ive had red dot fowl the shotgun to stoppage in extended sessions where int clays was clean enough to go two such sessions without cleaning.

 

[OKFC05]

What gauge are we talking about?
WSF is the standard powder in Win AA 20 7/8oz. 16.5gr with AA20 wads.

 

[DougE]

What gauge are we talking about?
WSF is the standard powder in Win AA 20 7/8oz. 16.5gr with AA20 wads.

Yeah ......... guess I should have asked what gauge we were talking about before I made that prior post. I'm one of those fellows that sometimes forgets that there are other gauges besides 12.

 

[venomballistics]

12 Ga ...
7/8oz over red dot is a light 12 Ga option.
I dont see many 20 loads with powders much faster than Unique

 

[jkmo]

Sorry about that. It will be 12 gauge. Are there better powders than Red Dot for this now?

 

[socal s&w]

1 ounce of shot with 17.7gr of Titegroup in a AA hull with Claybuster 1100-12 (AA Clones) wads and a WW primer seems to work well for me. 1,240 FPS with 8.5K pressure.

If I were you though, I would not use anyone's load before confirming from the manufacturer that it is within the brackets.

 

[M29since14]

Sorry about that. It will be 12 gauge. Are there better powders than Red Dot for this now?

Yes, IMHO. Red Dot is an old standby and a good powder, but try Hodgdon's Clays - I believe the manuals recommend 16.9 grains and the Winchester 7/8 oz. wad (or equiv.). You can get the load on-line at Hodgdon's website. As SoCal S&W says, make sure you check the data before using anyone's suggestions - especially mine.

In a 12 gauge gun of decent weight, it is so mild you hardly feel the gun recoil, burns clean, and makes an excellent shell for close-in targets. I do not like #9 shot in a 12 or 20 and always load 8s, or 7.5s - for cold weather and for slightly longer shots.

I used to worry over missing a bird now and then with 7/8 oz. loads but have just about given up on that.

 

[venomballistics]

Sorry about that. It will be 12 gauge. Are there better powders than Red Dot for this now?

yup, Clays, International clays and universal clays.
dont know about you but I can justify arguing for clean powders in skeet loads. Especially in pumps and autos.
Red Dot has stopped our Mosburg 500's within 300 rounds due to fowling.
International clays loads kept the party raging to almost 1000 rounds per gun.

why this volume of skeet in one setting?
I had a bonehead neighbor that lived 3/4 mile away call the cops claiming that shot was raining on his home .... a ballistic impossibility.
SOooooo.....
for the rest of that summer we fired skeet in large volume. EVERY weekend without fail, even between thunderstorms on a few occasions till the whiny butt broke.

the favored loads where International clays with fed 12S3 wads in both AA and STS hulls for the sake of uniformity at the bench

 

[btruman]

It's been a lot of years so check in a manual rather than rely on my memory but it seems to me we used 19 gr of Red Dot under 1oz of shot in AA hulls. Again as I said. be sure to check loading data.

 

[venomballistics]

yeah ... checking data is well advised ... and while your checking out data ...
take note of the second most popular hull ... remington STS.
if you can sort through all the load data and find a set of components that work in both STS and AA hulls. you can double your fun without stocking two versions of everything.

 

[dg101win]

17.5 Red Dot-1oz of #9's-Clay Buster wad,Win 209's.
If you do go the Red Dot route you might want to look at Promo powder also by Alliant. Use same amount as Red Dot but it costs less.

 

[venomballistics]

I just checked the hodgdon site for some loads
I like them cause they do their loads in a range of charges which makes this trick possible ....
1 1/8 lead
WinAA
wad WAA12
Primer Win 209
Powder International clays 17.6 - 21.3

Rem STS hull
Wad WAA12
Primer Win209
Powder International clays 17 - 21.1

What I used to do is look for loads like this having common components and overlapping powder charge ranges.
In this case Id set the powder charge to 19 grains and sweat no detail between Win AA hulls and STS beyond separating them as a minor press adjustment may be necessary between the two.

 

[jkmo]

After looking at the Alliant website I am leaning towards a AA hull (have lots of 'em), Win 209 primer, 16.5 of Red dot and a WAA 12SL wad with 7/8 ounce of 9's. PSI is 7300. There is a similiar load with 17.5 of Red dot with a CB 4100 12 wad (6900 psi) but I don't see these wads anywhere handy.

 

[tops]

After looking at the Alliant website I am leaning towards a AA hull (have lots of 'em), Win 209 primer, 16.5 of Red dot and a WAA 12SL wad with 7/8 ounce of 9's. PSI is 7300. There is a similiar load with 17.5 of Red dot with a CB 4100 12 wad (6900 psi) but I don't see these wads anywhere handy.

I have used AA hull, Win 209, 16.5 Red Dot, 7/8 oz. #9, CB 1100-12 wad. It will run 100 on a skeet field.
This load is not in the book but I use it for my grandson and it will break any target on the skeet field and has very little recoil. It runs about 1000 fps which is about the same as Win. low noise and low recoil shells.
STS hull, Win 209, 15 grs. Red Dot, 7/8 oz. #9, CB 0178 wad.

 

[2152hq]

I use the Hodgdon Powder 'youth' load in 12ga.
Clays powder, Win209 (I sub a Cheddite 209 now), CB clone of the Fed 12SO1 and 3/4 oz shot.,approx 1200fps.

I take the shot load down as low as 9/16 oz (.410 load) and right now load it at 5/8oz instead of the 3/4oz.
The Website lists AA's or Rem cases so I run both through the MEC.

A piece of popped pop corn on top of the shot load before crimping takes up any space from the smaller payload.
How 'green' is that..

I shoot them in everything from damascus SxS's to pumps. All older guns most with full&fuller chokes so there's plenty of shot inside the pattern at normal skeet ranges to get the job done. Though even a cyl bore M97 will do well if you don't ride the target!