12-Gauge shotshell Reloading Session
I stopped at Recob's in Baraboo, WI, which is the most reasonable place I am aware of so far for reloading supplies.
I bought the following:
W209 Winchester primers @ $ 14.09
25 lbs of #8 shot @ 40.99
4 lbs of Green Dot powder @ 63.59
500 Dr XL green wads @ 8.99
I also purchased a 1 oz shot bar for my MEC reloader to drop down from 1 1/8 for trap shells. That set me back only $ 14.09
Took it all to the farm and had a reloading and Jack Daniels & Coke session.
Calculating cost per shell, I figure the following:
Powder $ 63.59 / 1552 = .04 per shell
Shot $ 40.99 / 400 = .10 per shell
Primers $ 14.09 / 1000 = .01 per shell
Wads $ 8.99 / 500 = .02 per shell
Total = .17 per shell X 25 = $ 4.25 per box. That's pretty good considering that trap loads are running about seven dollars per box now in most stores.
I was able to load 14 boxes of AA's, which are the best and four more boxes of other hulls that I had lying around before I ran out of my shot. I had some adjustment problems with the crimp which turned out mostly to be the pre-crimp. I may have had varying size hulls later on; it was very frustrating and I made some really ugly rounds and had to jettison some as well. I even sealed the holes on some with candle wax. I would say that it was a pretty amateurish production, but the AA's mostly came out with good crimps. I will have a pretty low standard set for next time. In fact I can hardly heft a box out of the whole lot that doesn't have BB's rattling around in it. That worries me. Next time will be a 2-stage process. I will knock out and replace all the primers in one session, which is very tiring. Then I will have a much more careful loading session where I can attend to the fine adjustments on the cam and make sure all of my crimps are proper. It didn't help that I loaded about 2/3 throwing ounce-and-an-eighth shot and the rest with 1 ounce bar that I bought. I had to use up wads. I also used up 50 wads that were marginal for the recipe and loaded soft. That won't be necessary next time.
It is a good time to take stock of 12-ga ammunition in the armory:
Trap Loads South = 12 boxes
Trap Loads North = 25 boxes
#8 Game loads = 1 box
#7 1/2 Game loads= 2 boxes +5
#6 Upland Game = 3 boxes
#8 3" target = 4 boxes
#2 Steel shot = 10 shells
#7 3" Turkey = 7 shells
Slugs = 64
I shot up a box of the latest stuff at the opening night of trap shooting, under the lights. It produced a delerium of laughter among my teammates, because the little toilet paper pieces that I plugged the crimp hole with were put airborne and a gentle breeze blew them back in my face. I think that in the future PlayDoh will serve this purpose better. Anyway, it was distracting and I shot poorly, but the shells all fired properly and I did get rid of two of the worst, with no extraction problems.
ReplyDeleteI have done some major learning. I have shot up four more boxes and once in a while, if I don't jack a shell in hard, it doesn't set the firing pin and there I am with 4 guys looking at me and the clay pigeon is sailing away. Then I have the problem of extracting it and all that stuff. I realized, when I got back to the farm to do the first stage of the next batch, what part of my problem is. I didn't resize the brass! On the first station of my MEC Mark V, the pin comes down and knocks out the old primer. I hadn't realized until now that you have to push it farther down and it resizes the brass! I have had them refuse to pop out of my Ithaca M-66 and trouble going all the way in with my 870! I am going to have to put up with this until I get rid of everything I made! Anyway, I knocked out, resized, and reprimed 325 Winchester hulls and they're all ready to go as soon as I buy more shot. I sorted everything else and am keeping only AA's, Winchesters, Federals, and Remington. Any other oddballs go into the trash. I am sure I can turn out a very nice batch next time. Most of the ones I have yet to shoot up are AA's, and that helps. I have to put some little balls of play-doh into the ones that are poor crimps, though, enough of toilet paper.
ReplyDeleteShot a box of the AA's and absolutely no problem even though I probably didn't resize them properly.
ReplyDeletebought a 25-lb sack of #8 shot, but this one cost 41.99 a dollar more. Ready to reload those Winchester hulls that I resized and reprimed, next visit to the farm.
ReplyDeleteSet up the machine and reloaded 12 boxes of Winchester hulls, shot once, that I had prepared. Adjusted the crimp heights and everything went beautifully! Out of 12-boxes, only like 3 shells had any minor difficulty. Looking forward to shooting these after I use up all the marginal ones I loaded, of which I still have about 9 boxes. Shot another box at trap and it went well, except for my last shot, I popped in a candle wax one to get rid of it and it misfired, shooting out the wad, but no power. I only have a handful of those, and I think the burn barrel is the proper breech for them. My gun jammed up again afterward, so I'll have to take it apart and clean it well again. Even with the misfire, I broke 20 at 18-yards with the reloads, so they are doing the trick.
ReplyDeleteKnocked the primers out, resized, and re-primed 11 boxes of once-shot Federal hulls. Some of the primers came out hard and some of them were difficult to resize, meaning I had to bear down pretty hard on the press to make it happen, but I got them all done, so next visit I can buy more powder and wads and shot and do them up.
ReplyDeleteWent by Recob's and bought 25 lbs of reclaimed shot for $31.99, a savings of ten dollars, and which will bring down the cost of my reloading to .08 per shell from .10; but the primers were double at $29.69 per 1000, .02 per shell up from .01 per shell. Wads were more, too, 9.69 for 500 still .02 per shell, though. The whole gig went down to .16 per shell or $4.00 a box down from $4.25 per box. The savings on lead did it.
ReplyDeleteI loaded 11 boxes of Federal Top Gun hulls, shot once. Everything went very well. Only a few very minor crimp leaks. I'm very happy with how it went.