doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 2 1/2 Reloading Recipes?

Does anyone have a recipe (or recipes) for 2 1/2 shell reloading they'd care to share? I find detailed ones rather sparse and am just wondering if anyone out there is routinely doing this. 'hoping not to spark a flame ware on 2 1/2 v 2 3/4 or hopefully drift too far off into discussions of chamber pressure. Just looking for strictly 2 1/2 information.

Oh, yes, one more thing: 12 bore / gauge just to be clear.

thanks

Jeremy

PM sent

Jeremy if you are roll crimping these hulls then any 2 3/4" 6 crimp load will work in a 2 1/2" roll crimped shell.

Hodgen gives three loads for 1 oz in a 2.5 shell 20 grains of International in a Fed Gold Metal, 20 grains of Universal In a Remington Premier, and 19 grains of Universal in a AA. I would strongly recomend Hodgens old hardback reloading Manual. I t gives full details on the loadsand instructions for cutting and crimping the short shell.
bill

What David said. Also, a few plastic wads will compress enough for a star crimp in short hulls.

https://www.nssa-nsca.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ceretto.pdf

low pressure loads

If you look at AA wads like the 12AA, 12L, 12SL or 12 red AA you will see that they are all the same basic wad but each are different lengthen. If you substitute a shorter wad the load will fit into shorter hull. So you can find a safe 2 3/4" load, substitute a shorter wad for the one listed, to take up less space in a shorter hull, which you have trimmed to 2 1/2" and load a few. Send them to Roster or Precision Reloading if you need verification of pressure.

I have loaded a lot of loads which called for one Winchester AA wads and substituted shorter AA wad in shorter hulls. Find a load which calls for a longer Winchester AA wad in the 2 3/4" hull at the pressure you are wanting to load. Select a shorter version and try it. To verify if the load is truly safe send five or six of them out to be tested for pressure. That is the only true way to know what you have.

I like PB one ounce loads with the old style AA hulls and AA wads. I just use a shorter wad, cut the hull and crimp them in the normal way. Shame PB is gone unless you find an old stash like I did.


Go to the Hodgdon site and look at several different powders which are readily found like Clays, or PB. Go from there but don't forget to have your load tested to be safe.

Jeremy,

I use RST 12 gauge 2 1/2" hulls to load 1/2 and 3/4 ounce lead loads to shoot out of my H&H 12 gauge hammer gun with steel barrels and 2 1/2" chambers.

I use a MEC Sizemaster loader, Claybuster CB6100-12 neon green wads for the straight walled RST hulls, Winchester 209 primers and Alliant Extra Lite powder.

For the 1/2 ounce loads, I use a MEC #26 powder bushing that yields about 13.9/14.0 grains of XL powder. I put a 0.125" thick card wad in the bottom of the CB wad to take up space and the 1/2 ounce of lead on top of that. The 6 point crimps look fine.

For 3/4 ounce, I use a #27 MEC powder bushing that drops about 14.2/14.3 grains of XL powder. No card wad needed. It crimps quite nicely as well.

I get the card wads from Craig Smith of Circle Fly Wads in PA. They cost about 1.5 cents each including postage.

I don't use a short kit in the MEC for the shorter hulls. I made a 1/4" spacer for the last two stations: pre-crimp and final crimp.

I have not sent these out for pressure and velocity testing but I'm guessing they are about what I have had tested using 2 3/4" hulls using basically the same recipe. The 2 3/4" loads run around 5000, 6000 psi and around 1300 fps.

I like shooting those light loads just fine. They don't smoke targets like a hit from 1 1/8 ounce would but would still score as a "dead" bird on a score sheet, if I kept score.

I shoot with a guy who loads 9/16 ounce loads in 2 3/4" hulls. He does very well by the way.

Hope this helps. Would be pleased to answer any questions.

Jolly