doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Reloading question/advice

Well, I just bought my first press, a single stage 12ga. I love shooting my doubles and I figure that I can hopefully reload cheaper than the $8.25/box I've been paying at wallyworld, even with the price of components as high as they are. I am assembling components now, looking for "bargains." I have 1000 ea once fired Remington STS's and Win. AA's. I have read Miller's concerns about 7625 and I am now looking for PB or Hi-Skor700x powder.

My qustion is this : Can you load with felt wads in a plastic shotshell? Does anyone have any load recipies for the hulls mentioned and felt wads? I'm trying to stay at 6000 psi also.
Thanks, Robert.

Ballistic Products offers loads that feature "stacked" wad columns in its brochures, "English Style Game Loads" and "Loads With Stacked Wads".

Red why do you want to fore go the ballistic superiority and ease of loading of one piece plastic wads to use felt and waxed fiber wads that are cumbersome to load and are getting hard to come by?

Thanks, I'll check out ballistic products. Twicebarrel, I guess I was just interested in a wad that might be easier on old damascus barrels. I know plastic has been the norm for umpteen years now, but I like traditions.... I fix up old trucks and drive them... I like old guns. Also. I plan to load 7/8 or 1oz loads.

Are fiber wads for paper hulls and BP only, or can they be used with smokeless powder? Just trying to learn,

thanks.

You should also investigate American Select powder. It gives very good low pressure results with Windjammer-type wads using 7/8 oz. of shot in either hull you have. Stock up on all the Remingtons you can get your hands on. Great hull.

Smokeless Powder was used under card & felt or fiber wads from the time of its introduction untill the entry of the one piece plastic wad. The plastic hull & plastic wad both came along pretty close together but date included card & filler wads in the plastic hulls (with smokeless) for a period of time afterwards. The problem with either plastic hulls or wads with black powder is it burns hotter & often makes a gooey mess of the plastic. The better sealing effiency of the plastic wad made a reduction of the powder charge a necessity. I began shotshell reloading in the card & filler days & personally I never bother except for all brass shells or black powder in either breech or muzzle loaders. Plastic is just too much more convienent for all else.

RedofTx when your check arrives for the lead 4's and 2's that you wanted, I'll top off the box with a half a box of 12 gauge Alcan filler wads no charge. Thanks JW

By using a single-base powder and plastic wads there are a ton of recipes out there in 12 gauge under 6,000 psi chamber pressure to use in your Damascus barreled shotgun.
You don't have to go the fiber wad route if you don't want to but if you do there are a ton of them out there. All black powder shops have them and Circle Fly, Track of the Wolf, Dixie Gun Works all have web-sites that you can mail order them.

Plastic wads are o.k. but are litter. Alright for the clay ground but not the countryside as far as I am concerned. A lot of shoots here in Britain ban the use of plastic wadding. As for reloading with card and felt, they work well in the straight walled cases but in the compression formed ones like Winchester AA's and Remington RXP's they tend not to seat firmly on the powder due to the internal walls of the case tapering in. Some powders, unless bulky by volume, won't work so well. Lagopus.....

Red. If the object is to load low pressure loads you might want to consider using a case like the Federal Gold Medal which does not have tapered walls and typically has pressures which are considerably less for the same powder and shot load. I have used them for years and get very good results at low pressures even with some of the faster, clean burning powders like 700X.