Marty,

I have a 12 gauge Holland & Holland Hammer gun with steel barrels and 2 1/2 inch chambers that I reload for.

I use 2 1/2" RST plastic hulls and Claybuster CB6100-12 wads to load 0.5 and 0.72 ounce loads. Here's my canned response to such inquiries:

Heres what Ive been doing to load 12 gauge light loads in 2 1/2" RST straight walled hulls for light 1/2 and 3/4 ounce loads. Actual weights are 0.50 and 0.72 ounces from my tweaked MEC charge bar.

I use the neon green Clay Buster CB6100-12 wad intended for one ounce loads. I use a 0.125" thick card wad in the bottom of the shot cup for my 1/2 ounce load. Nothing needed in the bottom of the shot cup for my 3/4 ounce.

In both cases, the petals are a little (1/16") higher than the shot volume. I have trimmed off a little of each petal before loading but I'm thinking that it is not necessary??

I use once plus fired RST 2 1/2" hulls and they look fine when finished, nice 6 point crimps, not dished or crushed.

I use a MEC Sizemaster for my loading and for the crimp start and final crimp stations, all that I did was use a 1/4" thick wood spacer at those stations to raise the hull to the 2 3/4" height. (In the pictures below, note that I have my MEC Sizemaster sitting in a low walled box to contain those in evitable lead shot spills.)

My load data:
ounce: RST 2 hulls; Winchester 209 primer; 14.2 grains of Alliant Extra Lite powder (MEC #26 bushing); CB6100-12 wad; 0.125 card wad in bottom and ounce lead shot.
3/4 ounce: RST 2 hulls; Winchester 209 primer; 14.6 grains of IMR 700X powder (MEC #25 bushing); CB6100-12 wad; no card wad in bottom and 0.72 ounce lead shot.

Have shot both loads on the skeet and sporting clays field and they sound and feel great. Very satisfied.

I may send some test loads to Tom Armbrust but I don't think he does any testing in cold Illinois weather. I use basically the same recipe in loading standard 2 3/4 hulls and have had those tested by Tom Armbrust with the following results for ounce loads with Win hulls, Win primers, 14 grains EL powder (MEC #26 powder bushing) average of 5100 psi at an average speed of 1367 fps. The ounce loads are from published 700X recipes and are around 6500 psi and 1250 fps.

I get my card wads from Craig Smith of Circle Fly Wads in PA and they cost about 1.5 cents each including postage per 1000.

Hope this might help anyone looking to do the same.

Bill Jolliff


Me live again. That Alliant Extra Lite powder might be hard to find. Hopefully better now compared with last year. Let me know if you have any questions.

Jolly