doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Low pressure 12 ga reloading

Jim Haynes' offer to send his spreadsheet of LP loads got me to thinking. I have a 10-page hard copy list of LP loads that I picked up a few years ago. Every time a thread like this appears, I offer to send a copy to the requester and I've probably sent it to 15-20 folks. Jim's mention of the spreadsheet almost made me stop and take the time to put all the data into electronic form and avoid the hassle of copying and mailing. But then I stopped.

The data that I have has the name and address of the person who complied it. Someone in Tennessee. So if someone uses the copied data and his barrel (and fingers) go bye-bye, I take no responsibility. If I compile the data into electronic form and send it out, I may have a liability issue to deal with if something goes wrong. Not that the folks who frequent this board would do anything like that, but you never know what might happen.

Then there's the issue of someone accidentally altering the spreadsheet. I guess I could electronically protect the data so it couldn't be altered, but that still doesn't remove all the liabilities.

So I'll continue to offer to copy and mail it.

Norm, PM me your snail mail address and I'll send you a copy.

I load the Federal Gold Medal paper hull with Fed primers, 17.5 gr Hodgdon Clays, Federal 12S3 wad, 1 oz shot of either 7 1/2 or 5 size. Pressure from my Pressure-Trace measures 6500 psi and my chrono says 1150ish fps. It's a very clean low pressure load.

Thanks all. To go off on a tangent a bit, what is considered low pressure for 20 gauge? My wife's uncle has an Ithaca Flues 20 grade 2 with damascus tubes he is thinking of selling. Again, any help is greatly appreciated.

It seems as if the smaller than 12ga. guns, are harder to find low pressure loads for. I used to load for a 20ga. and I found the lowest loads at that time to be from IMR with Fed. hulls. Look to thier booklet. If memory serves me well, the loads were in the 7500 psi range. I hoped to find lower psi., but this is about the lowest I could find.

Dave Schiller makes some good comments above. I am not the originator of these spreadsheets; however, they were given to me, and I make them available to whomever wishes them.

To clarify, my spreadsheets of LP loads for 12 gauge were compiled from the reloading manuals of major powder manufacturers/sellers and put in order of ascending pressures. I have not, however, included a disclaimer, which in view of Dave's statement, I will in the future. Each of the listed loads can be verified via the listed powder against that manufacturers reloading handbook, e.e., if PB is the powder listed for a particular load, that same load (including primer, hull, wad, and shot load) will be listed in the IMR handbook. And, as suggested above, absolutely no deviation of component brand/model is to be allowed. To do otherwise may, and can, drastically change the pressure. Jim Haynes

Note the major factors in pressure is the wt to be lifted per SqIn vs the speed with which it is lifted IE charge wt & burn speed. Most 12ga low pressure loads are based around an ounce of shot. bore area of a 20ga in ratio to a 12ga is 71% so a 3/4oz load is absolute max when searching for equivelent LP loads to the 12ga. You can get equally low pressures in the 12ga using 1¼oz as in the 20ga with 7/8oz. In Black Powder days 3/4oz was standard for the 20ga & 7/8oz was considered the "Heavy". The reason 10 & 12 ga guns were so popular a century ago was they carried the 1¼ & 1 1/8oz loads so useful to hunters. The 16ga with it's 1oz load was considered abiout perfect for upland birds by many, particularly in the Grouse woods & Bobwhite fields of the South.

My favorite low pressure load so far has been 25grains IMR7625/WinAA12L Wad/Fed210 Primer/ 7/8oz-1oz Nickel plated #6. absolute death out of my sometime before 1924 Belgian guild 12GA SXS. It travels between 1200-1250FPS and pressure is between 6000-6900psi. Depends on whether i go 7/8's or 1oz. You can sub the winAA12L for WINAA12SL and get very little pressure swing. But the patterns seem a bit better with the bigger WINAAL (more shot inside wad-less outside-especially when going 1oz. 1oz in the WinAA12SL spills a bit over the top of the cup and makes for marginal crimps - WINAA12L is best for 7/8 or 1oz in my gun.

This load got me tene for ten on doves last weekend which was a first for me in my lifetime of 48 years. I will try it out on quail and chukar Oct 6th and expect similar results then. I have never used #6 shot in my life for doves, but after last weekend i will never use anything else - in that gun at least!

I might add, FWIW, that there is no reason to shoot more than 1 oz. shot in any old gun. There are lots of good 7/8 oz. LP loads out there and even a few 3/4oz. This saves a lot of wear and tear on your gun and saves on shot costs as well. I became a believer in the 3/4 oz. after I loaded a few and busted clays with it as well as a 1 oz. load.