doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Red Dot in loading 28-gauge shells

In all my years of reloading, I've never heard of using Red Dot for 28-gauge loads. This box of Winchester Repeater 2 1/2 inch 28-gauge Skeet Loads with Hercules Red Dot just went for more than many of my shotguns in the recent Wards Auction --

Interesting. Never heard of such a thing. Note the 5/8oz.

Well, I am pretty sure the paper/fiber base wad, the fiber shot wad and the paper hulls all had their effect on functioning.

Maybe the faster burning powder was needed for the 5/8 ounce light load in that day.

Mike

I have some old loading data that uses Red Dot in all gauges including .410 bore.
I think it was 7 grains of Red Dot with the fiber wad and 1/2 ounce of shot. I wouldn't use this data myself or recomend it to anyone else.

Pete

While several other factors all play a roll in powder selection, the primary factor is the "Density" of the shot load. This is based upon the wt in relation to bore size. Based upon this premisis a powder suitable for loading 1 1/8oz in 12ga should be right for 5/8oz in the 28ga & about 3/8oz in the .410.

The "Standard" load for the older 2�" 28ga shells was 5/8oz shot for which Red Dot would have been emminently suitable especialy considering the "Cooler" paper hulls, & wads. A � oz load would seem an excessive shot wt in the .410 for Red Dot to me.

This is of course all based upon a standard velocity, a high velocity load will require a switch to a slower powder while a low velocity one can be obtained with a faster powder. Some old loading manuals showed a low velocity 12ga load for instance with 1�oz shot using Red Dot in about a 3DE loading.

Yup, a slow travelling 5/8 ounce shot load out of a 28 gauge shell loaded with Red Dot and leaky card and fiber wads should not exceed anyone's pressure limits. I don't know what the velocity of that load was advertised at, but I bet it wouldn't exceed 1150. That is one great shell box.

I looked for the old loading manual that listed 7 grains of Red Dot with 1/2 ounce of shot but, couldn't find it

I did find a copy of Vol. 1 Reloading information from the American Rifleman, copyright 1953, that lists, on page 106 recommended charges, it lists Red Dot with every gauge but the 16 and the 10. It recommends 7 grains of Red Dot with 5/8 ounce of shot in the .410.
I wouldn't use this recipe and I would not recommend anyone else to use it.

Pete

Pete;
I recall that 7gr RD 5/8oz shot load from an old Lyman handbook of around 1951-53. I always wondered if that was not a misprint as if I recall correctly it was listed for the 2�" case. If one booted this up to a 12ga equivelent based on bore capacity it would be approximately 22 grs Red Dot under a whopping 2oz of shot. Certainly an unbalanced load & one I would definitely not want to be trying.
I am thinking that should have been for a 3/8oz shot load, which for the 12 comparsion would be equivelent to 22gr Red Dot under 1 3/16oz shot. This would be a lot more believable.

My Lyman hand Book #40 shows 16 grains of AL-5 and 5/8 oz of shot for the 28 gauge. It also recomends 27 grains of red dot for an 1.25 oz 10 bore load. No wad or primer recomended for any of the loads.

bill

I didn't start reloading until about 1970, so I don't have any info on those old Red Dot loads, but I do remember DuPont recommended 700-x for 28 gauge at one time, and it is a fast burning, double base powder also. I don't think you will find any such loads in current manuals. You should always use the latest data, and you can't always trust that! At one time I loaded some .38 Spl. loads with 110 grain bullets from data in Speer manual #9, and it called for 10 Grains of DuPont SR4756. These loads were really hot, and luckily for me, I only shot them from modern guns. The next version of that manual did not have any loads with 4756, and a DuPont data sheet didn't even show 10 grains with that bullet in .357 magnum.