doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Low Pressure Clays/Win209/Windjammer 7/8oz Recipe

I have started reloading my own low pressure shells for use in most of my guns and mainly my damascus guns. I just started shooting my first Baker damascus this year for dove season with great success and fun.

I have tested and like the following recipe that was posted on Hodgdon and the Windjammer site:

17.3 Grains of Clays, Win209, Windjammer 1 1/8 oz wads, Rem STS hulls. I'm reloading this with only 1 oz of shot. Loads really well and it shoots great. Pressure should be around 5500 PSI.

I also have 2 bags of the yellow Windjammer wads (7/8 - 1oz) and want to construct a 7/8 oz load using the same components but with the different wad.

However, there are no recipes using Clays, Win209, Yellow Windjammer wads for 7/8 loads.

I'm assuming that I could follow the same recipe above with slightly less powder (say bushing 30 instead of 31 for my MEC) and be in the 5k-6k psi range. I would assume that when shot charge increases but all other items stay the same you increase pressure and conversely when shot charge decreases you see a pressure drop.

However, I figured I'd ask if anyone else has built/tested a Clays/Win209/Windjammer Yellow wad recipe for 7/8 oz loads.

Hodgdon does have a similar recipe using the Claybuster CB4100 wad which is supposed to be a copy of the yellow Windjammer, but their pressures seem higher and I am not sure if they are like for like recipe if I used the Windjammer wads.

I'm not looking to change components, so please don't offer other recipes. Just looking for confirmation on this particular combination. Any help is appreciated..Thanks..

I also use Clays and about the same load. I think if you use Bushing 31 and 7/8 shot you will have slightly higher velocity and slightly lower pressure.

As I am sure you know never, never, never assume one change, however minor, will not be a problem. One change, even a minor one can run pressure up several thousands sometimes. Why take a chance? Even if someone here has a load do they or you know the true pressure? Unless they have had them tested you are guessing.

Call Hodgdon and ask them if they have tried that load or one like it with your components. They are very nice people and have more loading information than what is listed on their website. Chances are that they can give you the information that you are looking for. Several times they have had that information for me and freely gave it out. Figure their web has five thousand loads listed. Their testing may have covered two or three times that many. They cover the high points on their web but they also have non listed information. Some for components no longer made or for loads very similar to others on the site.

KY Jon,

Thanks for the reply. I guess I never considered calling Hodgdon and Windjammer for possible unpublished data. Just never crossed my mind.

Thanks for the input.

Jason

JLN,

That load sounded familiar. It was my first low pressure load, maybe five years ago. I bought the yellow windjammers and loaded 1 oz. using the exact formula you used that is found in the hodgedon book. I made them in 8 shot and 7 1/2 shot. Something was bothering me since its pressure was so much lower than all the others in the book that were near it so after shooting it for a while I had them tested by Ambrust. I sent five of each size shot.

I had cut these shells to 2 1/2" and used the Harten Crimp with an overshot card covering the hole in the middle which, if anything should have lowered the psi if it changed it at all.

There was no significant difference between the different shot sizes but they averaged about 7800 psi. After thinking about it I was still happy since I felt my damascus barreled guns were all in good shape with thick walls.

Still, I got a bit nervouse and switched to PB to lower the pressure and I use 2 3/4" hull length now. Mostly I switched since I use a progressive MEC loader and the time to add the overshot card doubled the amount of time to reload. The PB lowered the pressue enough to compensate for the longer shell in short chambers according to my reading of the literature.

Hope this helps you make a decision.

Milt