Greg,
As KY Jon suggests: "Promo is not a great powder for what you want. It is designed as a full target load at a cheap price. Look at Extra Lite or ClayDot or American Select."
I use Alliant Extra Lite powder to load 1/2 and 3/4 ounce 12 gauge loads and it performs quite well for in close targets. Pressures are down around 5000 - 6000 psi and speed at around 1300 per testing of my loads by Tom Armbrust.
I use a Claybuster CB0175-12 wad for the 3/4 ounce lead shot load with about 14.3 grains of XL powder and either a Rem or Win 209 primer. For 1/2 ounce lead loads, same thing but 14.0 grains of XL and I put a 1/8" thick card wad in the bottom of the shot cup to take up some space for nicer looking crimps.
I also load 12 gauge 2 1/2" shells using RST hulls to shoot out of my H&H hammer gun that has 2 1/2" chambers.
Nice mild stuff that gets the job done at short to medium distance targets. And actually, out of the left full choke barrel of my A. H. Fox early A, does reasonably well at distance shots too. It might not smoke 'em but a break is a break.
Hope this helps.
