doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Status of RST Shot Shells

Good call. I’ve been reloading rifle and pistol ammo for over 25 years, but never did shotgun up until a few years ago. Obviously, I’m still massively green at it. It started with this gun and I’ve migrated over to my modern 10 gauge browning gold. But you’re right the whole reason I started with shotgun reloading is because the patterns were super horrible out of the RST ammo. The whole point was I wanted to load ammo loaded with real black powder for it with low pressures so I don’t have to worry about losing eyes and fingers in worrying if someone else didn’t do something right with the ammo they manufactured. I have a really good recipe for this gun with cut down roll crimped plastic hulls. It’s 100 grains of FG and one and 1 5/8 oz number six nickel plated shot. I use a half inch nitro card and just an overshot card. I’m going to eliminate the nitro card and try it with a plastic shot cup and see if I can improve my groups. Yes, I’m aware that plastic will melt in the barrel from the shot cup so I will inspect and clean between every firing. Looking for a good tight turkey load. The nitro card load works just fine. I just want a better pattern.



I’ve tried to square load in it with 4 1/2 grains(116 grains) of DuPont FG and one and 5/8 ounces of NZpI #6’s. It patterns better with a little less powder(100 grains) and also less recoil to boot.

I love the fireballs it makes with black powder that’s for sure!!!



I’ve been using cardboard overshot cards, but I found some plastic clear learning chips at the dollar store the other day that fit perfectly. I figured they’re gonna be more of a waterproof option for turkey hunting, and a little bit more durable to boot. I should’ve used the color other than red. I will next time so I can see inside of the shot cups better. The two on the left are my hand loads next to the factory RST 2 7/8” ammo.



And some with cardboard so cards…



The ones with plastic overshot cards I just loaded a couple days ago. I removed about 13 grains of lead shot and added 13 grains back in my load with BPI original buffer. The load that I didn’t use a nitro card on and instead used a BPI tough wad shot cup that I cut down to 1.458” so it would fit in my load. I can deal with a little plastic to clean out of my barrels. If my pattern greatly improves I’ll probably take them out in the next day or two and pattern them at 25 and 40 yards. That’s the best part about black powder. Is there going to be way less pressure than any smokeless load and it’s pretty much almost full proof to screw up loading with black powder in my opinion.