doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 20 ga. spreader loads

Does no one load and sell 20 ga. spreader loads besides RST and Polywad? Both of them are at $15 and $15.79 per box, respectively. By the time you add shipping to that, it's a deal killer for me.

I use Fiocchi Interceptor 12 ga. spreaders regularly, at under $9/box shipped. I buy them two flats at the time. Does no other major company load 20 ga. spreaders?

SRH

B & P shows a 20 ga. Dispersante load, but Aerostar doesn't list them for sale.

SRH

If you reload, get some spreadR discs and load your own. They work well. Just have to lower your shot content some. Russ

It looks like that's what I'm going to have to do. But, what Polywad wants for shipping them to me is ridiculous ............ $17.09 for a couple of little bags. And, I'm not 200 miles from them!

Ballistic Products shows a wad with an X post in the middle. I'm almost certain that is how my 12 ga. Fiocchi Interceptors are loaded.

I would be able to load them for a whole lot less than RST and Polywad loads, for sure.

SRH

I have used the Extreme spreaders from BP for loads in my 16ga guns. They work great and are not very expensive. BP even sells a brush wad for your 20ga that when combined with a spreader does open up your patterns well for close range shots. For my 16ga I cut the shot petals off of regular SG16 wad{as recommended by BP) and the loads shoot great without having to reduce the amount of shot.

I use the BP X-treme in 12, and the Polywad insert in 20.

I don't remember the shipping to have been that much. Maybe it was. Just order a bunch, you'll use them eventually.

The RXP20 seems to have been made just for the Polywad application.

I load 3/4oz spreaders with the standard CB 7/8 oz wad and a Polywad insert. International is peachy for that, I seem to recall 12.2 grains makes a 3/4 oz #9 spreader for use on skeet doubles in the left barrel of my Rizzini choked .018". It runs 1150 fps and works fine. It does make that barrel into skeet barrel. Fun!

For the 7/8 oz spread load I use the RXP20 and the Polywad disk. I favor the Remington hulls for this, stoked to 1200 FPS with 20/28 or WSF. #8 breaks the stupid close in wabbits, when I can get the gun to them.

You'll like the Polywad inserts.

Hey Stan,, I haven�t ordered from RST or Polywad in some time but it does appear their prices have gone up a bit as I would have also �choked� at those prices plus freight. Perhaps ORM-D shipping rates have increased as well,, just don�t know. I have never patterned any of my RST or Polywads properly but I�m mostly a grouse and woodcock gunner these days and therefore, don�t burn through my stock too fast and could always rely on grabbing a few boxes in 12-16-20 ga at the Vintagers or other events they attend. Not sure of your intended use (maybe bobwhite quail?), but something got me thinking about safety of the dogs with these spreader loads after hearing/reading of �flyers� out of the pattern they may be more susceptible to produce. Not sure of the reality of this phenomenon, but it made me very (maybe overly) cautious this fall when more than a couple of tightly held birds flushed and didn�t clear the dogs before a safe shot materialized but then was lost in the cover or already rocketing around the backside of a spruce.. I�m probably not articulating this very well but, what I�m trying to say is I now have a slight nagging fear that spreaders may not be too safe over dogs and I hold off more conservatively on snap shots I probably would have taken with just pain old RSTs or Vintagers.. With that comes the decision to shoot tighter chokes or have them opened up a bit - which is obviously a gun-by-gun consideration for most of us that may need to keep things as they left the factories of the Northeast USA back in their day...

I'm probably not going to mess with them at all. Dogs' safety is much more important than any slight edge I might get with a spreader out of an IC choked barrel anyway. Truth is, when I use the Fiocchi Interceptors on those "stupid close-in wabbits", as SJ calls them, I'm not certain the advantage is as important as I sometimes want to believe it is. I shoot two fixed choke .020"s at sporting clays, and do well with it even without the spreaders. My final score on the course is determined much more by which Stan showed up that day than it is by whether or not I remembered to bring a box if spreaders.

I'll likely be much better served to repeat the admonition of the The Patriot to his young son, "Remember, aim small, miss small, as my mantra.

SRH

Good to mention dog safety in a hunting scenario. Whenever I have patterned spreader loads, I've always found a few pellet strikes on the extreme edge of the paper. Something to consider.
A fellow hunter I know had discovered pellets in his dog's hips upon a routine x-ray, a reason I never use spreaders for hunting or when shooting for hunt tests involving dogs. I do feel however they have a legitimate use for clays.
Karl

The spreader shells I have shot (only fiocchi) kick like a mule in 12 ga. Even the 1 oz are pretty brutal. My bud who is a grouse hunting guru says they are bird cripplers on grouse. Personally, I have no experience with them hunting.