doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Soft 12-gauge loads.

A long-time hunting partner and friend of mine was very active in Boy Scout shooting sports, so-much-so that I either sold (or donated, can't clearly remember that era well) my old 366 Pacific Press for him to make reloads for the smaller kiddies to shoot. These were very soft loads using 7/8-ounce of 9s and he estimated them at about 7k psi (he's a geophysicist so his number are generally quite real). Somewhere along the way the Scouts banned the use of reloads and, because he had some leftovers, I ended up with them recently. They're 2 3/4-inch and made with once-fired AA hulls & International Clays powder (can't remember offhand the rest of it) anyway, before it got too-hot here today, I took them and my Lang hammergun out to Silver Creek to see how they might work. Long story short, they work just fine in this short-chambered & 154-year-old gun, with even less felt recoil than RST's proper English 2 1/2 inch 1-ounce stuff. This is very good news indeed, as I now have enough shells to regularly hunt this gun, this Fall.

I'd also found a partial box of Winchester AA Featherlite shells in my gunroom to try out too (also 2 3/4-inch), and....wow! Are they ever soft shooters. Incredibly mild stuff(!) and while I don't know the speed or pressures they generate, they can't be much of either.



It's a darn shame you can't get these anymore, can you? They have the little feathers printed on the side of the hull.

IIRC Winchester Featherlites were/are 7/8 ths oz of 8's or 9's at about 975 fps. Very popular with the cowboy shooters

Bornaghi has a 7/8 oz loading 7.5 or 8's @ 1200 FPS. Very soft but spanks the targets well!
I bought cases from Able Ammo for $8.99 AND free shipping. Less that Wally's.
Perfect first shot at doubles.

**Or chamber inserts to 20 gauge? I

I think the Featherlites were simply renamed, Winchester offers a "low noise low recoil" AA loading with a 26 gram payload at 980 fps. AA12FL8 is the product code.

I’ve got a few cases of Herters low recoil 12’s. 1oz 1060 FPS. They sound like a squib load when fired but I managed to run 25 on the skeet range with my tight choked UA (Grulla).

B&P makes both 7/8 and 1 oz. loads at 1160 FPS. The lower speed and payload (relatively speaking) combined with the "Gordon System" hull really reduce felt recoil by a noticeable amount. They have become my favorite factory load and are often available at Natchez Shooters Supply.