doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Shooting Clays with a SxS

I've been doing the same for the last 20 years in my light 12 and 16 ga. SxS's. It makes reloading worth it.

Would like to load some but I cannot source a 7/8 oz bush for my old Redding round bar over here!

I found that Federal and Herter's have relatively soft primers and will cause some guns to stick and be hard to open. Herter's it is maybe a couple of times a box of 25. With Federals it is more frequent.

It's not the primers, it's the steel heads.

Couple layers of masking tape around the inside of the bushing or shot bar cavity usually works.

Keep an eye on it, and weigh the shot charge frequently.

Masking tape is remarkably durable stuff.

Good suggestion ! I do have a couple of larger bushes that I could experiment with.

It worked for me on a temporary basis long ago when I wanted to try an ounce and a sixteenth for some reason I don't remember.

Parts for your loader are going to be difficult to find.

A more permanent solution may be to make a sleeve for your bushing out of some kind of tubing and epoxy it in place.

Necessity is a mother.

I use 7/8 oz most of the time in 12 or 16ga--skeet, 5 stand, sporting clays. But for the latter two, I'll usually have some 1 oz loads available for longer presentations. But that's just recreational. If I were shooting competition, then I expect I'd use factory 1 oz loads.

I have gone to reloading "standard" loads for all my side by side needs. In 12 it is one ounce at 1150 fps and 5,500 psi. I load this load in a 2 1/2" roll crimp but am working on a 2 1/2" folded crimp version. In 20 I have gone to a 7/8 ounce load at 1,150 fps at 7,000 psi. These are loaded in a roll crimp but I am getting close to a working 2 1/2" folded crimp version as well.

I only use one hull type for each gauge and load nothing else in that type hull. So every B&P 12 hull I have loaded are low(er) pressure loads and every 20 AA shell I have are low pressure loads. In the end I suspect I will just cut several thousand hulls down to 2 1/2" and load everything the same in both gauges.

Loading gets too complicated if you are not careful. I was not. I took inventory and discovered I had over 25 wads types, six primer types and 15 plus powders on hand. Most well stocked gun shops do not have my selection. The goal is to reduce this down to five powders and maybe six different types wads. Loading from 10 to .410 makes inventory more complex. Plus you always end up with stuff you do not use anymore, just taking up room in the reloading room.

Thousands of hulls may take up too much room but I still hate to let them go. You never know what you can use. Case in point is the B&P 1 ounce load I have been working on. I have 5,000 plus once fired hulls to work with. Been storing them for about ten years. Finding a load for them is great because that is one hull I have not loaded recently. So any reloaded shell will be a know, certain to be safe load. I am just waiting for a report about final pressure and velocity before I go into volume reloading of them.

Lots of good ideas here as to why things were "sticky upon" opening. Both the primers and the steel heads sound quite feasible. They sell Remington stuff at the local clubs as well. Is that something I should consider instead of the Federals? Also, I should clarify...the 1-ounce Federals were clearly warmer than my usual RST loads. My perception of varying recoil could be merely because of the occasional stickiness upon opening.