BBerguson
04-11-2014, 01:17 AM
My son got a new Franchi Affinity 12g shotgun this past Christmas which I bought with the anticipation that he was going to be on a sporting clays team this year. Well he's on the team which is only three boys but they have a super coach and a great team manager who gets everything set up.
My job is getting him to practice and making sure he has plenty of good ammo to shoot. Being the frugal reloader that I am, I want the least amount of shot that makes the gun perform reliable. We've tried 7/8 but so far the one load I tried didn't cycle the action. Now I'm at 1oz but my first attempts wouldn't eject either. I was using CCI primers Because primers have always started and stopped at CCI for me in everything. But, I've always had a pump action before and everything ejects from a pump so I never knew the difference.
Now we're shooting semi's, my sons Franchi and me a Benelli and it's a different ball game! I bought my first Lyman shotshell reloading manual last week and it's been a real eye opener, to say the least. One of the first sections it read was on primers and quickly learned that CCI are the weakest of all primers listed with Federal being the strongest and Winchester being a close second. So, I bought some Win primers and some different wads to try and got to work.
Now that I live in town I have to get inventive to shoot anything. I loaded 8 rounds and really wanted to shoot them but at 9:30pm, I knew I'd probably get a visit from the town cops if I shot outside so I headed for the woodshop! It's a separate out building made with superior walls and 2.5 inches of foam insulation. I set up some sacrificial boards and started blasting away! I shot seven times with the gun off my shoulder to simulate a lighter shooter and every shot ejected and loaded a new round! Success! The Franchi is inertia action and not gas so the recoil is what makes it work hence the light shooter simulation.
So now I have three different 1oz wads to play with but I'm sure I'm in the right ballpark with the stronger Winchester primer and loads that are putting me in the 1200 fps velocity range. Using them up won't be a problem though! :-). Of course, now I need to try them in my Benelli because that likes the light loads less than the Franchi so I still may need to do some development for it.
And then the next project, getting a 7/8 oz load to work and I think I can do it too! We will see.
I mentioned Elkhunter because Mark and I were discussing this last fall and I wanted to make sure he knew I was making headway.
BB
My job is getting him to practice and making sure he has plenty of good ammo to shoot. Being the frugal reloader that I am, I want the least amount of shot that makes the gun perform reliable. We've tried 7/8 but so far the one load I tried didn't cycle the action. Now I'm at 1oz but my first attempts wouldn't eject either. I was using CCI primers Because primers have always started and stopped at CCI for me in everything. But, I've always had a pump action before and everything ejects from a pump so I never knew the difference.
Now we're shooting semi's, my sons Franchi and me a Benelli and it's a different ball game! I bought my first Lyman shotshell reloading manual last week and it's been a real eye opener, to say the least. One of the first sections it read was on primers and quickly learned that CCI are the weakest of all primers listed with Federal being the strongest and Winchester being a close second. So, I bought some Win primers and some different wads to try and got to work.
Now that I live in town I have to get inventive to shoot anything. I loaded 8 rounds and really wanted to shoot them but at 9:30pm, I knew I'd probably get a visit from the town cops if I shot outside so I headed for the woodshop! It's a separate out building made with superior walls and 2.5 inches of foam insulation. I set up some sacrificial boards and started blasting away! I shot seven times with the gun off my shoulder to simulate a lighter shooter and every shot ejected and loaded a new round! Success! The Franchi is inertia action and not gas so the recoil is what makes it work hence the light shooter simulation.
So now I have three different 1oz wads to play with but I'm sure I'm in the right ballpark with the stronger Winchester primer and loads that are putting me in the 1200 fps velocity range. Using them up won't be a problem though! :-). Of course, now I need to try them in my Benelli because that likes the light loads less than the Franchi so I still may need to do some development for it.
And then the next project, getting a 7/8 oz load to work and I think I can do it too! We will see.
I mentioned Elkhunter because Mark and I were discussing this last fall and I wanted to make sure he knew I was making headway.
BB