12g loads - note to Elkhunter

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

I think I have a load that is going to work. 19.5 gr of Red Dot and a win or fed primer depending on the hull/wad combination. I loaded 12 for yesterday's shooting session. I shot six and my son shot six. They all ejected and chambered a new round. That's all I ask! Hitting something is up to the boy now!

BB

BB I just popped in here and saw your post. I am glad you are making progress. I have always had the best luck with the Win 209 primers over the others. Never really had a problem with any of them except some CCI many years ago. They were the only ones I ever had misfire. I have shot hundreds of thousands out on the Skeet field, mostly Winchester and never had a misfire.

I have done best crimping over the Winchester wads too. The Claybuster clones work ok but just don't seem to crimp as well. I assume that your loader has that final station that sort of rolls the edge of the hull after the crimp? It really makes it feed better into an auto loader. I see it interesting that you use a Benelli too. I have a SBE II and have been Hunting Turkey with it all month. Just got back from Texas, finished my Hunt here in Colorado and head to Alabama for Easterns on Wednesday. When I get back let's see if I can talk you into trying Clays or International Clays or maybe even Longshot LOL Mark