16ga.com ~ View topic - Decisions, Decisions: Powder for 1 ounce loads

Member Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 2350 Location: West MI

Will be interesting to watch your progress/process with this comparison. Hope you continue to share.

I can add, at least in 10ga, BlueDot gets the winter blues and doesn't play well or consistently when using the same load tested in warm conditions then in cold. Even more unburned powder, inconsistent thumps on the shoulder and audible reports. Thank goodness for Steel powder, never looked back, sorry, digress. Sometimes switching to a hotter primer helped but all things considered you have a different load then. Conversely, a BD load developed in cold weather thumps a bit firmer in warm weather.

Thanks for that putz. BD does not seem to have the magic but it may prove useful somehow, and only experimentation will tell. I have it because the price was right and was thinking that I could get some 20 ga loads out of it, but since there's some recipes in the zone that I like I will give it a try. Worst case, I get a couple of seasonal loads out of it, one for warm weather & one for cold. My only experience so far has been a 1-1/8 oz Bismuth load that would not eject after firing in the upper barrel on my son's Citori Hunter (worked fine in the lower).

I'll continue to post here on the progress. Working nights with one night off for the next few weeks so progress will be slow, but if I get my other quiet projects done tonight I'll be working on some Herco loads first.

Thanks Citori16.
I'm interested in what you find with longshot. Getting ready to load 1 oz 16 loads & looking for recipes for it.

*Last edited by Citori16 on Mon Apr 10, 2023 2:19 am; edited 3 times in total*

DUK,

Although I haven't started loading Longshot for hunting loads yet, what I can tell you is I've done great with it for a match load, as I've posted in other topics.

Cheddite Hull (new), CH209, 26.4 gr LS, Z16 w/mica & petals split, X-spreader, 1 oz #9, 6 point crimp ~1/16" deep.

I have not sent it out for pressure testing yet, but it is based on a Federal load w/26.5 gr, W209 & SG16 off of the Hodgdon's website, 7700 psi. With the SG16 wad I got avg velocity 1354.5 actual vs 1350 published. I have the numbers for the Z16 wad as well, just not handy right now. It was a nice, evenly distributed pattern at 20 yds with a SK choke.

I'll be loading this up with #7.5 & #6 to use as a baseline to compare against, pending fit with the X-spreader, or the SPRED-R.

Edited for the shot charge: 1 oz vs 3/4 oz

Thanks again Citori16!

Edited my post, I was thinking about my practice load of 3/4 oz but meant 1 oz for the match.

I’m getting ready to get ready.

Work, truck issues and procrastination have stalled my progress somewhat. But I made up some loads to test with a pleasant result from Longshot. Unfortunately, this was the first day I could use the truck to bring my patterning rig, but it’s too breezy to use today. Every recipe had a Spred-R wad in it on top, and none have been sent out for pressure testing, there’s your disclaimer. Every load was measured, fired through the Sarasqueta, 6 point crimps on the 600jr, 8 points on the 9000. All crimps finished on the 9000. All payload #6 Lawrence Copper plated. All wads dusted with Mica, & petals split. 68 degrees, cloudy bright.

Win CF based on recipe from 16ga reloading group, Rd 13 p68. Published psi 9333, velocity 1355.
Win CF
W209
24 gr Longshot
SP16
1oz, 32 gr minus one pellet. (Better crimp) 8 pt crimp
1343, 1323, 1332, 1340, 1343
Avg: 1336, ES: 20.28, SD 8.6 (!….winner, winner chicken dinner!)

Cheddite Red new primed with Ch209, BP 1997, published psi 10200, velocity 1330.
23 gr Herco
SG16S
1 oz 6 pt crimp
1199, 1242, 1190, 1200, 1198
Avg: 1206, Es: 51.55, SD, 20.61

Cheddite Red new primed with Ch209, BP 1997, published psi 8800
30 gr Bluedot
SG16S
1 oz 6 pt crimp
1214, 1234, 1199, 1224, 1188
Avg: 1212, ES: 45.35, SD: 18.54

Win PF silver base (Italian?), BP1997, published psi 10470, velocity 1360.
Rem209STS
23 gr Unique
SG16S
1oz 6 pt crimp
1333, 1317, 1317, 1345, 1355
Avg: 1333, ES: 37.61, SD: 16.88. (Not bad, but not like Longshot)

I think I know what I’m going with….pending pattern.

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1844 Location: Central ND

Unique

Member Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 2350 Location: West MI

Thanks for sharing your results. Interesting mix of components.

Do you have enough CF hulls to last awhile?

Where all the powder drops weighed individually? Re; I had trouble getting LS to meter consistently in my MEC presses.

Hope the pattering board shows some equally positive results.

Puts,
All drops, powder & shot, were weighed. I weigh every drop for hunting, warm-up & match loads. Even bought a trickler, but mostly just use a spent hull to tweak. Tedious & time consuming, but it removes the nagging questions during a match, & the birds deserve as clean a kill (or miss) as I can muster. I have about 400 Win CFs, possibly more as I need to sort some hulls, and at least one new box of 6. I plan on only using these for hunting so should be good well into retirement, unless I stumble into a bunch of “grouse union meetings”…damn things were everywhere and didn’t want to leave, ran out of shells that day.

Mark,
I’m interested in your opinion on Unique over Longshot. Is it a metering thing or something else? Unique did seem to burn more thoroughly, but I like that SD for Longshot.

I also prefer universal, but unique is very close to universal so it has my vote

I was able to pattern these loads this morning. Only one shot each so as always YMMV. Sarasqueta IC barrel (fixed choke), 21-ish yards (just left of station 5). Slight breeze. Actually a beautiful day.

Longshot: fairly decent distribution ( no bunching), but 4 quail sized holes distributed around center

Herco: off-center right, bunched on right side, 6 quail or grouse sized holes on left including 2 near center, maybe I flinched

Blue Dot: decent distribution, but 3 holes including a pheasant sized hole left of center

Unique: similar to Longshot, 2 quail sized holes, 1 kidney shaped hole (or 2 quail on top of each other) just left of center

You could almost interpret that my choke is odd, except I also patterned 3 loads using the #9 shot sourced from Turkey; my match load of 1 oz, my practice load of 3/4 oz using an SG16 and another 3/4 oz load using a DR16. The match load was similar to my previous patterning using Lawrence Magnum shot, likewise for the practice load & the DR16 load was tighter but evenly distributed. All petals were split on those wads.

I think I’ll put some shot over the Spred-R on the Longshot & Unique loads & try again.

Joined: 07 Jun 2020 Posts: 229

Longshot vs unique so I can hold on to other powders for special loads.

I find Longshot easily available, therefore I have a large stockpile of it.

Afternoon patterning: added shot over Spred-R

For the Longshot load I put 1oz under the Spred-R & 32 gr minus 1 pellet over. The IC pattern reduced the holes to two, even distribution. Put a round through the Cyl barrel, some clumping observed and holes increased to three over the IC pattern.

For Unique, 7/8 under Spred-R, 1/8 over, IC barrel, decent distribution, some clumping with 3 quail sized holes. Cyl barrel pattern: good distribution, 4 quail sized holes evenly spaced 7- 12 inches away from center.

I’m not crazy about either recipe for #6. I’m thinking about dropping the spred-r for this trip and using the Longshot load with some filler.

Member Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 2350 Location: West MI

Wow, a lot going on there. Understood, I weigh all my waterfowl hunting loads for mostly the same reasons and that one in particular is literally tap dancing right on/slightly over the max pressure limit.

Funny how the patterning board can humble one very quickly.

Keep up the good work, best of luck on the hunt....