16ga.com ~ View topic - Fiber Wad, Non-toxic Dove Load

Member Joined: 09 Oct 2005 Posts: 76 Location: Denver

The past few months I’ve been trying to develop a load that I could feel good about shooting on a friend’s organic farm. My goal was a dove load with bismuth shot and no plastic. After a couple of false starts (bad components and velocities in the range of 500 to 800 fps) I’ve got a load that seems to work.

The loads I had Tom Armbrust test were as follows:

Load: 7/8 oz #8 - lead
Hull: 16 ga 2 ¾ Fiocchi (blue, reload)
Primer: Fiocchi 616 primer
Powder: 20 gr Green Dot
Wad:
1 @ 16g 1/8” Nitro Cards
2 @ 16g Fiber Wad (3/8”)
1 @ 16g Thin Overshot Card (0.03”)
Crimp: 6 point fold

For those who might not be familiar with these types of components, they are shown in the photo below. All the wad materials were purchased from Circle Fly.

The reported test results were:

V =1144, P = 7900
V = 1142, P = 7900
V = 1144, P = 8100

This weekend I patterned two of the loads through each barrel of my Merkel 1620 (Skeet and Light Mod.) using bismuth 7 1/2’s. The patterns the barrel/load combinations produced are shown below.

Light Mod avereged 74% in a 30-inch circle at 30 yards:

Skeet averaged 64% in a 30-inch circle at 30 yards:

I know the pattern percentages should have been done at 40 yards and I'm not sure what they should be at 30 yards, but these seem reasonable.

Anyway, if anyone else is interested in this type of load, this one seems to work.

Paul

Member Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 1545 Location: Michigan

My only concern is that you had the load tested with 7/8 oz. of lead shot.
Now your loading with 7/8 oz. of Bismuth. I'm quite sure PSI and Velocity will be different between the two. Correct me if I'm wrong. Confused

Member Joined: 09 Oct 2005 Posts: 76 Location: Denver

Dave:

Good point, that thought had crossed my mind also. As far as the pressure goes, I pretty much figured that 7/8 oz was 7/8 oz and it shouldn't make much of a difference. Not sure about the velocities.

Anyone else have anyt thoughts on the subject?

Guest

Unless something has changed that I'm not aware of, Bismuth weighs about 8% less than lead. So if you're weighing the same amount of lead and bismuth, you'll actually have more bismuth pellets that are closer to number of pellets in a 1 oz lead load rather than the 7/8 oz that it appears you're trying to build. You may want to count your pellets just to make sure. My only experience with Bismuth was for duck loads and it seemed that I had to go one size larger to get the same efficiency that lead provided due to the 8% less density of bismuth. I wouldn't load too many rounds until you try them out on real birds given the cost of bismuth. I just purchased four jars @ around $140 each to hold me for pheasant loads until a better solution for my 16 sxs comes around. I figure I shoot only a couple of rounds for pheasant when I go out rather than the amount of shells I would shoot for doves.

Good luck

Member Joined: 17 Jan 2005 Posts: 138 Location: Parma, OH

Guest

Did you use the same shot bushing for your lead load that you used for your bismuth loads. Like I had asked in my earlier post, bismuth has less density than lead and if you used the same shot bushing for both reloads; the results would actually be a lighter payload for the bismuth loads and hence faster velocity.

Member Joined: 09 Oct 2005 Posts: 76 Location: Denver

Mike:

Thanks for sharing your experiences. Yeah, I should probably spring for another round of testing. These are ending up being some very expensive loads!

Terry:

Everything having to do with the loads was done by weight. No bushings involved.

Member Joined: 17 Jan 2005 Posts: 138 Location: Parma, OH

try Longshot, you're pressures will go down a lot.