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Riflemeister
PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 6:54 am  Reply with quote
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I finally got some decent crimps loading 7/8 oz DR-16 loads in the Federal hulls. The problem I was having was I was trying to set my wad seating/shot tube on my MEC 9000 to just barely bump the wad pressure gauge. I finally tried an experiment of collapsing a DR-16 wad supported by a block below it and found the wad completely collapsed before the wad pressure gauge budged. I had to set the wad seating depth by measuring everything instead of a slight bump on the gauge as I used to set up for the SG-16 wad, Sure felt foolish when I finally dialed it in. I settled on a powder bushing that gives me 15.7 gr of 700X and need to chronograph that load before I consider it a done deal.

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double vision
PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 6:59 am  Reply with quote
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The DR-16 was designed to self-fit by collapsing. The pressure of the crimp is enough.
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Savage16
PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 8:08 am  Reply with quote
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Joined: 30 Nov 2011
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Mark, It surprised me when you say Unique/universal are THE go to powders for 1 oz as I had thought from various postings here that GD was the one. I have however loaded a lot of 1oz in Fed's and cheds with universal once I found the SG16 didn't allow migration like the AA16

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fn16ga
PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 8:40 am  Reply with quote
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Joined: 09 Jan 2013
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Location: Florida

I like both Unique 19grs and Gd 17grs for 1oz loads. Never messed with Universal to much but I think it burns cleaner than Unigue
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MSM2019
PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 10:28 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 04 Mar 2019
Posts: 1819
Location: Central ND

Savage16,

Never been a big fan of Red Dot, 700-X, Green Dot and similar powders for 1 oz. loads in the 16.

A lot of the loads with those powders, were developed using the Lead Crusher and were found to be a bit optimistic. Some of the loads were re-shot using less powder and the velocities dropped. I tried Green Dot when developing loads with the B & P Z2/M wad and it was OK but I stopped because in the Cheddite and Federal hulls the crimps would be a little too concave and I don't like putting cards and/or spacers (or Cherios) in what basically amounts to a target load.

I am not saying that they aren't safe loads or that they don't work but Unique and Universal (20/28 should too) handle the job and you can run the velocities from 1150 to 1275 and even 1300 with no issues. They afford good wad column heights also, which means no cards or fillers.

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megasupermagnum
PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 4:38 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 11 Dec 2017
Posts: 77
Location: South Dakota

As strange as this sounds, I never was a huge fan of Unique. I've found it a wonderful 9mm auto powder, and that's about it. In it's place, I've always used 700x's big brother, 800x. And higher than that, bluedot.

I've always like the dot powders, red dot, 700x (yellow dot), 800x (brown dot), and bluedot. I always did think green dot was the odd man out.
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Riflemeister
PostPosted: Sat May 23, 2020 6:52 am  Reply with quote
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I use Universal in my 28 ga, 20 ga and 16 ga loads. Never had any problems and as long as I can still find 8 pound jugs of the stuff, I can't see any reason to change. These 7/8 oz loads using 700X are my first departure from using Universal in 16 ga, and luckily 700X is the powder I use in my 12 ga 1 oz loads for shooting in my off gauge SXS's.

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kgb
PostPosted: Sat May 23, 2020 2:34 pm  Reply with quote
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Riflemeister wrote:
I finally tried an experiment of collapsing a DR-16 wad supported by a block below it and found the wad completely collapsed before the wad pressure gauge budged. I had to set the wad seating depth by measuring everything instead of a slight bump on the gauge as I used to set up for the SG-16 wad



My press is a P/W progressive and it has no pressure gauge, just a fixed ram adjustable for depth. The DR-16 has been essentially useless in my press (at least the way I operate it) as the weak design has the base cocking to one side when pushing through the guide. This is the case with Remington hulls especially but also occasionally with Federal and Cheddite variants. I have purchased replacement wad guides on the chance the fingers of my original were stiff or somehow out of spec but it's the same story. Setting wad seating depth has always been a requirement on my press, I had wondered if the lack of a spring-controlled seating ram was part of the problem with the DR-16, that not being the case it may have to do with the wad guide.

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MSM2019
PostPosted: Sat May 23, 2020 3:11 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 04 Mar 2019
Posts: 1819
Location: Central ND

From my POV, the DR-16 is best when there is just enough wad pressure to set it on top of the powder, but not enough to collapse the legs.

The rammer tubes on my MEC's are set so that the legs of the wad are never collapsed and the pressure gauge does not move, not even a little.

I have never had a DR-16 go in crooked. They go into Federal and Cheddite hulls easily.

I have never used the DR-16 in a reload in a Remington hull, but it goes into the hull easily, on my Sizemaster.

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Riflemeister
PostPosted: Sat Jun 20, 2020 10:29 am  Reply with quote
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Thanks to y'all's help I finally have a DR-16 7/8 oz load. I loaded all the Federal hulls I found with the Federal primer, 15.8 gr of 700X, and 7/8 oz of #9 shot. I chronographed the load at 1224 fps with my Oeler 35 sky screens 6 feet from the muzzle. I hauled my AT-50 trailer to the conservation range today and used my Fausti DEA 16 ga which is my lightest 16 ga. I just shot simple straightaways to check breaks that load would give and admit to being quite impressed. Shooting SK and IC chokes, most breaks were about 25 yards, but I intentionally let some clays get out to 40-50 yards just to see how it works. I didn't get any smoke balls, but most targets were about 8 to 10 pieces, even at the longer distances. I shot one 25 round box and broke 25 straight which is amazing for me. I usually manage to lose concentration for at least one shot out of 25, but not today. Recoil was significantly less than with my one ounce hunting loads. Now I'm going to have to scrounge up some more Federal hulls for my new skeet load.

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An elderly gentleman, his faithful dogs, and a 16 ga SXS. All is right with the world.
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skeettx
PostPosted: Sat Jun 20, 2020 11:20 am  Reply with quote
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Great report
Well done
Mike

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